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Passwords erased and no longer remembered

  • 15 uphendule
  • 3 zinale nkinga
  • 96 views
  • Igcine ukuphendulwa ngu Toad-Hall

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I recently installed Thunderbird on a Windows 10 desktop and setup a brand new profile from scratch with multiple email accounts.

It worked fine for 24hrs, with all passwords saved. Following an install of some other software (CorelDraw and Adobe Suite) the computer was rebooted. On starting Thunderbird it asked for all the account passwords again. Having entered them all, and ticked the box for password manager to remember them, none of them were saved.

I tried deleting parent.lock (which I didn't think should be present once the program has been shut down), key4.db, cert9.db and pkcs.11.txt from the profile and restarted Thunderbird. It requested all of the passwords again and again none were saved.

If anyone has any further ideas as to what could be causing the problem I would be grateful.

I recently installed Thunderbird on a Windows 10 desktop and setup a brand new profile from scratch with multiple email accounts. It worked fine for 24hrs, with all passwords saved. Following an install of some other software (CorelDraw and Adobe Suite) the computer was rebooted. On starting Thunderbird it asked for all the account passwords again. Having entered them all, and ticked the box for password manager to remember them, none of them were saved. I tried deleting parent.lock (which I didn't think should be present once the program has been shut down), key4.db, cert9.db and pkcs.11.txt from the profile and restarted Thunderbird. It requested all of the passwords again and again none were saved. If anyone has any further ideas as to what could be causing the problem I would be grateful.

Isisombululo esikhethiwe

re: Profile is on a network drive. TB works ok in Safe Mode.

Please try disabling the following.

  • Menu icon > Settings > General
  • Scroll to the bottom
  • uncheck this checkbox: 'Use hardware acceleration when available'

Restart Thunderbird

Funda le mpendulo ngokuhambisana nalesi sihloko 👍 1

All Replies (15)

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OK, I tried deleting a few more files, in addition to the ones already mentioned, from the profile; logins.json, logins-backup.json, session.json, session.json.backup and xulstore.json I also came across a post saying to delete secmod.db but this file did not exist.

This had no effect on the problem so I reinstalled Thunderbird. This appeared to correct the problem. I entered passwords for all accounts upon starting up and confirmed (through settings) that they had indeed all be saved in the password manager. It worked fine for most of the day but asked me for the password to one account towards the end of the day, which was odd.

This morning when I fired up Thunderbird it asked me for all of my passwords again (twice), which I entered (twice) and then confirmed that password manager saved none of them.

There are a few files in the profile which appear to be indicative of a problem

.startup-incomplete encrypted-openpgp-passphrase.txt.corrupt encrypted-openpgp-passphrase.txt-1.corrupt

parent.lock was also present following shutdown.

I then deleted just parent.lock and reinstalled Thunderbird again (ver 102.7.2, previous version was 102.7.1). Upon launching it asked for all of my passwords (once) and I confirmed that none were stored by password manager so the program is essentially functionless as it's not downloading emails.

Next I shut down Thunderbird and deleted all of the files originally mentioned from the profile plus parent.lock, encrypted-openpgp-passphrase.txt.corrupt and encrypted-openpgp-passphrase.txt-1.corrupt. Upon restarting Thunderbird it asked for all my passwords (once) and then appeared to hang, with a little busy icon going round and round. I could however access the password manager and there was nothing stored in there.

Next I shut down Thunderbird and deleted parent.lock and opened it in safe mode. To be clear this is a fresh install of Thunderbird with a recently created profile and there are no extensions installed, I haven't even got as far as installing a dictionary yet. In safe mode it asked for all of my passwords again and as I entered them emails began to be downloaded. I confirmed that the passwords did appear in password manager. From the help menu I then immediately selected turn troubleshooting mode off and Thunderbird restarted in normal mode and asked me for all of my passwords again and encrypted-openpgp-passphrase.txt.corrupt was again present.

To say that this is frustrating is an understatement. If anyone can help to resolve this I would be grateful. Outside of that my only option would appear to be to run it permanently in safe mode. Having said that I have it running on my laptop (also Windows 10) with no problems.

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I recognise the problem. In my case it occurs after each update (..).

Only solution (for me): to make a new profile and copy all te information from the former profile... See https://support.mozilla.org/nl/questions/1404860

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Can you tell me what files need to be copied to the new profile in order to avoid having to setup each email account from scratch again. This is indicative that the problem is in the profile. If anyone can shed light on which file/s are the likely culprits it would be easier to replace those than to keep creating new profiles.

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This morning I started Thunderbird up and it asked me for passords again so I cancelld the requests, shut it down and restared in safe mode. No problem and all the passwords were in there inside the password manager. This indicates that the passwords are saved fine but when not in safe mode they seemingly cannot be accessed. Just to reitterate I have no extensions or add ons installed.

Is there anywhere else that I can get help with this issue or get it escalated somehow.

