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firefox is saving passwords that aren't supposed to be saved

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Firefox is saving passwords that ARE NOT supposed to be saved! Everything in the options menu is marked correctly. This has never been a problem before, only in the last 3 days. I can close out the entire program, refresh my desktop, wait a few minutes and open firefox back, and it will go straight into my FB account (which should only go to the FB login page ......yes, I verified this, too.) What's the problem??? Is there a bug in an update or something?

To be on the double safe side, I've run Malwarebytes and AVG for spyware, viruses, malware, etc. I'm coming up clean.

Help!!!

Firefox is saving passwords that ARE NOT supposed to be saved! Everything in the options menu is marked correctly. This has never been a problem before, only in the last 3 days. I can close out the entire program, refresh my desktop, wait a few minutes and open firefox back, and it will go straight into my FB account (which should only go to the FB login page ......yes, I verified this, too.) What's the problem??? Is there a bug in an update or something? To be on the double safe side, I've run Malwarebytes and AVG for spyware, viruses, malware, etc. I'm coming up clean. Help!!!

All Replies (4)

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Hello lilbudla,

Are you sure that you use the latest version of Firefox? (http://www.mozilla.org). Go to settings > privacy and choose that Firefox should not save passwords. Use the private mode and login to Facebook, close the browser and wait some minutes. Open Firefox again and go to Facebook an look if you are logged in. If you are not logged in, clean your cache / cookie and history. Go to settings > privacy > disable history.

Do not hesitate to contact us further.

titoxproxy trɔe

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I can think of two possibilities:

(1) Session restore

If you have Firefox set to restore your windows and tabs from your previous session at startup (instead of loading your home page), Firefox will attempt to keep you logged in to those sites.

(I think there is a way to exempt secure -- HTTPS -- sites but I'd have to look it up.)

(2) Persistent cookies

Most sites set persistent cookies to store preferences and often to keep you logged in between shut-downs and restarts of your browser. You can manage cookie lifetime in the Options dialog and on a site-by-site basis:

  • Persistent ("Allow")
  • Session only ("Allow for Session")
  • No cookies ("Block")

For example, I have my default cookie lifetime set to session only, but for sites I want to use without having to log in again, I allow persistent cookies using the Page Info dialog.

You can set the default options as described in this article: Enhanced Tracking Protection in Firefox for desktop (if you are using the classic menu bar, it's under Tools > Options > Privacy).

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One other thought: there are some scenarios where Firefox may restore your previous session even if you have set it to always start up with your home page.

(1) Crash during shutdown

If Firefox detects that it did not shut down cleanly, it will attempt to restore your previous windows and tabs. If History > Restore Previous Session is grayed out, I would suspect this as a possibility, and then troubleshooting would turn to whether anything changed that might be causing a crash during shutdown.

(2) user.js file

Firefox allows for an optional configuration file named user.js to override your normal preferences at startup. To research whether this could be the problem, please see this article: How to fix preferences that won't save.

jscher2000 - Support Volunteer trɔe

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Do you mean names and passwords in the Password Manager or do you mean that you are no longer logged on to (remembered by) websites after closing and restarting Firefox?

There is a difference between remembering the name and password in the Password Manager and a "remember me" check box on a web page to log you in automatically.
The latter usually involves the creation of a special "remember me" cookie that is stored on your computer and that is send to the server.
If that "remember me" cookie is removed or gets corrupted or is not send to the server then the server won't remember you anymore and you need to sign in once again.

Note that Firefox stores cookies from open tabs in the sessionstore.js file as part of the session data, so make sure to log off and close all open tabs before exiting Firefox.