Udated Firefox will not save login information
I just updated Firefox on an older laptop. Due to the age of the old version, I could not update Firefox but had to download and install the latest version (the old v was a couple of years old). I exported my bookmarks with no problem but could not find in the old version where to export my passwords. So I took screen shots of each of the password pages. When I installed the new version of FF, it found my bookmarks and imported them with no problem. It did not find and import my passwords (#@$#@!!). Sooooo... I spent all morning going to each page with saved logins, reentering my login info, and saving it. When I tried to go back to the pages, NO LOGIN INFORMATION WAS SAVED! WTFF?! I went into the password manager and there were NO PASSWORDS SAVED. I tried to enter the password info and it would not save them and instead gave me an error. Trying to create a new master password gave me an error.
WHAT do I need to do to get this... software... to save my frickin' login information and passwords??!!
NOT a happy camper right now! I have used FF for going on 20 years or so and am not a newbie or an amateur at this (which is why I screenshot all the password pages!).
OH, this is my SECOND attempt at asking support for help, the first time everything was lost when I tried to add a screen shot of the errors... Grrrrrrr...
All Replies (4)
Sorry to hear about this problem. What error message did you get when trying to add a new login manually?
Do you recall what version you were running previously? Was is a Quantum version (Firefox 57+) or a legacy version (Firefox 56 and earlier)?
Over the years, Firefox has changed how it stores logins from using a database file (signons.sqlite) to a text file (logins.json) and from using a key3.db companion file to encrypt logins to a key4.db companion file. New versions of Firefox contain conversion code to automatically convert the old files to the new format, but after some (unknown) period of time, the conversion code is removed because it is assumed that no one will need it any more. It's possible that due to the gap in time between your old version and your new version that Firefox 89 could no longer migrate your logins automatically. But that wouldn't explain why starting from scratch wouldn't work. Maybe there is an messy mix of old and new files that is causing the problem?
I just get a generic red box with "An error occurred while trying to save this password." in it. I was going from a legacy version of FF, the laptop hadn't been used in a couple? few? years. I tried to simply update it but it came back with an error that it couldn't be updated. So I did my saves and downloaded the latest version and installed it. I thought since it was a fresh install it would have installed it side-by-side, leaving my old version intact to work off of... Yeah, no such luck... New overwrote old. I kinda expected the password conversion issue which is why I did screen shots of all of them. What's giving me grief is that I can't make this new version save any new login info, whether it be from the page itself or manually through the password manager.
Since I have nothing to lose at this point, I'm going to totally delete FF from the drive and then download and install what will hopefully be a totally clean version.
This may be faster:
New Profile
Inside Firefox, type or paste about:profiles in the address bar and press Enter/Return to load it.
Click the "Create a New Profile" button, then click Next. Assign a name like June2021, ignore the option to relocate the profile folder, and click the Finish button.
Firefox will switch your default profile to the new one, which will take effect at your next Firefox startup. You can start working with it immediately by scrolling down to June2021 and clicking its Launch profile in new browser button.
Firefox should open a new window that looks like a brand new, uncustomized installation. (Your existing Firefox window(s) should not be affected.)
You can migrated files or restore backups as desired.
Thanks! I gave that a shot and got an error "Cannot create new profile"...
Yeah, I think this install is toasted somehow... Remove and reinstall is my next step... Will let ya know how it works out!