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How do I retrieve my saved logins from key4.db and login.json present in old firefox data folder

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  • Last reply by cor-el

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There was some problem in firefox browser and I tried trouble shooting and since, the issue was persisting, I decided to uninstall and reinstall the firefox. I also read that uninstalling and reinstalling the firefox would retrieve the saved logins. I proceeded and lost all saved logins of about 25 to 30 sensitive hard passwords. I browsed the help topics and found that i could retrieve the saved logins. I just searched for key4.db file and clicked on open file location in the properties menu. The result fetched me to old firefox data folder, which have both keydb and login json files. But I do not know, how to transfer the same to my No saved logins in the new firefox settings. Could someone help so that I could retrieve the hard passwords , which is very hard to remember thanks expecting

There was some problem in firefox browser and I tried trouble shooting and since, the issue was persisting, I decided to uninstall and reinstall the firefox. I also read that uninstalling and reinstalling the firefox would retrieve the saved logins. I proceeded and lost all saved logins of about 25 to 30 sensitive hard passwords. I browsed the help topics and found that i could retrieve the saved logins. I just searched for key4.db file and clicked on open file location in the properties menu. The result fetched me to old firefox data folder, which have both keydb and login json files. But I do not know, how to transfer the same to my No saved logins in the new firefox settings. Could someone help so that I could retrieve the hard passwords , which is very hard to remember thanks expecting

Modified by jrj

All Replies (7)

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logins.json and key3.db [v58+]key4.db : These are the password files. Copy Both !

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Could you say how to do. Should I copy these three files from old firefox data to the current profile, which shows as cannot delete profile in about:profiles page by replacing the present files How do I know, that these dbs and json contain the data I want to transfer Is there any way to open the key dbs to check for the information before I transfer please

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jrj said

How do I know, that these dbs and json contain the data I want to transfer Is there any way to open the key dbs to check for the information before I transfer please

The logins.json file is in plain text -- except the actual user name and password. You can open that in a tab in Firefox to see what sites are listed.

The key4.db file is in a binary format that isn't easily human readable (you need a program that reads the database format), and anyway it contains decryption keys to decrypt what is in the companion logins.json file, it doesn't contain the logins themselves.

If you have these files together in a folder somewhere, you may be able to extract your logins using a third party tool such as one of the following:

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The key4.db file is a SQLite database file that you could inspect with a suitable utility, but there is no need to open this file for inspection. You can copy logins.json and key4.db to the current profile folder with Firefox closed to transfer the logins stored in logins.json.

You can use the button on the "Help -> More Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page (Root directory).

If you already have created new logins then you can export them to a CSV file before replacing logins.json and key4.db and import this CSV file afterward.

See the note at the bottom of this article about how to enable CSV in Lockwise import via the about:config page.

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Hi, all, I could understand. But when i input profiles, there is a file shown, which when opened contain so many profiles. It dates sequentially. How do i see this key4.db and login js file in the recent dated profile , so that i could just select those two files to be pasted to the current profile. I cannot open and see what are all inside the file. Moreover, I might have changed some passwords , so if i copy a wrong key4.db, then accessing site passwords would not be easy as every password would have to be re created. there must be an easy way of storing it as a separate files in a folder, so that i could just uninstall and replace these files to get back by saved logins.

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Hi jrj, you said the files were under Old Firefox Data, which is a folder that can usually be found on your Windows Desktop. Can you find it there? How many folders are inside?

Please remember that logins.json and key4.db are like a lock and key. They need to be kept together. Only the proper key4.db can decrypt the passwords in its companion logins.json file.

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You can check the last modified date/time in each of the profiles to see what profile is the most recently used profile and use logins.json and key4.db in this profile.