Keychain passwords do not work in Firefox

Some users have found that their internet passwords are not available in the keychain, which has caused a little confusion, especially since other applications seem to be storing passwords perfectly fine.

Per Apple Discussions poster MsMercury01:

"On my old computer my keychain would save all of my passwords from the internet so if there was one I couldn't remember I'd just click on the keychain icon and look it up. Well my keychain on the new iMac isn't saving any of the website passwords. Just the ones to my instant messengers. I don't know what is different about it now that it won't save those passwords."

The keychain has become a fairly standard password storage system that is accessed by many applications, including many Web browsers. However, it is not mandatory for developers to use the keychain for their applications, and many still choose to use their own password storage methods. This is especially true for applications that are cross-platform, in which it may be easier to develop and stick to one code base for all application versions. In the case of the user quoted above, the problem was that FireFox was the browser being used, and this application is one of those that uses a different password storage routine.

When migrating from old computers, Firefox users should be sure to copy the username and password file over to the new computer. The file is called signons.txt and is an encrypted jumble of text so passwords are not stored in the clear. This file is located in the user library under /username/Library/Application Support/Firefox/*.default/signons.txt (NOTE: The "*" indicates some unique identifier numbers). It is recommended to migrate the whole "Firefox" folder from the "Application Support" directory over to the new computer, but users can also grab just the signons file.

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