If you lost all passwords in Firefox, read this!

[harlan4096]

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.

Update: Here is the official bug by Mozilla that highlights the issue. (thanks Techdows)

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