Join the AMA (Ask Me Anything) with the Firefox leadership team to celebrate Firefox 20th anniversary and discuss Firefox’s future on Mozilla Connect. Mark your calendar on Thursday, November 14, 18:00 - 20:00 UTC!

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

After Firefox Refresh All Saved Logins are Gone!

  • 14 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 8 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

more options

I ran the latest Firefox update, which messed something up as every time I start FF it acted like it was the first time:

1 opened several new tabs - one with a welcome message for each extension I had installed 2 reset my home page 3 asked if I want to set FF as my default browser

It also would not remember and new settings, like when I would change my home page. I read another support thread which said to refresh FF, which I did and now all of my saved logins are gone. I followed steps on this thread:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1233332

for using Shadowexplorer to restore files, but in both of the restore points there are no files "logins" or "key4" listed, only a key3 file. Please Help!

I ran the latest Firefox update, which messed something up as every time I start FF it acted like it was the first time: 1 opened several new tabs - one with a welcome message for each extension I had installed 2 reset my home page 3 asked if I want to set FF as my default browser It also would not remember and new settings, like when I would change my home page. I read another support thread which said to refresh FF, which I did and now all of my saved logins are gone. I followed steps on this thread: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1233332 for using Shadowexplorer to restore files, but in both of the restore points there are no files "logins" or "key4" listed, only a key3 file. Please Help!

All Replies (14)

more options

What about the rest of your profile? Settings, bookmarks, history, passwords . . . .


Look on your desktop. Do you see a folder called; Old Firefox? Look inside. Look for the folder with the latest creation date.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recovering-important-data-from-an-old-profile

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/back-and-restore-information-firefox-profiles

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-run-firefox-when-profile-missing-inaccessible


In the event that the passwords information is lost, you should record all information in a separate text file somewhere else on your hard drive, or written down. You can easily copy and paste if you need to do so. If you are concerned about someone else looking at that file, you can compress it using a password.

more options
more options

FredMcD said

What about the rest of your profile? Settings, bookmarks, history, passwords . . . .

Look on your desktop. Do you see a folder called; Old Firefox? Look inside. Look for the folder with the latest creation date.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recovering-important-data-from-an-old-profile

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/back-and-restore-information-firefox-profiles

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-run-firefox-when-profile-missing-inaccessible


In the event that the passwords information is lost, you should record all information in a separate text file somewhere else on your hard drive, or written down. You can easily copy and paste if you need to do so. If you are concerned about someone else looking at that file, you can compress it using a password.

Bookmarks and history are there, FF doesn't seem to remember settings after closing down now. I already had an old firefox data folder on my desktop before all of this happened, not sure if it wrote over it or what.

In it there are 4 folders, 3 are from 2017 and one is from the day it screwed everything up.

more options

FredMcD said

Type about:profiles<enter> in the address bar. How many profiles are listed? How many should be there? Also, open the folder in your file explorer.

There are 4 listed. How many should be there, I have no idea. Open them up in file explorer and then do what?

more options

This could be a problem with the "AVG Password Protection" product in case you use this component. There should be an update from AVG coming to address this issue that AVG prevents Firefox from opening logins.json and that causes Firefox to rename the file the logins.json.corrupt.

You can check the profile folder to see if there are logins.json.corrupt files present. If you find such a file then try to rename logins.json.corrupt to logins.json.

  • keep a backup copy of all logins.json files

You can use the button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page.


See comment 24:

  • Bug 1558765#c24" - Saved logins and passwords missing after update to 67.0.2 - Problem in AVG
The issue did not affect Avast users, only AVG users that have purchased the standalone "AVG Password Protection" product.

AVG does not modify the file nor does it delete it. It only prevents Firefox from reading from it. From our understanding, FF renames the logins.json file to logins.json.corrupt upon subsequent retries to logins.json-1.corrupt, logins.json-2.corrupt and so on. I am not sure right now if there is any mechanism to recover these passwords back from inside FF. Renaming this file (copy) back to logins.json restores Firefox ability to read it again.
more options
more options

Note that this isn't about corrupting logins.json that stores the passwords, but merely that AVG prevents Firefox from accessing logins.json. When Firefox can't access the file then Firefox renames the file.

more options

cor-el said

This could be a problem with the "AVG Password Protection" product in case you use this component. There should be an update from AVG coming to address this issue that AVG prevents Firefox from opening logins.json and that causes Firefox to rename the file the logins.json.corrupt. You can check the profile folder to see if there are logins.json.corrupt files present. If you find such a file then try to rename logins.json.corrupt to logins.json.
  • keep a backup copy of all logins.json files
You can use the button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page.

See comment 24:

  • Bug 1558765#c24" - Saved logins and passwords missing after update to 67.0.2 - Problem in AVG
The issue did not affect Avast users, only AVG users that have purchased the standalone "AVG Password Protection" product.

AVG does not modify the file nor does it delete it. It only prevents Firefox from reading from it. From our understanding, FF renames the logins.json file to logins.json.corrupt upon subsequent retries to logins.json-1.corrupt, logins.json-2.corrupt and so on. I am not sure right now if there is any mechanism to recover these passwords back from inside FF. Renaming this file (copy) back to logins.json restores Firefox ability to read it again.

I'm not using AVG but I read the thread and the problem seems similar with FF not remembering new passwords entered since the update. 2 out of the 4 profile folders have logins.corrupt files in them but they're both dated 2017.

more options

McCoy said

Also see : https://www.ghacks.net/2019/06/14/if-you-lost-all-passwords-in-firefox-read-this/ And : https://techdows.com/2019/06/avg-reportedly-deleting-passwords-and-logins-saved-in-firefox-67-0-2-fix.html

I read the pages and tried the workaround, but when I open the folder from about:support there's no corrupted logins file, just the standard logins file. Also, I don't use Avast or AVG, just Windows Defender - so why am I getting this issue?

more options

If you do not use AVG and do not have a logins.json.corrupt file then something else went wrong with the refresh.

Do you have the "Old Firefox Data" folder on the desktop? Are there other profiles present in the default location used for profiles?

You can use the button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page. Go up one level to the \Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\ folder to check for other profiles.

  • C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\
more options

If you have a valid logins.json file (i.e. you see login data if you inspect the file) then the key file (currently key4.db, previously key3.db) is corrupted and you would have to find an older copy.

See this reply I posted in another thread.

more options

cor-el said

If you do not use AVG and do not have a logins.json.corrupt file then something else went wrong with the refresh. Do you have the "Old Firefox Data" folder on the desktop? Are there other profiles present in the default location used for profiles? You can use the button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page. Go up one level to the \Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\ folder to check for other profiles.
  • C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\

There is a logins file that is new and has like 2 passwords in it, no logins.corrupt and both key3 and key4 files, which are also both new as they were created on 6/12 when the update was applied.

more options

Any other ideas anyone?

more options

When was this profile created ? Is this a recent xxxxxxxx.default-release profile?

What is the content of times.json in the profile folder?