Passwords aren't transfering into Fx 3.5

[dickvl]

You can compare the structure of your signons3.txt with the description in signons3.txt

[SlimShady]

#UPDATE#

Or just wing it and start from scratch

Or back the files up and wait for the fix. Then put the files back in their place for the import.

[libelle]

I'm just another average user (non-tester, non-Mozilla-team) who's been bitten by this. Haven't yet managed to restore passwords, but will be trying suggestions linked from this thread.

But you can increment that "bitter user" counter

[dickvl]

A possibility is to reinstall Firefox 3.0.11 (http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/all-older.html) in a different folder and use the Password Exporter extension to export the passwords.
Then you can import that file in Firefox 3.5. You may lose some passwords, but should have most of them (maybe all if you are lucky).
Password Exporter: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2848

[libelle]

A possibility is to reinstall Firefox 3.0.11 (http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/all-older.html) in a different folder and use the Password Exporter extension to export the passwords.
Then you can import that file in Firefox 3.5. You may lose some passwords, but should have most of them (maybe all if you are lucky).
Password Exporter: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2848

That's exactly what I just completed doing. Although I had to create a new 3.0.11 profile, copy my original signon3.txt and keys.db to the new profile, and then export.

Furthermore, I have sites with both Basic Authentication and application passwords, which seems to break import for Password Exporter 1.1. A solution to that problem can be found at http://blog.vicshih.com/2009/01/fix-for ... r-add.html

So, now everything seems to be back to normal, although I'm still having a few strange symptoms with FF wanting to launch again if I click a link (for example in Thunderbird) and saying "Hey, it's already running with that profile! Quit and start again."

I think I just need to convince it to use a consistent profile, and that should get straightened out.

[shiitake]

I did not try the RCs. I have no need to try potentially unstable browsers, but like to be an early adopter of the stable releases.

I failed with the internal update method. No passwords reappeared despite copying signons3 and key3 between profiles. I copied the files back to FF3 on another machine and used the Password Exporter addon - that way works.

The easiest solution is to download the 7 MB setup file and install v3.5 over v3.0
Passwords appear immediately, as they did before this update. This has now worked for me on multiple Windows XP machines.

[philcig]

I believe I have just found a simple solution.
The symptoms I was experiencing were that after installing 3.5 for Mac, I had passwords but they were not up to date, they were the passwords from when I was using FF2. Since I had changed some and added some while using 3.0.x, it was easy to see this. So 3.5 was ignoring the FF3 password file but reading the FF2 file.
I just read the bugzilla page at https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=500822 and read this:
"Passwords are not reimported from signons*.txt if there's already a signons.sqlite present."
Now I had tried out a couple of earlier Mac builds from elfurbe but gave up because of problems, one of which was this same password issue. So I still had the signons.sqlite file from then.
So I just trashed that file, reinstalled 3.5, and voila - all my passwords are there!
I'm guessing that the people who are having this problem all downloaded earlier versions that had this issue and still have that file on their computer.
So, for me anyway, the fix is easy - just delete the signons.sqlite file and start over.
How's that?

[dickvl]

See http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Firefox+3 ... er+version

[makondo]

Right. This has been posted a couple of pages back.

dickvl,
i don't think the link is relevant as i, for one, never go back a version. But i like this: '... If this procedure doesn't work and you end up losing more information ...'

[philcig]

Yes, it was mentioned on page 1, but I didn't just re-open 3.5. What I did was trash 3.5, trash signons.sqlite, empty the trash, and then reinstall 3.5. Maybe that makes a difference.
Is it possible there's a difference in the way this works on a Mac? Others have referred to having different profiles for different versions of FF. AFAIK, I've only ever had 1 profile folder and it still has all the password files from the different versions I've had.
And you're right, that link above is not relevant to what I'm talking about.

[crow7333]

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/10932

worked here..

Installed on 3, then imported to 3.5

don't forget to enter a key password at the top for exporting and use the same one for importing. using blank will not work.

Enjoy

[Tabris]

I updated through the Check for Updates function within Firefox today. Upgraded to 3.5 from whatever was before it.

I haven't lost many of my passwords, but I have lost some, which is a pain in the arse, having to find out which ones are gone and which ones aren't.

Thankfully, my signons3.txt still has all of my old passwords saved, or at least, the websites at which I had saved passwords located on, so I'm going through the process of manually re-adding websites that I previously had saved passwords on and re-adding them to the 3.5 list.

This is a bit annoying, to say the least, but with the upgrade, I don't think there's a difference between a 3.0 and 3.5 profile in Vista, but rather, things have just saved over the 3.0 profile. My last backup was like a year ago, so it'll make little/no difference if I replace the old files into the current folder either.

Either way, Mozilla should have known about this before releasing it.

[dickvl]

Firefox 3.0 uses signons3.txt to store the passwords. Firefox 3.5 has switched to a sqlite database and uses signons.sqlite. Both use the same key3.db file to store the encryption key. Without the proper matching key3.db there is no access to the signons file possible.
If you lost passwords with the update then you can try my above suggestion with an install of a (portable) Firefox 3.0.x version to use an extension to export the passwords.

[Tabris]

Just curious, have the search and form history undergone a similar change?

[MooMooMoo]

Had the same problem as others on moving 3.0.11 profile to 3.5.1. (both were FF portable). Found this thread on Google. Solution for me was just deleting signons.sqlite. All's fine now, thanks to those who posted that solution.