Cannot log in to websites

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If you find that you cannot log in to a website that requires a username and password, follow the steps described in this article.

Table Of Contents

Enable cookies for the website

Make sure that cookies are enabled for the site in question:

3.5/3.6:
  1. At the top of the Firefox windowOn the menu bar, click on the ToolsFirefoxEdit menu, and select Options...Preferences....
  2. Select the Privacy panel.
  3. Set Firefox will: to Use custom settings for history.
  4. Make sure Accept cookies from sites is selected.
  5. Make sure Accept third party cookies is selected.
  6. Click Exceptions....
  7. Make sure the site you're trying to access isn't listed.
    • If it is listed, click on its entry, then click Remove Site.

3.0:
  1. At the top of the Firefox windowOn the menu bar, click on the ToolsFirefoxEdit menu, and select Options...Preferences....
  2. Click the Privacy icon.
  3. Make sure Accept cookies from sites is selected.
  4. Make sure Accept third party cookies is selected.
  5. Click Exceptions....
  6. Make sure the site you're trying to access isn't listed.
    • If it is listed, click on its entry, then click Remove Site.

If you changed any settings, try logging in to the site again.

3.5/3.6:

Clear history for that site

The cookies and temporary data already stored on your computer may be causing the problem. Delete them, then test for your problem:

  1. At the top of the Firefox windowOn the menu bar, click on the History menu and select Show All History to open the Library window.
  2. At the top right corner, type the name of the website you wish to forget in the Search History field, and press EnterReturn.
  3. In the resulting list, right-clickhold down the Ctrl key while you click on the site you wish to forget, and select Forget About This Site.

  4. Close the Library window.

3.0:

Clear cookies for that site

The cookies for the site with problems that are already stored on your computer may be causing the problem. Delete them and then test for your problem:

  1. At the top of the Firefox windowOn the menu bar, click on the ToolsFirefoxEdit menu, and select Options...Preferences....
  2. Select the Privacy panel.
  3. Click Show Cookies.... The Cookies window will appear.
  4. In the Search: field, type the name of the site whose cookies you want to remove. The cookies that match your search will be displayed.
  5. Select the cookie(s) in the list to remove and click Remove Cookie.
    • Pressing CtrlCmd+A will select all the cookies in the list.
  6. Click Close to close the Cookies window.
  7. Click OK to close the Options windowClick Close to close the Preferences windowClose the Preferences window

Clear all cookies and the cache

If deleting cookies for the site with the problem did not fix the error, clear all the cookies stored on your computer and clear the Firefox cache:

3.5/3.6:
  1. On the menu bar, click Tools, then select Clear Recent History....
  2. In the Time Range to clear: dropdown, select Everything.
  3. Click the arrow next to Details to display the list of items that can be cleared.

  4. Select both Cookies and Cache.
  5. Click Clear Now.

3.0:
  1. On the menu bar, click Tools, then select Clear Private Data....
  2. Select both Cookies and Cache.

  3. Click Clear Private Data Now.

Check Extensions and Plugins

Some extensions can cause problems with logging in to websites, especially extensions associated with certain websites. For example:

  • If you cannot log in to Yahoo! and you use a Yahoo! Toolbar extension, try disabling it using the instructions in the Troubleshooting extensions and themes article, restarting Firefox and then following the steps above to clear cookies and cache again.
  • If you cannot log in to Gmail and you use a Google extension, try disabling it and then following the above steps to clear cookies and cache before trying to log in again.
  • Other extensions may also cause login problems. To determine if they are the cause, see: Troubleshooting extensions and themes.

Some plugins can also cause problems logging in to websites. See the Troubleshooting plugins article for instructions on how to determine whether a plugin is causing your problem.

Windows:

Security application is blocking cookies

Some Internet security and privacy applications have features that block cookies.

ZoneAlarm

The ZoneAlarm user guide contains information on allowing cookies.

CA Personal Firewall

CA Knowledge Document 2637 contains information on allowing cookies.

Remove corrupt cookies file

If you cannot log in to websites after removing the cookies associated with it, clearing your Firefox cache, and trying with your extensions and plugins disabled, and have checked security software, you may have a corrupt cookies file in your Firefox profile folder.

This will remove all your stored cookies and essentially log you out of all saved sessions on all websites.
  1. From the menu at the top of the Firefox windowbar, select FileFirefox and then select the ExitQuit FirefoxQuit menu item.
  2. Go to your Firefox profile folder.
  3. Delete the cookies.sqlite file and any cookies.sqlite-journal files.
  4. Restart Firefox.




Includes information from Websites report cookies are disabled (mozillaZine KB)


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Page last modified on Wednesday 16 of September, 2009 04:23:15 PST.
Contributors to this page: cor-el , Chris_Ilias , Cww and Bo .
- This is a support/troubleshooting article -