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Is there any way to retrieve deleted logins and passwords in synch?

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  • 2 have this problem
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  • Last reply by mattinmn71

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Removed password and logins on a computer I am giving away and now they are missing on my other computer also. I realize now that I should have just unsynched and signed out of firefox on the old computer.

Removed password and logins on a computer I am giving away and now they are missing on my other computer also. I realize now that I should have just unsynched and signed out of firefox on the old computer.

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Hi mattinmn71, unfortunately, Firefox doesn't keep backups of the critical files

  • logins.json
  • key4.db

But you might be able to recover earlier versions from Windows 10 in one of the following ways:

First, set Windows to show hidden files and folders:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/14201/windows-show-hidden-files

Deleted File Recovery

A tool like Recuva can recover some erased files. This could be useful to track down recently removed files.

The usual path for a Firefox profile is:

C:\Users\your-user-name\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\

Individual profile folder names have a random portion, like

d39tx201.default-release

Can you find any recently deleted logins.json and key4.db files? Probably key4.db wasn't changed by the deletions, so if you can only find recent logins.json files, that would still be good news.

Shadow Copies

You can use a utility program to search inside restore points to try to locate an old file that's usable. (Please do NOT try to use the built-in Windows System Restore for this because you probably would lose data.)

Download and run one of these two programs:

Within the most recent restore point shown in the program, you can explore along this path to see whether you can find a shadow copy of your profile:

\Users\your-user-name\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\

You can export logins.json/key4.db files to a convenient location such as your currently live desktop.

Any luck?


Once you have files to try, you can drag-and-drop logins.json on a Firefox tab to view its contents. Normally the site are readable and passwords are gibberish. Usernames may or may not be readable. Anything promising?

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Thanks for your quick response. I was hoping this was not the case.