Note: This article deals with very old versions (3.5 and older) of Firefox. Please see See the article Password Exporter for Firefox 3.6 and newer.
It is possible to import your saved passwords from one profile to another. This is handy if you are running Firefox on another computer or if you have to create a fresh profile when upgrading (or downgrading) Firefox. To do this, you will need to know where your profile folder is located.
From Firefox 2 to Firefox 2:
- Close Firefox 2
- In the OLD profile folder locate and copy the files: signons2.txt and key3.db
- In the NEW profile folder replace (paste) the files from step 2.
- Start Firefox 2
From Firefox 2 to Firefox 3 (upgrade):
- Close Firefox 2
- In the Firefox 2 profile folder locate and copy the files: signons2.txt and key3.db
- In the Firefox 3 profile folder delete the file signons3.txt
- Replace (paste) with the files from step 2.
- Start Firefox 3. Note: Firefox 3will automatically change signons2.txt to signons3.txt
From Firefox 3 to Firefox 3:
- Close Firefox 3
- In the OLD profile folder locate and copy the files: signons3.txt and key3.db
- In the NEW profile folder replace (paste) with the files from step 2.
- Start Firefox 3
From a Firefox 3 to Firefox 2 (downgrade):
- Close Firefox3
- In the Firefox 3 profile folder locate and copy the files: signons3.txt and key3.db
- In the Firefox 2 profile folder delete the file: signons2.txt
- Replace (paste) with the files from step 2.
- Rename signons3.txt to signons2.txt
- Start Firefox 2.
From Firefox 2 to Firefox 3.5 (upgrade):
- Close Firefox 2
- In the Firefox 2 profile folder locate and copy the files: signons2.txt and key3.db
- In the Firefox 3.5 profile folder delete the files (note: not all files may be in the folder)
- signons2.txt
- signons3.txt
- keys3.db
- signons.sqlite
- Replace (paste) with the files from step 2.
- Start Firefox 3.5 Note: Firefox 3.5 will automatically generate a new signons.sqlite file
From Firefox 3 to Firefox 3.5 (upgrade):
- Close Firefox 3
- In the Firefox 3 profile folder locate and copy the files: signons3.txt and key3.db
- In the Firefox 3.5 profile folder delete the files (note: not all files may be in the folder)
- signons2.txt
- signons3.txt
- keys3.db
- signons.sqlite
- Replace (paste) with the files from step 2.
- Start Firefox 3.5 Note: Firefox 3.5 will automatically generate a new signons.sqlite file
Thank you Thank you Thank you 🙂 Just what I was desperately looking for.
Many thanks for your advices !
It helped me
after reading this i just copied my home one changed its name to my other computers profile name and now its got every thing i need
thanks tho never would of thought of it with out this
Thank you for the information. It was very helpful and worked perfectly. Greatly appreciated and have a great weekend.
How about importing Saved Passwords from Firefox 3 to Firefox 3.1 Beta 2?
I’m stuck! Please help me..
second that request, i’m stuck trying to figure out how to import my passwords onto firefos 3.1 beta 3
pls help
@Seda and/or desu
Where y’all getting stuck? As far as I can see Firefox 3.1/3.5 uses the same naming scheme as Firefox 3 so all you need to do is replace your existing keys3.db & signons3.txt files with those from the Firefox 3 profile.
I saved my signons.txt and key3.db over from a recently crashed computer in hopes of saving my saved passwords.
I have a few questions, as I’ve run into some difficulties. First off, my profile folder on my crashed PC contained “signons.txt” and “signons2.txt” as well as key3.db
My current version of firefox is 2.0. When I copy the files over, firefox only seems to pick up on “signons.txt” and not “signons2.txt” which contains most of my passwords (signones.txt only has about six saved in)
I’ve tried adding the info from “signons2.txt” into “signons.txt” but firefox only picks up some of the passwords and not all of them, and some of them seem to be mixed up.
Any way to remedy this?
Worth noting that this may work for FF versions up to 3.1, but not for 3.5. 3.5 does not store passwords in a *.txt file.
I’m trying to import passcodes from 2.0.0.11 (signon2.txt) into 3.5, but cant find where 3.5 saves them to. There is no signons3 anywhere on my computer.
@konfoozed, I’m going to be writing an update shortly but in the meantime follow these steps below:
From Firefox 2 to Firefox 3.5 (upgrade):
1. Close Firefox 2
2. In the Firefox 2 profile folder locate and copy the files: signons2.txt and key3.db
3. In the Firefox 3.5 profile folder delete/backup these files (note: you may not have all these files):
– signons2.txt
– signons3.txt
– keys3.db
– signons.sqlite
4. Replace (paste) with the files from step 2.
5. Start Firefox 3.5 Note: Firefox 3.5 will automatically rebuild a new password database file (signons.sqlite)
I have 3.5 and I accidently saved the wrong password on a website – and I can’t figure out how to erase it. There is no more “options” folder under the tools heading. Any ideas?
appreciated,
Kristina
try running in safe mode to see if options returns..
Excellent tip, worked perfectly migrating FF2 to FF3, thanks!
This worked great! Great resource!
Worked! 🙂
Thanks a ton!
Hrm, how about from 3.6 to 3.6?
You are amazing! Thanks so much!
Just copying singons.sqlite works, from any version to other version.
I went from ff3 to ff4 only with that file.
Greetings!
Good to know. This is one tweak I have yet to update on the Wiki.
Doesn’t appear to work with the newer Firefox versions.
Thank you very much! It worked fine for me going from Firefox 3.6.22 to 6.0.2. I copied both keys3.db and signons.sqlite .
Hello and whether going to move logins and passwords from Firefox Portable to Firefox 3
fantastic advice. I am sooooo pleased I found this post. Thanks a million 🙂