How to export passwords from FireFox57? [SOLVED]

[52ROSt]

Linux Mint 17.3, 64 bit, KDE

When recently FF was upgraded to 56, I lost already 1/2 day because it didn't run the way it ran before. I installed Opera as a temporary solution and got FF56 running again. (Thanks to some people here in this forum my Opera gets even updated with LM system updates!)

Now FF57 is the new version and many of the very useful add-ons don't work anymore. Alternatives are not really available. Thus I looked into my Opera browser again and, with a few extensions, I got it running the way my old FF was running. After having used FF from one of the first versions (v.2? 3?) I now say goodbye to FF and will now use Opera as my browser.

Only remaining problem are the passwords stored in FF. Opera cannot import them. Although Opera indicates successful import, no passwords are imported.

I am very grateful for any hints on how to passwords from FF57 into Opera.

[xenopeek]

Well, you got yourself in a bit of a bind there. Firefox' password manager is a bit rubbish. Indeed, you can't export passwords stored in Firefox. You can copy them to another Firefox, but you can't export them. There was an extension https://addons.mozilla.org/nl/firefox/a ... -exporter/ that allowed you to do that, but it only works on Firefox 56 and earlier and you've already upgraded.

I guess you have two options. I'd go with the first if you don't have too many passwords or with the second if you do.

First option is to add an extension to Firefox to show the password on a login page https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo ... passwords/. You'd go through each website for which you have a password stored in Firefox, show the password and then copy the username and password from there.

If you have many passwords that's going to be a chore. Second option is you could check if you have the Firefox version 56 .deb file still in /var/cache/apt/archives. If so, you could try downgrading to that version. Double-click on the .deb file to launch the installer. After downgrading to Firefox 56 you can install the password exporter extension I mentioned in the first paragraph. Use that to export your passwords and then figure out how to import them in Opera, or if all else fails do it website by website and copy the username and password from the exported file manually.

This is as good a time as any to switch to a good cross-browser and cross-platform password manager. For example consider using LastPass. LastPass is available for Firefox, Chrome and Opera on Linux. And for Windows, Mac, Android and iOS. Passwords will be kept in sync between all the browsers across all the computers and devices on which you use LastPass. LastPass is free for computers; for mobile devices there is a small fee. You could also use a standalone password manager, like KeePassXC

[xenopeek]

Now FF57 is the new version and many of the very useful add-ons don't work anymore. Alternatives are not really available.

Like which extensions? All but one of my extensions work on FF57 or have a good alternative that does.

[52ROSt]

@ xenopeek

Thank you very much for your detailed reply.

Add-ons which do not work or which have a not so good (my point of view) successor in FF57

- Sort-Bookmarks
- Cookie Controller
- Download Manager Tweak
- FoxClocks (I need about 5 Times around the globe)
- NoScript
- TabMix Plus
- PasswordExporter
a few more but they are more nice-to-haves.

Thanks for mentioning the PasswordExporter. It seems I lost it already in FFv56 but I used it in March this year for the last time. And when you mentioned it I found the exporter password. As they are the bulk of my passwords, I tried to import them into Opera 49.0 but it did not work. After several attempts I gave up to import the passwords. Maybe there is somewhere in the web a solution to import passwords into Opera, I decided to do it now case by case. I only have 50-100 passwords.

As FF57 still gives me the possibility to access my passwords and all related information, I started to get them one by one into opera.

Doing this, I recognized a strong feature of the FF. FF always requires a master password to store, view or use a stored password. Opera does not work with a master password. I am aware that there is never a 100% security, I have to live currently with the drawback of the Opera browser concerning master password. Important passwords (banking etc.) I always store off-line in KeePassX file.

LastPass - you are right, an application storing all PW across systems and OS is really what is needed. However, such systems are cloud applications. Passwords are stored somewhere on a server, and hackers with bad intentions go for such servers. I found this interesting article: https://www.pcworld.com/article/2936621 ... t-for.html
I currently do not trust any cloud application sufficiently that I store important information in any cloud. The only exception is the cloud, which runs on our server; only a handful of people know about this cloud and the server. Thus it is pretty save.

Thanks for your reply and the thoughts you triggered.

[phd21]

Hi "52ROSt",

I just read your post and the good replies to it. Here are my thoughts on this as well.

It is hard to believe that Firefox 57 Quantum has no ability to export stored logins and passwords. That is a pretty big omission.

Obviously, you can go into Firefox preferences Security and view stored passwords and copy and paste each one into a text file, or a Password Manager like KeePassXC, which would be very tedious. Supposedly, new options for Exporting Logins and Passwords to a file are being developed.

But, I found a couple other options:

1.) You can force Firefox 57 to allow legacy add-ons which may or may not work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmHPE2iN2UE
"Go to about:config (type this in a new FF browser tab address) and search for extensions.legacy.enabled" and change it to "true", then add or re-enable the Firefox Password Exporter add-on.

2.) After reading this post below, there is a package called "firepwd" which can export your Firefox 57 passwords using a console terminal command.
https://github.com/fligtar/password-exporter/issues/80

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sudo apt-get install git

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git clone https://github.com/lclevy/firepwd

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cd firepwd

Then copy from your hidden ".mozilla/firefox" profile folder both "logins.json" and "key3.db" to the current firepwd folder directory.

To find the 2 mentioned files easily, type in the url bar about:support, then look at Profile Directory and click on Open Containing Folder.

After the copy, do the following:

If you use a "master Firefox Password", replace "yourpassword" in the command below with your password.

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python2.7 firepwd.py -d ./ -p yourpassword | sed 's/\\x0[0-9]//g' > ff-passwords.txt

If you do not use a "master Firefox Password"

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python2.7 firepwd.py -d ./ | sed 's/\\x0[0-9]//g' > ff-passwords.txt

I found that this command produces a better more readible file.

Code: Select all

python2.7 firepwd.py -d ./ | sed 's/\\x0[0-9]//g' | sed -r -e "s|^ *https://([^:]+): '([^']+)' , '([^']+)'\$|\1,https://\1,\2,\3|" > ff-passwords2.txt

Hope this helps ...

[52ROSt]

@phd21

Thanks a lot for the very interesting information.
I made a note to visit your reply again when I hopefully have a bit more time in about a month time. I will then give feedback on my experience with the information you provided.

For you and all the other readers of this thread all the best for great 2018!

[phd21]

Hi "52ROSt",

You are welcome...