If you lost all passwords in Firefox, read this!

[Snake4]

Reports are coming in by Firefox users from all over the world that saved passwords are no longer available when they start the web browser.

Firefox, just like any other modern browser, supports the saving of authentication information to improve the sign-in process on websites. Instead of having to enter the passwords manually each time they are requested, Firefox would provide the password when needed.

Firefox saves the data in the file logins.json in the Firefox profile folder.

Reports suggest that Avast and AVG security applications cause the issue for Firefox users. It appears that the software programs somehow corrupt the login.json file so that Firefox cannot read it anymore.

It is possible that other security programs may cause the issue as well.

Good news is that the passwords are still there and that affected users should be able to recover them on their devices. Bad news is that this is only a temporary solution as the files will be corrupted again unless Avast updates its software programs to address the issue.

In other words: the issue is not caused by Firefox, it is caused by third-party software that corrupts the logins file of the Firefox web browser.

https://www.ghacks.net/2019/06/14/if-yo ... read-this/ thought this might be of some interest to those that lose there passwords

[malliz]

Sad to see two programs that used to be somewhat decent descend down the McAfee and Symantec rabbit hole of poor performance and heavy handed rubbish. Removed AVG and Avast a fair while ago (years) when they started the slippery slide into the rose grower

[Brummelchen]

i left 3rd-poarty antiovirus programs about ten years behind me. if the did not bother me while programming, they do elsewhere. and not only the free, the paid also. i wont pay for crap so i abandoned them all. current solution: windows defender since windows 8.
the last influence is this sh*i
Enterprise Policies, Active

[BuddhaNature]

I ditched always-on real-time 'background' antivirus scanners years ago. They constantly caused problems of the ilk mentioned by the OP, and more. They are bloated interfering rubbish that just drag the system down bit by latest-incarnation bit.

Only antivirus scanner I use since ditching the dross is ClamWin Portable (from Portable Apps). The parent site is ClamWin if you prefer and Windows installer file. ClamWin is a totally free open-source on demand only scanner, which in my book is a plus, no dragging the system down. You just have to be careful in what sites you visit -- which you should be doing anyway -- what you download and utterly scrupulous in manually scanning every file you download. Worked for me for years and very happy with it.

Have to add though that I think it insane that people trust password management to their browser. KeePass is a simple for free solution that gets your passwords out of the browser.

[James]

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/pa ... y-software

[dickvl]

Mozilla has created an extension to restore logins.json from a logins.json.corrupt file as posted in the above mentioned article.
A backup of the current logins.json is created in case new logins were already created.
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addo ... re-logins/