At the moment it seems like my best option is to run Thunderbird permanently in safe mode but I have no idea what problems that may lead to and doesn't seem like a good solution.

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Do you have any product like CCleaner, WiseCleaner or even in your Anti-virus product set up to clean up files eg: session, cookies, passwords etc. If yes, then you need to make the Thunderbird profile folder exempt. Those products can be notorious for causing havoc with session and password data.

AS this is a new install.... Check Firewall: Is thunderbird set up as an allowed program ? If no then please set up Thunderbird program as allowed program.


re :I tried deleting parent.lock (which I didn't think should be present once the program has been shut down),

Yes you will see it but has nothing to do with this particular issue. Normally you would delete it only if you cannot start up Thunderbird because it says a copy is already running.

What servers ae you connecting to? Do you use Authentication Method : OAuth for any account ?

What addons have you installed ?

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If you have no 'cleanup' programs or you have already made Thunderbird profile folder exempt from scanning. Please try the following:

Exit Thunderbird if it is running.

Right click on the Thunderbird shortcut icon and select 'Run as Administrator'. It is possible this may only need to be done the first time and not for subsequent starts.

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I have no 'cleanup programs' installed.

Kaspersky free is the antivirus and installed in default configuration (works fine on my laptop). I tried to add Thunderbird to the allowed programs list but couldn't find a way of doing that. It wasn't on the list of programs available that could be modified.

Connecting to my own VPS server - has been working for years and continues to do so on my laptop.

No authentication OAuth in this profile. I do have one for gmail in the profile on my laptop and that works fine.

No adons installed.

I tried running Thunderbird as administrator and got the following message "Your Thunderbird profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible." - Profile is on a network drive.

Opened Thunderbird in safe mode and it works fine with passwords saved in password manager.

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Sorry, confusing firewall and antivirus in previous reply. Couldn't find the relevant settings in Kaspersky.

Firewall is Windows Defender - that was the one that didn't seem to have any options available for adding Thunderbird.

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This is happening to me as well. It started after the update to version 110 just a couple days ago.

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re : Couldn't find the relevant settings in Kaspersky. To stop scanning your profile folder:

re: add program to allow in Defender Firewall

  1. Select the Start menu, type Allow an app through Windows Firewall, and select it from the list of results.
  2. Select Change settings. You might be asked for an administrator password or to confirm your choice.
  3. To add an app, select the check box next to the app, or select Allow another app and enter the path for the app.

Not sure where you installed Thundrebird, but typically it would be here:

  • C:/Program Files/Mozilla Thunderbird/thunderbird.exe
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Isisombululo Esikhethiwe

re: Profile is on a network drive. TB works ok in Safe Mode.

Please try disabling the following.

  • Menu icon > Settings > General
  • Scroll to the bottom
  • uncheck this checkbox: 'Use hardware acceleration when available'

Restart Thunderbird

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raustin8 said

This is happening to me as well. It started after the update to version 110 just a couple days ago.

The current release is version 102.8.0 So I can only assume you are using a beta version perhaps 110b3 Is your situation identical to the person who posted this question? Are you also using Windows 10 OS? Is your profile not stored in the default location ? Have you also put the profile on a network drive? If yes then try disabling the hardware acceleration.

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Thank you for your help. I implemented the Kaspersky and Windows Defender suggestions first.

When opening Thundirbird it asked for all my passwords again (which I just cancelled) and unchecked the 'use hardware acceleration when available' and rebooted the computer.

Upon launching Thunderbird all seems to be working all all of the password had magically reappeared in password manager.

Your help is much appreciated.

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Toad-Hall: Thanks for your response -

The current release is version 102.8.0 - That is the release I am on. When I wrote the post it said 110 in TB about so I don't know what happened there So I can only assume you are using a beta version perhaps 110b3 - at present it is 102.8.0 and I still have the problem Is your situation identical to the person who posted this question? I am only losing the password for 1 email account. The other one is ok. Are you also using Windows 10 OS? Yes Is your profile not stored in the default location ? Have you also put the profile on a network drive? Profile is in the default location. If yes then try disabling the hardware acceleration. - I will try the solution but I don't understand why it worked up until now and it stopped working. Was it a software update issue?

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raustin8 said

Toad-Hall: Thanks for your response - .... at present it is 102.8.0 and I still have the problem Q: Is your situation identical to the person who posted this question? A: I am only losing the password for 1 email account. The other one is ok. Q:Is your profile not stored in the default location ? Have you also put the profile on a network drive? A:Profile is in the default location.

Although your problem sounds very similar, it is not the same. Your profile is not on a network drive. All your passwords are not being completely removed, but save perfectly ok in safe mode. So the solution to this question will most likely not fix your particular issue.

All comments posted in this question are being sent to the person who created the question, so rather than bombard them with a load of unwanted emails, I suggest you create your own question.

Okulungisiwe ngu Toad-Hall