Can't remember my original password, what's the best way to keep information?
Hi all.
I have a phone, a tablet, a desktop pc and a server all with Firefox installed. I need to sign in to Firefox on another pc, but I can't remember my password. Not sure why as I'm fairly sure I know what it is and I only signed in on my phone 2 months ago. Although maybe that was a qr code?
First question: the 'password' field in the account manager is 18 asterisks long, does that mean my password is actually 18 characters? Or is this just a generic mask? I have seen it work both ways. A clue to the length might jog my memory.
Second question: assuming it's gone for good I can of course reset it. What's the least damaging way to do this? I can think of backing up my bookmarks and then reuploading them, anything else? Will the reset lose all my passwords for other sites such as forums, is there a way to keep these?
Thanks!
All Replies (2)
Did you check the saved logins on each device for accounts.firefox.com in case you have the password stored?
On desktop, you can backup your data locally.
- https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/back-and-restore-information-firefox-profiles
- https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recovering-important-data-from-an-old-profile
Firefox might remember from what device data originally came, so be careful on which device you reset the password and in what order you reconnect to Sync as Firefox may decide to remove data instead of merging.
You can install the About Sync extension on desktop to check what data is stored on the Sync server via the about:sync page provided by this extension.
Close and restart Firefox to access the about:sync page added by this extension (see the about:about page for possible about pages).
You can copy certain files in the Firefox profile folder with Firefox closed to backup your personal data. Note that best is to avoid restoring a full profile folder and only restore important files that are safe to restore/transfer.
- bookmarks and history: places.sqlite
- favicons: favicons.sqlite
- bookmark backups: compressed .jsonlz4 JSON backups in the bookmarkbackups folder
- cookies.sqlite for the Cookies
- formhistory.sqlite for saved autocomplete Form Data
- logins.json (encrypted logins) and key4.db (encryption key/primary password) for logins saved in the Password Manager
- cert9.db for certificates stored in the Certificate Manager
- persdict.dat for words added to the spell checker dictionary
- permissions.sqlite for Permissions and possibly content-prefs.sqlite for other website specific data (Site Preferences)
- sessionstore.jsonlz4 for open tabs and pinned tabs (see also the sessionstore-backups folder)
Thank you for the detailed reply. Yes, I do have an accounts.firefox password saved. No, it's not correct! Don't know how we managed that.
I'll look in to those other options. As for the locations of the files, can I do the same thing in Linux? I'm afraid that I've been Windows-free for 14 years now. But if I copy the corresponding folders and then copy them back into the new machine will that work the same?