Lost all my passwords in mozilla, is there a way to retrieve them?

Question

While looking in my security window folder of passwords I somehow inadvertent did something to lose all my stored passwords -- is there a way to retrieve them

Answer 1

First of all backup your profile, just in case the information really is in there and in case you make mistakes, at least then things should not get worse than they are already.
Especially if this happened very recently then and it is worth trying using Windows OS and the option to retrieve previous files after right clicking them. The files are in the Firefox profile, and the easiest method of finding that is to navigate to the troubleshooting information page by keying in to the location bar ''about:support'' and using the open folder option on that page. Make sure you close firefox before messing with the profile and it is worth backing up files before and after you attempt to recover them.
See also
*[[Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles#w_locate-your-profile-folder#w_locate-your-profile-folder]]'''_locate-your-profile-folder'''
* [[Use the Troubleshooting Information page to help fix Firefox issues]]
* [[Profiles - Where Firefox stores your bookmarks, passwords and other user data#w_how-do-i-find-my-profile]]'''_how-do-i-find-my-profile'''
* http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/previous-versions-files-faq#1TC=windows-7
The files you need are the pair '''''key3.db ''''' & '''''signons.sqlite''''' copying the recovered files into the profile to overwrite the current file, or just recovering them in their correct location should restore the passwords.
Note there are methods of backing up passwords, and the new sync will also backup passwords, but not at the moment if you use a master password.
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Password_Manager#Backing_up_and_restoring_passwords
* [[How to update to the new Firefox Sync]]
*[[Why can't I sync my passwords?]]