Can't access OS authentication when trying to access passwords
I recently moved from Chrome to Firefox. When I use Firefox on Ubuntu 22.04, I can access my passwords freely. However, when I use it on macOS Monterey, it does not work. Page about:logins shows no logins and passwords but only a small little warning bar in the upper corner that says that I need to login with my OS password (see Secure Firefox passwords with device sign-in fixed link to kb article. aw). However, when I click the small "Connexion" button in the notification bar, nothing happens. I have no pop-up/prompt, neither on the system nor on the web page, to allow me input my credentials. I tried after reinstalling Firefox on my Mac but nothing changed.
Do you know how this problem can be fixed? Thank you, and sorry if it is a duplicate.
Okulungisiwe ngu AliceWyman
All Replies (4)
@Dropa Yes, I am synchronized. I can connect on all my devices and click the button "Synchronize" as many times as I want, it does not fix the problem. It rather looks like the OS authentication does not work but I do not know how to fix it. Synchronization works well between my Ubuntu and my Android for instance.
The OS Authentication feature described in the Secure Firefox passwords with device sign-in article is currently disabled by default (except for testing), since it is not working correctly. You can confirm that it is disabled by opening the about:config page and checking the preference signon.management.page.os-auth.enabled and making sure that it is set to false. If by chance it is set to true you can reset it to false to disable the feature. See the Configuration Editor for Firefox article if you need help with the about:config page.
If you have problems with synced logins, maybe this will help synchronize your passwords on your Mac: Sync logins in Firefox desktop
You can also manually copy saved logins and other user data from one profile to another. See Recovering important data from an old profile.
Note that OS authentication can only work if you haven't set the Primary Password.
I have never set a primary password and it is disabled in the settings and noted undefined. Yet, it looks like Firefox considers there is a primary password because it asks me to input it even when I try to import logins from Chrome using hyperlink import in Firefox in about:logins. It really looks like there is a bug with Firefox and macOS Monterey. I will use Safari or Chrome… Thank you for having tried to help.