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Passwords disappeared from sync account

  • 9 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 16 views
  • Last reply by Paul

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For some reason my passwords went missing locally and when I went to sync them my account would not connect and the saved password was missing. So I went through the password reset process to sign into my sync account and when I resigned into it to sync, there was no passwords on the account.

Is there any backup performed by mozilla or any other way to get like a backup of the online account passwords somehow. My local logins.json files are corrupt so I cant use them.

This is extremely disappointing if they cant be retrieved.

For some reason my passwords went missing locally and when I went to sync them my account would not connect and the saved password was missing. So I went through the password reset process to sign into my sync account and when I resigned into it to sync, there was no passwords on the account. Is there any backup performed by mozilla or any other way to get like a backup of the online account passwords somehow. My local logins.json files are corrupt so I cant use them. This is extremely disappointing if they cant be retrieved.

All Replies (9)

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Hi

If you have changed your Firefox Account password, any data that you are syncing between devices will be deleted.

Do you have an copy of that data on the other copy of Firefox that you were syncing with?

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You can look a utility to browse System Restore points to see if you can locate a copy of logins.json and key4.db.

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Unfortunately no shadow copies or system restore as that is disabled.

There was only 1 device that sync'd passwords. I don't understand why if the browser stuffed up and the logins.json file got corrupted and all I did was reset the password on the sync account, then why would all of the passwords be removed from the sync account?

Would you know if there is any type of backup done by Mozilla that it can be restored from?

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Well that's just fine and dandy. Lets just hope that Chrome or Edge sync works better than this.

Not that anyone would care but goodbye firefox.

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Firefox Sync is designed (as the name suggests) to sync data between copies of Firefox. It is not designed to be online storage.

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As the name suggests it is to sync, correct. But the sync is between the online data and the PC in this case. It doesn't matter how many devices are using the sync, it is always between the online (synced data) and a device. In this case it doesn't matter that there is only 1 device. If you are trying to tell me that its meant to be a sync between Firefox's then they need to connect to each other, not an online medium.

Either way as it worked out that an update more than likely caused my passwords data to get corrupted and then it 'synced', as the name suggests, empty passwords data therefore it is all lost.

Surely I'm not the only person that this has happened to before.

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Sync is not stored online data - Firefox Sync is designed to sync data between copies of Firefox.

There is data in transit between copies of Firefox, but that should not be relied upon as online storage.

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Explain to me this then. Syncd with 1 PC and then PC is formatted and reloaded. You then add you sync account to firefox and sync your passwords and bookmarks. Where does that data come from if not from the data stored online?

Appreciate the fact you taking the time to explain what you think you know, but at the end of the day my data is lost. My own fault for not doing some form of backup of something which I would presume is safely stored data.

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Essentially you have been very lucky to sync the data back where Firefox is seeing your new install as a new device, but this is best not relied upon.