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.

Tranfering password: copying key3.db ang logins.json doesn't work

  • 4 replies
  • 6 have this problem
  • 2 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

flofl0
flofl0
more options

I have 2 profiles and I wish to transfer my saved passwords from one to another. As far I see the procedure documented is to copy both key3.db and logins.json to the profile I wish to transfer my saved passwords on. However, once I launch Firefox nothing shows up in the password manager.

Could it be linked to the use of a master password ? Could Sync somehow mess this up even if it's not configured to sync passwords ? (I notice that is the new profiles sometimes sync id shows up, but not after copying the files) I saw something about signon.importedFromSqlite but it seems to always set itself to true.

I do know the quickfix is using an extension to export and then import the passwords, however I don't believe it to be an acceptable solution for something as sensitive as passwords.

I'm using 59.0b4 for both profiles (that are after copying the files supposed to have the same password manager related files, the old one works perfectly, not the new one).

I have 2 profiles and I wish to transfer my saved passwords from one to another. As far I see the procedure documented is to copy both key3.db and logins.json to the profile I wish to transfer my saved passwords on. However, once I launch Firefox nothing shows up in the password manager. Could it be linked to the use of a master password ? Could Sync somehow mess this up even if it's not configured to sync passwords ? (I notice that is the new profiles sometimes sync id shows up, but not after copying the files) I saw something about signon.importedFromSqlite but it seems to always set itself to true. I do know the quickfix is using an extension to export and then import the passwords, however I don't believe it to be an acceptable solution for something as sensitive as passwords. I'm using 59.0b4 for both profiles (that are after copying the files supposed to have the same password manager related files, the old one works perfectly, not the new one).

Modified by flofl0

Chosen solution

Solution found: the right file is now key4.db !

This does mean that this page: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recovering-important-data-from-an-old-profile#w_passwords is not at all up to date (since to default to key4.db apparently occured in v58) Apparently this is is pending review https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/forums/knowledge-base-articles/712877

Read this answer in context 👍 1

All Replies (4)

flofl0
flofl0 Question owner
more options

Chosen Solution

Solution found: the right file is now key4.db !

This does mean that this page: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recovering-important-data-from-an-old-profile#w_passwords is not at all up to date (since to default to key4.db apparently occured in v58) Apparently this is is pending review https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/forums/knowledge-base-articles/712877

Modified by flofl0

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

Firefox should fallback to key3.db if you remove an existing key4.db SQLite database.

flofl0
flofl0 Question owner
more options

cor-el said

Firefox should fallback to key3.db if you remove an existing key4.db SQLite database.

Indeed (I didn't test it but it's also my understanding), but since I saw no instruction to do so, I thought it was related to something else and not the password manager.

Modified by flofl0

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

See also this thread: