How to export Firefox passwords in Firefox 57+

The following guide provides instructions on how to export passwords in Firefox 57 or newer.

Mozilla released Firefox 57 Quantum in November 2017 and the release changed quite a few things in Firefox. We talked about the release in great length; on the downside, Mozilla removed classic add-on support from the browser, and on the upside, it made Firefox a lot faster and more secure.

Firefox users who try to export passwords stored in the browser may have noticed that it is not possible in Firefox 57 or newer. While you can list all passwords saved in Firefox just like before, you cannot export the passwords because there is no such option available.

Firefox is not the only browser that did not provide password exporting functionality. Google changed Chrome's password exporting functionality in the past year or so as well and it was for some time impossible to export Chrome passwords using the browser.

Why export passwords?

First question that needs to be answered: why would you want to export passwords? There are several answers to that.

1. You want to import the data into a program that does not support direct password imports from Firefox.
2. You want to save the data for safekeeping.

How to export Firefox passwords

You need to use third-party tools for that currently as there is no first-party option to export Firefox passwords if you run Firefox 57 or newer.

Tip: you can check the version of the browser by selecting Menu > Help > About Firefox.

Password Fox by Nirsoft (Windows)

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Password Fox is a portable software for Windows that lists all stored Firefox passwords on start. Note that it picks up the default profile only when you run it.

You need to use the "select folders" icon to change the profile path or run the program with the /profile <Folder> command line parameter. Note that you need to use /master <password> as well if you have set a master password for protection.

Select some or all items, and right-click on them afterward to save them to the local system. Password Fox supports saving the selection as plain text, tab or comma delimited files, XML files, HTML files, or KeePass CSV files.

Password Exporter (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X)

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Password Exporter is an open source program that is compatible with Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X operating systems. You can download a portable version from the project's GitHub website and run it on your system afterward. Note that it is quite large (likely because it is based on Electron)

Download and run the program to get started. It displays all detected Firefox profiles in a list and comes with an option to select a custom profile if a particular profile has not been detected.

You are asked to specify the master password if one is set, and select one of the available export file types. Password Exporter supports CSV and Json formats only.

Select Export passwords to start the export process. (thanks Into Windows for the find)

Tips

Here are some tips that you may find useful:

1. Some programs, password managers and browsers, support password imports from Firefox. If you use any of those, you can run the import directly and don't have to export the passwords first.
2. If you want to copy the passwords from one Firefox profile to another, open the Firefox profile and copy the files key4.db and logins.json. Paste the files into the other profile to use them there. Note that this overwrites existing password files so make sure they are empty or that you have a backup ready.
3. You can copy username and / or password in Firefox's own password manager. If you are interested in a single login only, you may use those to copy and paste them manually.