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"Remember passwords for sites" does not stay selected, why not?

tedanne449
tedanne449
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When I go to Options> Security and place a check mark in the "Remember passwords for sites" and click on "OK" the Options popup closes. I reopen the Options popup and the check is in place. I then close Firefox and reopen Firefox, click on Tools> Options and the check mark for "Remember passwords for sites" has been removed. Why can't the "Remember passwords for sites" Option be saved?

When I go to Options> Security and place a check mark in the "Remember passwords for sites" and click on "OK" the Options popup closes. I reopen the Options popup and the check is in place. I then close Firefox and reopen Firefox, click on Tools> Options and the check mark for "Remember passwords for sites" has been removed. Why can't the "Remember passwords for sites" Option be saved?

All Replies (2)

jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
  • Top 25 Contributor
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There are many possible explanations, so it might take a little time to chase down.

(1) Do you use any add-on password managers? It may be that to avoid confusion, the add-on blocks the built-in password manager.

You can review, configure, disable, and usually remove extensions on the Add-ons page. Either:

  • Ctrl+Shift+a
  • orange Firefox button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons

In the left column, click Extensions.

(2) This article covers many of the other reasons that your change might be ignored: How to fix preferences that won't save.

Some users recently have discovered that another external program, Advanced SystemCare, has a feature that prevents them from changing some Firefox settings, either through an add-on, or through an external settings dialog.

(3) If your Firefox runs in a managed (business) environment, it may be that the company has blocked this feature. This normally shouldn't affect home users, but you could check.

You can check in the about:config preferences editor to see whether the setting corresponding to the checkbox is locked.

(A) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter. Click the button promising to be careful.

(B) In the search box above the list, type or paste signon and pause while the list is filtered

(C) Check the signon.rememberSignons preference to see what "status" it indicates:

  • default (line appears in plain text)
  • user set (line appears in bold text)
  • locked (line appears in italic text)

Is it locked to false?

jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
  • Top 25 Contributor
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Upon re-reading that this occurs after you exit and restart Firefox, the user.js file would be the top candidate for overriding your setting. This file may be created/updated by external software. For more information, see the user.js section of the article: How to fix preferences that won't save.

If you find a file named user but not user.js, Windows may be hiding file extensions from you. To work with files as accurately as possible, I suggest unhiding them. This Microsoft support article has the steps: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/865219.