Join the AMA (Ask Me Anything) with the Firefox leadership team to celebrate Firefox 20th anniversary and discuss Firefox’s future on Mozilla Connect. Mark your calendar on Thursday, November 14, 18:00 - 20:00 UTC!

This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Avatar for Username

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

This thread was archived. Please ask a new question if you need help.

Can't sign in to my old account?

  • 2 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 7 views
  • Last reply by eimuc96

eimuc96
eimuc96
more options

I reinstalled my windows and had to sign in with my firefox account to sync the files. But I accidentally created a new account with same email address as old one (and probably with same password). I thought the registration would be rejected, but it was done flawlessly and now I cannot seem to access to my old account. Everytime I try to log in with that email address, it directs me to the new account (cannot be really sure but I cannot find any bookmarks or other settings etcs) and now I cannot access to any of my old data. Does this mean my old account is automatically deleted and all my files are gone? If so, is there a way to somehow retrieve the data...?

It is my first time asking a question in a support forum, so if any more information is required please let me know.

Anyway, Thanks in advance.

I reinstalled my windows and had to sign in with my firefox account to sync the files. But I accidentally created a new account with same email address as old one (and probably with same password). I thought the registration would be rejected, but it was done flawlessly and now I cannot seem to access to my old account. Everytime I try to log in with that email address, it directs me to the new account (cannot be really sure but I cannot find any bookmarks or other settings etcs) and now I cannot access to any of my old data. Does this mean my old account is automatically deleted and all my files are gone? If so, is there a way to somehow retrieve the data...? It is my first time asking a question in a support forum, so if any more information is required please let me know. Anyway, Thanks in advance.

All Replies (2)

the-edmeister
the-edmeister
  • Moderator
more options

Sorry, Firefox Sync was not intended to be used with a solitary device, like in lieu of a proper backup.

Overall, Sync relies upon the user having the user data on another device, just in case the user makes a mistake and/or data does get cleared fron the Sync server.

If you did use the same email address to create a new account, the Sync login system would not have allowed that to be done. Never "tested" it with the current 1.5 version of Sync, so I can't say 100% what the warning or message would be. But with the 1.0 and 1.1 version of Sync I had to create a new account with a new email address when/if I needed a clean start due to corrupted data "stuck" on the server. And if you reset the account password you data would have been cleared from the Sync server immediately. Normal action to "clean up" and to allow the email address to continue being used.

Sorry, there's no way to recover from that. The data is gone and no pre-reset backups are saved; it's a "fatal" action if done by user error.

See the screenshot when Resetting the Sync Account password.

eimuc96
eimuc96 Question owner
more options

I didn't reset the password and somehow I did make new account with same email address and same password just few minutes ago which really seems weird.

Still, I didn't notice that I backuped my firefox profile data. Now I got what I wanted.

But thank you for your quick and detailed reply :)