So I temporarily lost my little black notebook with all my usernames and passwords yesterday. After a couple of hours I found it in my bedroom, but not before having to use the saved passwords in Firefox for logging into a couple of sites. This got me thinking about what would have happened if I’d really lost the little book, and my computer had crashed and wiped out all my password data. It turns out there is a plan B.
The Firefox browser has a feature that enables you to store passwords to online sites that require a secure login. You’ve probably seen the prompt at the top of the screen hundreds of times- “Remember – Later- Never”. You can also enable a Master Password so that no one else using your computer will be able to use the saved passwords.
Some silly people like to write down their usernames and passwords in a little notebook somewhere (nobody’s perfect). It’s best to keep a backed up copy of all your password and username data, but Firefox doesn’t yet have a function to do this, so here is what you need to know to do it.
It’s actually quite easy; to backup the passwords, you just need to backup 2 files stored in your Firefox profile folder, signons.txt and key3.db- finding the files is the hardest part.
Finding the Location of your Profile Folder
Tools- Options- Security
All Mozilla apps store the user’s personal information in a unique profile. The first time you launch any Mozilla application, it automatically creates a default profile. Other profiles may be created if you are on a multi-user machine, via the Profile Manager.
All of which are stored in files in the profile folder. Don’t get confused, though- the installation directory also has a profile folder, however, this one holds program default settings, rather than your user profile data.
The location of your profile folder will depend on what operating system your computer is running. In addition, on Windows 2000/XP/Vista and on Linux, the folder is hidden by default and you will have to enable showing hidden files and folders to get to the profile folder.
Here are the locations:
For Windows 95, 98, and ME: the profile folders are in either of these locations:
- • C:\Windows\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\
• C:\Windows\Profiles\\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\
For Windows 2000 and XP: the profile folders are in
- C:\Documents and Settings\\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\
(Application Data folder hidden by default- to show the hidden folders, open up Windows Explorer and select “Tools- Folder Options – View (the tab) – show hidden files and folders”.)
For Windows Vista:
- C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\
. (AppData folder hidden by default- to show the hidden folders, open up Windows Explorer and select “Tools- Folder Options – View (the tab) – show hidden files and folders”.)
For Mac OSX: The profile folders are in either of these locations:
- • /Macintosh HD/Users//Library/Mozilla/Firefox/Profiles/
• /Macintosh HD/Users//Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/
For Linux and Unix: profile folders are in .mozilla/firefox/
(The .mozilla folder is hidden.)
Now What
So now you’ve found the right directory, open it up and you’ll see the settings and configuration files. Find the two files signons.txt and key3.db. Make a copy of the two files and store them in a safe place, like an external hard drive, lockable USB key or burned onto a CD disk.
Password Files Highlighted
When you need to restore the password data, just copy the two files back into the Profile folder. You may run into some problems if there’s been a major update to Firefox since you last backed them up, so it’s a good practice to make backups after each update.
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