Saved passwords lost after crash - can they be recovered?
My laptop crashed catastrophically and on opening Firefox I found none of the saved passwords could be recalled. I looked for the "logins.json" file and found a file called "logins.json.corrupt". The "logins.json.corrupt" file had 22kb of data and the new "logins.json" file only 2kb, which makes sense. I copied the corrupt file for reference and renamed it "logins.json". This didn't work. I tried copying the data from the corrupt file into the new file. This didn't work either. In both cases, I closed Firefox first.
It's annoying that the data is there but I cannot get Firefox to read it. Maybe I didn't do a good job of copying.
Any help appreciated.
All Replies (8)
I hope this was done with a copy of the files as it seems all you were accomplishing is to try and corrupt the new Profile.
No corrupt file no matter what it is in will fix a non corrupt file and to expect it to run then please understand what corrupt is.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-firefox-stores-user-data https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recover-lost-or-missing-bookmarks https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recovering-important-data-from-an-old-profile http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diagnostic_-_Firefox#Profile_issues http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_data_to_a_new_profile_-_Firefox
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/export-firefox-bookmarks-to-backup-or-transfer
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/back-and-restore-information-firefox-profiles
Please let us know if this solved your issue or if need further assistance.
I'm not a developer, nor a programmer and neither do I know the inner workings of Firefox, but I researched the Support pages, which is how I'd come across the logins.json files. There was no solution to the actual problem of how to retrieve passwords after a crash.
No, I wasn't trying to corrupt the original profile. What would be the purpose of that? The original .json files were backed up.
Could it be simply asked if these passwords are retrievable?
In the event that the passwords information is lost, you should record all information in a separate text file somewhere else on your hard drive, or written down. You can easily copy and paste if you need to do so. If you are concerned about someone else looking at that file, you can compress it using a password.
Look on your desktop. Do you see a folder called; Old Firefox?
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recovering-important-data-from-an-old-profile
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/back-and-restore-information-firefox-profiles
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-run-firefox-when-profile-missing-inaccessible
Type about:profiles<enter> in the address bar. How many profiles are listed? How many should be there?
Separate Security Issue: Update your Flash Player Note: Windows users should download the ActiveX for Internet Explorer. and the plugin for Plugin-based browsers (like Firefox).
Note: Windows 8 and Windows 10 have built-in flash players and Adobe will cause a conflict. Install the plugin only. Not the ActiveX.
Flash Player Version: Version 28.0.0.126
https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/ Direct link scans current system and browser Note: Other software is offered in the download. <Windows Only>
https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/otherversions/ Step 1: Select Operating System Step 2: Select A Version (Firefox, Win IE . . . .) Note: Other software is offered in the download. <Windows Only> +++++++++++++++++++ See if there are updates for your graphics drivers https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/upgrade-graphics-drivers-use-hardware-acceleration
Thank you Fred for your very helpful replies. Yes, we do keep our passwords in a separate file, as you suggest, but it would be a lot easier if we could reclaim the existing passwords and form information. I'll now answer your points -
There is no folder called Old Firefox. There is only the one profile and that is all there should be.
Update Flash Player - done. The graphics driver was up to date.
There was an add-on that auto creates backups of your profile. But it does not work in the current Firefox.
Every now and then, open the profile folder and create a copy of the current profile as is to another location on your hard drive. This way you will have a backup.
If you do this each day, you will not lose much data. This should be done with Firefox Closed.
Note: You may need to overwrite old or corrupted files.
It is possible that the real problem is the key3.db file that stores the encryption key.
Did you check the logins.json file is a text editor to see if it is valid JSON?
You can drag the file in a Firefox tab to inspect the file via the builtin SON viewer.
Fred - thanks for the tip, but to be honest, the laptops my wife's, so I'll have to set up a link to the profile so she can easily copy it to the desktop. Even then, I don't expect she'll do it on a regular basis. I back up my own profiles every now and again.
cor-el - there's a problem here in that the old file was renamed logins.json.corrupt and naturally won't open in Firefox. I copied it to the desktop and removed the "corrupt" but it still wouldn't open. I can open the file in Notepad and the data seems to be there, though I note the last entry ID was 30 and the next new entry ID would have been 42. So it seems a number of entries have been lost. The last entry is certainly incomplete. I'll try removing the last one and resetting the next entry ID to 30. See if that works.
Thanks for the help.