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I never setup a master password, but it is turned on and I can't turn it off.

  • 6 replies
  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by cor-el

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In "Settings" the "Use Master Password" is checked. If I click it to turn it off, it asks me for my Master Password. Since I never had a master password, I don't know it. While using Firefox, the master password will pop up, and I have to click "Cancel". This is a real nuisance. I even tried uninstalling Firefox and reinstalling it, but the problem persists. I use Norton Identity Safe to manage my passwords and do not need the Master Password feature. Please help!

In "Settings" the "Use Master Password" is checked. If I click it to turn it off, it asks me for my Master Password. Since I never had a master password, I don't know it. While using Firefox, the master password will pop up, and I have to click "Cancel". This is a real nuisance. I even tried uninstalling Firefox and reinstalling it, but the problem persists. I use Norton Identity Safe to manage my passwords and do not need the Master Password feature. Please help!

All Replies (6)

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Reinstalling Firefox for such an issue won’t help, as this is a setting. Settings are stored in your profile, which is kept by default when uninstalling and will be reused.

Could you take a look at the Reset your Primary Password if you've forgotten it article and see if the reset step described there will help you out?

Do note that resetting your master password will remove all of your saved usernames and passwords, so be sure to have them stored or written down somewhere.

I’m not aware of this behavior caused by Norton Identity Safe.

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Others have also reported this same issue.


In the event that the passwords information is lost, you should record all information in a separate text file somewhere else on your hard drive, or written down. You can easily copy and paste if you need to do so. If you are concerned about someone else looking at that file, you can compress it using a password.

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I don't know if this will help,

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/passwordfox.html PasswordFox v1.58 - Extract the usernames/passwords stored in Firefox Copyright (c) 2008 - 2017 Nir Sofer

Note: Some anti-virus show false positive.

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Did you previously stored any passwords in the Firefox Password Manager that are now possibly lost?

If that is the case and you have logins.json that shows data if you check this file in an editor or in a Firefox tab and you have key3.db then try to remove key4.db. Otherwise you can remove logins.json and key3.db and key4.db to reset all passwords. Make sure that Firefox is closed when you make changes to files in the profile folder.

You can use the button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page.

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The OP in this thread had the same problem - never used a
Master Password  :

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1194774

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In some cases you may have to remove pkcs11.txt and secmode.db as well.