Firefox Sync lost all passwords and bookmarks after Windows reinstall
Hello,
I have been using the same Firefox Account with Firefox Sync for several years.
I always reinstall Windows using a full disk format, and I have done this many times over the years. I have never signed out of my Firefox Account before reinstalling Windows, and Firefox Sync has always restored all my passwords, bookmarks, history and other synced data without any issues.
This time, after performing the same clean Windows installation and installing Firefox again, I signed into the same Firefox Account using the correct email address and two-factor authentication (Authenticator app).
I have verified that:
I am signed into the correct Firefox Account. Two-factor authentication works correctly. Firefox Sync is enabled for Passwords, Bookmarks, History, Tabs, Add-ons and Settings. Only the two new passwords I created after reinstalling Windows are present. All previously synced passwords, bookmarks, history, tabs and other data are missing. My Mozilla Account now shows only the new device. The previous computer is no longer listed.
I also checked the Firefox Sync log. It contains entries such as:
No metadata record Fresh start Wiping server data
Since I have successfully restored my Firefox data after many previous clean Windows installations using this same Firefox Account, this behavior is unexpected.
Could you please check whether my Firefox Sync storage still existed before this device connected, or whether it had already been reset or become empty?
Is there any possibility that my previous Sync data can still be recovered from the server?
Thank you for your time and assistance.
Toate răspunsurile (6)
Have you changed your password by any chance?
Yes. After reinstalling Windows I couldn't remember my Firefox Account password, so I reset it. I then signed in with the new password. Could this password reset have caused the loss of my Sync data?
Yes, everything has been wiped out.
The Sync data is encrypted using this password, so once it was changed, all the data became impossible to decrypt. Thus the Sync Server removes everything.
If you reset your account password with a recovery key, you keep access to encrypted Sync data (like bookmarks, passwords and settings) on Mozilla’s servers. The recovery key keeps this data connected to your account. Without the recovery key, this synced data is erased. However, if you reset your password on a device that has a local copy of your data, signing in with your new password will re-upload the local data to Sync. On a device without local data, the synced data will be permanently lost.
Thank you for your reply and for taking the time to explain what happened.
This is one of the worst design decisions I have ever seen in a synchronization service.
A password reset should restore access to an account, not silently destroy years of synchronized data. I trusted Firefox Sync for years, and now I have lost everything simply because I forgot my account password. That is extremely disappointing.
After this experience, I no longer have any confidence in Firefox Sync or Firefox itself. I will no longer use Firefox, not even to check my email. I have already decided to remove it from my computer and switch to a different browser.
I hope Mozilla seriously reconsiders this design, because users expect a synchronization service to protect their data, not make it so easy to lose it permanently.
Thank you again for your time and for answering my questions.
Thank you for your feedback.
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