Why wont my computer remember any of my passwords anymore?
Asked by
deni (
23141
)
August 1st, 2009
this isnt a huge deal, but it annoys me especially when i login to my flickr since yahoo makes you type out the whole email address with the ”@yahoo.com” too. my computer used to remember every username and password, unless i didnt use them for a long time. but about a month ago, that just stopped. im really just curious why. curious and lazy.
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16 Answers
Which browser do you use?
Check the Remember Me box
Likely “cookies” have been turned off, or are corrupted. Give us browser details (internet explorer/firefox/safari/etc) so we can give instructions.
You must have cleared your cookies.
Could be a setting.
If you use Firefox, hit Alt-T (Tools), then O (Options), go to Security and make sure “Remember Passwords for sites” is checked.
If you use Internet Explorer, hit Alt-T, then O, go to Content and click on “Settings” under AutoComplete, make sure the Username/Password settings are enabled.
While I’m at it, I may as well cover as many bases as I can
In Chrome (Sorry, no keyboard shortcuts that I know), click on the wrench on the top right, and go to Options. In the Minor Tweaks tab, make sure “Offer to save passwords” is selected.
In Opera, hit Ctrl-F12, and go to the Wand tab. Make sure “Let the Wand remember passwords” option is selected.
Someones been eating your cookies!
I use Firefox. It’s the latest version, and I did what @Sarcasm said, and that box is checked. When I clear my data, I don’t clear cookies, so I’m still confused. I click “remember me” every time and it never does. Boo :(
When you clear data, make sure you also don’t clear Saved Passwords (2nd to last option on the Firefox data clearing tool).
Do you have this issue with any non-Yahoo websites? edit: I guess I should say, does this issue occur on most websites for you? I’m trying to figure out if it’s just the weird way Yahoo works.
@Sarcasm nope i just checked and that box isn’t checked either.
i guess i should have made clear that it is every website, yahoo included. this, facebook, gmail, yahoo, my schools website, youtube, BLAH.
It’s possible that your cookies file has become corrupt. Try this (assuming you’re using Vista). Close Firefox. Navigate to
C:\Users\<Windows login/user name>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\xxxxxxxx.default\
where xxxxxxxx is a string of random characters.
Since AppData is a hidden folder, you will need to change the setting to see it. In Vista click: Organize > Folder and Search Options > Folder Options > View and select Show hidden files and folders.
Rename cookies.sqlite to something else such as backup.sqlite. Open Firefox, save a password or two, close reopen and test.
it worked! thank you i love you
Honestly a better and more robust solution would be to get Keepass http://keepass.info/ then sign up at getdropbox.com… then save your encripted password vault on the getdropbox service… and no matter where you are in the world you have all of your passwords (and I have literally hundreds) available securely… and all you ever have to remember is the one main password to open your password database vault in Keepass.
Hope that helps…
@thrice2k3 You can also use Mozilla’s own Weave Firefox extension to synchronize the passwords. You can set a master password in Firefox so you only have to remember one main password (though I would recommend to also remember all other passwords, of course). Heck, I think you can even save your cookies with Weave so you don’t even have to login when you use Weave.
@Vincentt Thanks for the tip! I definitely like the Weave/Firefox solution… the only problem with being tied to Firefox… lets say I’m in France at local place where I don’t have my laptop and they aren’t running Firefox… only IE, or Chrome, or Opera… then I’m screwed no? I like the Keepass/Getdropbox solution because it crosses browsers and I don’t need my gear necessarily… I can borrow someone else’s and it’s still secure…
@Vincentt You can install Keepass, if you like, there is an installer… but if you just grab the zip file download and run it locally… or go the USB route like you were suggesting for FF portable. Personally I don’t like carrying the USB dongle… I tend to lose things =)... so I just go out to the site, download the 700k file and go from there…
If you just run it locally, there are no registry entries or ini files created. Just delete the zip file or the exe and it’s gone… http://keepass.info/features.html#lnkport
OR… you can even just keep a copy of the executable on getdropbox and no need to even go to the keepass site…
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