Password Reset
Is there anyway to reset your password without losing bookmarks and other personal data? My old computer crashed and I don't want to lose all that data. For some reason, my password isn't working.
All Replies (7)
In case of issues try to login to the Firefox Account via this website.
You can only bypass a password reset if you have a recovery key, otherwise you can't recover lost data via Sync.
If the hard drive is still healthy then you can try to connect the drive by using an enclose to connect/access the drive via USB.
Thanks for the suggestions, cor-el! I will find out tomorrow if the SSD is accessible. As far as I know, I didn't create a recovery key. I think this password reset protocol is bogus.
A sync key derived from the password of the Sync account is used to encrypt your data before it is uploaded to the Sync server and only this password or a possible recovery key can decrypt this data. So losing data after a password reset is about how Sync is designed.
OK, I figured out the problem. My password was right, but I was reading it wrong. I used an uppercase "i" in the password, but in my password keeper, it looked like a lower case "l". Fortunately, I found a handwritten version in my old password book! However, I'm not sure if I had the account set to sync. It seems there are some saved bookmarks, but I thought I had more than that. Maybe I only recently started syncing. I was hoping to recover open tabs, but apparently those aren't synced?
Some data expires and this includes Synced tabs that expire after 366 days (one year).
I see. So there wouldn't be anyway to recover open tabs?
Not via Sync if this is about tabs from longer than one year ago.
You can install the About Sync extension in Firefox 72 and newer on desktop to check what data is stored on the Sync server via the about:sync page provided by this extension.
Close and restart Firefox to access the about:sync page added by this extension (see the about:about page for possible about pages).