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fligtar edited this page Sep 13, 2010 · 3 revisions

Why were some of my passwords not imported?

The most common reason passwords cannot be imported is that they already exist in the Password Manager. If Password Manager detects a duplicate, it will not allow the additional login to be added. What is considered a “duplicate” varies between Firefox 2 and 3.

Why were none of my passwords exported or imported?

If you are using a supported application and none of your passwords were exported or imported, please file a new issue and be as detailed as possible in your report. It would also help if you could visit chrome://passwordexporter/content/debug.xul in your browser (copy and paste that URL into the location bar) and click Diagnostics. Copy the text that it generates and include it in your issue report. It does not contain any sensitive information, and please make sure that you do not include any sensitive information such as usernames or passwords in your issue.

What is this additional information with each password entry?

In most applications (not Thunderbird), Password Manager stores more than just the host, username, and password that you normally see.

  • httpRealm – This is the descriptive text that is shown in the protocol login prompt. Before Firefox 3, this was stored as part of the hostname in parantheses. In Firefox 3, httpRealm is stored in its own field and is no longer in the hostname. If a site changes its httpRealm, you will have to save a new login for it, as httpRealm is a unique characteristic.
  • formSubmitURL – This was added after Firefox 2 was released because of security concerns. This stores the URL that a saved form login is sent to. While later versions of Firefox 2 save this URL, extensions are not able to access it or set it and cannot export it properly.

This isn’t a problem however, as a blank formSubmitURL serves as a wildcard. In Firefox 3, this field is treated as other fields and can be exported and imported properly.

  • userFieldName or usernameField – This is the name of the text field that you enter your username into for a particular entry.
  • passFieldName or passwordField – This is the name of the password field that you enter your password into for a particular entry.

Why was Firefox 1.5 support removed? (January 2008)

In the rewrite of Password Exporter for Firefox 3, new JavaScript functions were used that are not available in Firefox 1.5. Password Exporter 1.0.6 is the last version that supports Firefox 1.5 and can be used to export passwords and then import with any version of Password Exporter 1.0.6 or greater. It is not possible, however, to import a file that was exported with a later version than 1.0.6 into Firefox 1.5. And if you didn’t know, you should strongly consider upgrading to an officially supported version of Firefox.

Why was Firefox 2 and Thunderbird 2 support removed? (August 2010)

The Password Manager architecture was revamped in Firefox 3 and Thunderbird 3, which made supporting both architectures and user interfaces difficult. Password Exporter 1.2 is the last version that supports Firefox 2 and Thunderbird 2, and can be used to export passwords and then import with any version of Password Exporter 1.2 or greater. And if you didn’t know, you should strongly consider upgrading to an officially supported version of Firefox and Thunderbird.