Firefox has lost my passwords!

For some sites, I let my browser remember my passwords so as not to have to retype them. It is simply convenience, and for those particular sites, low risk. However, having just had a Firefox updated, I then found that all my stored password appeared to have disappeared. While not a crisis - because I keep a record of my key information outside my browsers - it is annoying.

There are three potential - partial or complete - solutions to lost Firefox passwords.

Firstly, the update may have logged you out of your Firefox account, leaving you unable to access your stored passwords without you having been aware of it. If you use Firefox Sync, check you are logged in. If not, simply log in. After having relogged in, my passwords were restored.

Secondly, go into the Firefox menu: Tools | Options | Security | Logins | Saved Logins. This will pop up a box of all your saved logins and passwords from Firefox's Password Manager. If this is shorter than you think it should be, go to where your Firefox files are stored and scroll down to logins.json (your logins file), right-click, choose Properties from the pop-up menu, then go to the Previous Versions tab. This will show the saved Windows restore points. You can then decide which date might be a safe date to roll back to. Make sure you close out of Firefox completely before restoring, allowing 30 seconds for all other behind the scenes files and processes to close.

Lastly, go to where your Firefox files are stored and scroll down to cookies.sqlite (your Cookies Database), right-click, choose Properties from the pop-up menu, then go to the Previous Versions tab. Follow the same process as above.

Good luck!


Sam

• Reference: ruthcookie (24 December 2016). Firefox deleted all of my passwords and log in names, how do I get them back? Retrieved 5 August 2017 from https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1151658