Thunderbird not saving passwords after update
Hi there,
We've recently updated our Mac's OS to macOS Monterey, and thusly had to update Thunderbird 91.5.2. After combing these forums for potential solutions, I haven't had much luck in remedying the situation. For whatever reason when I attempt to save the password to the password manager, it doesn't play nice with it and rejects the password on the whole. However when I don't tick the box for it, it will be fine until the computer restarts. I've checked the Password Manager itself to see if there was an old one causing a conflict, but there's nothing saved there to begin with it seems. Now, I've tried to dive through the files of the program itself to delete pcks11.txt, logins.json, and a few other files suggested for similar circumstance, but I couldn't seem to locate them. I typically use Windows machines, so this is unfamiliar territory.
Any help would be greatly appreciated, as this email system is part of our livelihood, and the main people using it are not known to be patient with technology or password input.
All Replies (7)
Furthermore, when attempting to implement a master password, the system just rejects it as well. It looks to me that something is damaged or incorrect with the password manager itself, and still persists after reinstalling it as well.
First, check that you don't have some kind of external password manager handling TB passwords. Such managers are sometimes part of the security/antivirus app on the computer.
To remove all password data, Help/More Troubleshooting, Profile Folder, Show in Finder, close TB, delete or rename key4.db, cert9.db, logins.json and pkcs11.txt. If you don't see those files, there is something wrong with the profile, as if it has read-only status.
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Password_not_remembered_-_Thunderbird
sfhowes said
First, check that you don't have some kind of external password manager handling TB passwords. Such managers are sometimes part of the security/antivirus app on the computer. To remove all password data, Help/More Troubleshooting, Profile Folder, Show in Finder, close TB, delete or rename key4.db, cert9.db, logins.json and pkcs11.txt. If you don't see those files, there is something wrong with the profile, as if it has read-only status. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Password_not_remembered_-_Thunderbird
I've located all except the pkcs file, is there any way to check if it's in read only? It shouldn't be, but that might be my issue here. How would I go about altering that as well?
I don't know why there's no pkcs11.txt file, but it might be created automatically on restart if you delete or rename the other 3 files. A file's read-only status is shown in the file's Properties context menu.
I've since located the file, it was buried under a different folder within. However, after restarting it doesn't seem to have changed anything with Thunderbird's ability to save passwords. All Password saving systems/software on the Mac itself have been disabled, so there should be no conflict there. Even when trying to manually set up the passwords for the four email boxes we have running through Thunderbird, there's no passwords being saved.
It would seem, however, logins.json might not have been properly reacquired?
I suggest an experiment to see if your profile is damaged in some way that prevents passwords working properly: create a new profile from Help/More Troubleshooting, about:profiles, add an account, and see if the password is saved after the first connection, when the box is checked in the password prompt to store it in Saved Passwords.