Locked out of password by new Lockwise 76. My desktop updated itself and with no warning I can't see my passwords unless I put in a password I don't have. Help!
This is not the account I am worried about but since I have no idea what password is attached to my firefox account I have no way to sign on as that user and had to create another account using another email account! I am disabled and have no way to remember passwords. It is essential that I be able to see them. This new update suddenly stops me from seeing them and I have no idea what the firefox account password is or if this is the same password as my computer? To make things worse, the keyboard on my main laptop is broken and I can barely enter my computer password, so if this is my account password I can't enter this. My laptop is a windows 10 machine which constantly updates itself and causes chaos. It has a password for the main machine that is on the machine NOT some cloud or microsoft. There is also a microsoft password somewhere but I have no idea what it is!
I need to transfer passwords to this tablet but have no way to add the device with the unknown password.
I can not believe that mozzilla would create a system like this with NO WARNING and does not seem to have any way to recover a password without a key that I don't think was set up either. There is no way to recover my password as far as I can tell or copy it. Whenever I try to click on manage my account I get a screen that says "500 error." Help!!!!!!
Isisombulu esikhethiweyo
Okay, that was a lot of information.
You go to the page and you can see the list. But when you want to view or copy a password, at that point you are asked for a login? That sounds like the new feature in Firefox 76 that asks for your Windows login. There are two ways to get around that:
(A) Set a Master Password, then you will be asked for that instead, or (B) Temporarily turn it off
Here's how you temporarily turn it off. (By temporarily, I mean for Firefox 76, and possibly not for future versions.)
(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button accepting the risk.
(2) In the search box in the page, type or paste os-auth and pause while the list is filtered
(3) Double-click the signon.management.page.os-auth.enabled preference to switch the value from true to false
After that it should work like Firefox 75.
More info on about:config: Configuration Editor for Firefox.
Funda le mpendulo kwimeko leyo 👍 2All Replies (4)
Hi joanneS2, could you walk me through where the problem is.
You are using Firefox on Windows 10, and it has logins saved. True so far?
And when you go to the "Logins and Passwords" page can you see the list or is that when you are prompted to enter a password? This page isn't secured with your Firefox Account login, but you may have set a "Master Password" which is a separate local password. Are you getting a Master Password prompt? If not, what does the prompt say?
If the problem computer has Firefox 76, and you never set a Master Password, Firefox may prompt you to enter your Windows password or PIN to view passwords (without that, you just see *** for the passwords). Is that what you see now? More info on this change in the following article: Secure Firefox passwords with device sign-in.
It would be helpful to know which of those features is causing the current problem -- setting aside the keyboard issue.
Thank you, let's see if I can clarify. You said And when you go to the "Logins and Passwords" page can you see the list or is that when you are prompted to enter a password? Yes, you are prompted to enter a user id and password. It is impossible to copy the password (even with a cut and paste, you can just see the list and that there is a password. There is no master password.
I probably created a Firefox password when I created a support count years ago, but I have no idea what it is and if this is the password it is looking for. Without logins and passwords allowing me to see the password created for support.mozzilla.org I have no idea what that password might be. I do not recall creating any other passwords for firefox.
My firefox page with the logins and passwords info has a manage account page that shows me as logged in with my other email (joanneschneider77@gmail.com), if anyone from Mozilla is paying attention to this. But I have no idea what that password can be and there doesn't seem to be a way to find out. All of the firefox documentation says that you can't reset a firefox password and there is no way to turn off the feature that makes you put in a password every time you try to see or copy a password.
FIREFOX DEVELOPERS that was a really stupid design decision and you really MUST provide a way for people to reset their passwords or turn this extra security few of us want off!
The computer also has its own password that I need to use to log onto it. In the past few weeks I have been doing that with great difficulty as one key used in the password has failed. Is that the password and account ID it wants? If it is, I can't enter it every time I need to copy or see a password because of the keyboard problem.
I hope this is clearer. But the real problem is that Firefox developers created this feature without telling their users it was coming and provide no way to turn it off or figure out what the password might be. The feature should be made optional AND a way to reset a Firefox account password easily provided. Clicking on manage account is useless because that creates a Mozzilla screen with the firefox symbol and the line "500 error."
Thank you
Isisombululo esiKhethiweyo
Okay, that was a lot of information.
You go to the page and you can see the list. But when you want to view or copy a password, at that point you are asked for a login? That sounds like the new feature in Firefox 76 that asks for your Windows login. There are two ways to get around that:
(A) Set a Master Password, then you will be asked for that instead, or (B) Temporarily turn it off
Here's how you temporarily turn it off. (By temporarily, I mean for Firefox 76, and possibly not for future versions.)
(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button accepting the risk.
(2) In the search box in the page, type or paste os-auth and pause while the list is filtered
(3) Double-click the signon.management.page.os-auth.enabled preference to switch the value from true to false
After that it should work like Firefox 75.
More info on about:config: Configuration Editor for Firefox.
JoanneS2- I had the same problem: I opened my saved logins and got the pop-up for a password, before it would show me any. I tried my Microsoft password, my Firefox password, my [computer mfg.] password....I opened the Support page, I Googled the problem...nobody came right out and said WHAT password Lockwise needed. I stumbled on it on my own: it wants the password used to login to your computer when you boot it! Seems rather silly, since you've obviously already logged in to the computer, if you've opened the browser... Try it. It worked for me: all my logins magically available again.