Sync: Does a limit to the number of login/password pairs exist?
This will sound strange, but anyways: I've been using sync from day one, moving all my accumulated logins/passwords to the firefox cloud.
I never did any housekeeping on this mountain of logins. But it suffices to say that before the inclusion of lockwise, showing the list of stored credentials exhibited a delay of some seconds (on a 4th gen core i5) between pressing the buttons to show them and actually opening a window displaying them!
This, happily, changed with lockwise (which also solved some problems on my android devices). I was amazed with the fact that the credentials window opened very fast.
Now I'd normally be very happy with this change. However, I noticed that lockwise in firefox (windows) displays the number of logins/passwords at the upper left. It showed 999... Which is an extremely round number. Coupled with the fact that it opens very fast now, I'm afraid that some change might have occured leading to credentials loss!
Are you aware if a credential limit exists now on firefox regarding credential management, or whether a credential loss/data loss has been reported on the sync cloud?
This is *hugely* important for me, stability of this feature would be enough for me to switch to another browser.
I think I have a number of rolling backups on one of my sync-connected Windows PC. When were the new lockwise-related changes introduced? Asking here, in order to check a backup older than that.
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The Firefox 70 Release is when Lockwise was added to Firefox.
You can view the exact time that the Firefox 70 update was installed thru about:preferences#general > Firefox Updates --> Show Update History ...
As far as the max capacity for stored bookmarks goes, I have no idea about the limit before or with Lockwise.
Hi Michail, one way to get a count of the actual number of saved logins stored in your local logins.json file is to view it in a Firefox tab, as follows:
Open your current Firefox settings (AKA Firefox profile) folder using either
- "3-bar" menu button > "?" Help > Troubleshooting Information
- (menu bar) Help > Troubleshooting Information
- type or paste about:support in the address bar and press Enter
In the first table on the page, on the Profile Folder row, click the "Open Folder" button. This should launch a new window listing various files and folders in File Explorer.
Find logins.json and make a copy using:
- right-click > Copy
- right-click a blank area > Paste
That usually will create a file with a name similar to logins - Copy.json.
Resize/position the File Explorer window so you can see the Troubleshooting Information page, then drag and drop logins - Copy.json into it and Firefox will load and display the file.
It takes a few moments for the JSON viewer to lay out the data, but you should see a tree structure similar to this:
The number next to the last triangle, plus one, is the number of saved logins.
You could similarly open one of your backups from two months ago to see whether there is a drastic difference.
You can clear this pref (clear its current value) on the about:config page to revert to the legacy password manager (no guarantees for how long this will be possible).
- signon.management.overrideURI = <blank>
You can reset this pref to revert back to Lockwise.
You can open the about:config page via the location/address bar. You can accept the warning and click "I accept the risk!" to continue.
It's a bit unlucky that no sync dev saw this thread, to address my basic question, ie if there is a limit to the credential pairs stored by lockwise. O well :)
@cor-el thanks, but I don't actually have an issue with lockwise (unless lockwise has an issue with losing credentials :) ).
@jscher2000 this sounds like a nice way to check things out, will do it today at home, to have my backups at hand.
Lockwise in Firefox 70 is a builtin component and doesn't use Sync unlike the Lockwise extension for Firefox 67-69, so this is possibly not a problem with Sync although there might be a maximum quota for storing specific data on the Sync server.
Do you know how many passwords you have stored?
Lockwise uses and HTML page to show its data and thus there might be a limit to the height of a containing DIV, otherwise LW should use the same infra structure to process logins.json. Sync with Lockwise would only matter if you want to sync passwords to other devices.
cor-el said
Lockwise in Firefox 70 is a builtin component and doesn't use Sync unlike the Lockwise extension for Firefox 67-69, so this is possibly not a problem with Sync although there might be a maximum quota for storing specific data on the Sync server.
I did not do anything to inhibit lockwise, when I "passed" through the firefox 69-67 updates. Things appeared automagically.
cor-el said
Do you know how many passwords you have stored?
Will check tonight and report back. Just hope that it has not truncated any accounts.
Sync with Lockwise would only matter if you want to sync passwords to other devices.
Lost you here, sorry with the "Sync with lockwise" expression. Doesn't lockwise utilize the same Mozilla cloud for storing passwords? IOW, aren't credentials sync'ed to my other devices, regardless of whether the old sync technology or the new one (lockwise) is used)?
Michail Pappas said
cor-el saidLost you here, sorry with the "Sync with lockwise" expression. Doesn't lockwise utilize the same Mozilla cloud for storing passwords? IOW, aren't credentials sync'ed to my other devices, regardless of whether the old sync technology or the new one (lockwise) is used)?No, Sync is optional. Lockwise stores logins data on the local device inside Firefox, unless (or until) the user starts using Sync.
Thanks, that clarified that part.
jscher2000 said
You could similarly open one of your backups from two months ago to see whether there is a drastic difference.
I've opened a backup made a year ago and found out that I have been using 928 credentials, with the last one having an id of 977. Value nextId was depicted as 978, as you've described.
So I've amassed around 70 new credential pairs (guess nextId is around 1100 or something).
Thanks for helping me clarify that there is no issue here! As well as for the insight provided, much obliged.
I may not have found the actual limit, but it's definitely larger than 256 :D
Michail Pappas said
So I've amassed around 70 new credential pairs (guess nextId is around 1100 or something).
I guess the counter maxes out at 999 because who could possibly have that many logins? Now we know one.
Yeah, question though is what happens next. That is, is the 1000th credential stored displayed properly or not?
You can create a new password entry via Firefox Lockwise, so you can test this yourself.
See also Privacy Protections (about:protections) via the "3-bar" Firefox menu button drop-down list for a logins count.
cor-el said
You can create a new password entry via Firefox Lockwise, so you can test this yourself.
Challenge accepted, 1000-mark passed :)
