How do I export passwords from Firefox?

The Firefox Password Manager is a decent way of keeping your logins in one place, but, as we’ve recently seen, it’s no replacement for a fully-fledged, cross-platform password manager. Unfortunately, the browser doesn’t make it easy to transfer your passwords across – or so I thought. Here’s how to export Firefox passwords.

Export passwords from Firefox: the very easy technique

Originally, this article offered a choice of two, time-consuming ways of exporting Firefox logins – until reader Brian Orpin told us about an effective tool that gets the job done in under a minute.

First, download The FF Password Exporter software from GitHub, which is available for  Windows, macOS and Linux. Once you’ve installed the tool, the following pop-up will appear.

Simply select the Firefox profile you want to export from, enter your master password (if you have one), choose between a CSV or JSON export file format and click the big Export Passwords button. After that, it’s just a case of uploading the file to your chosen dedicated password manager.

Many thanks, Brian.

Export passwords from Firefox: the quick(ish) technique

Believe it or not, the second quickest way to export your Firefox passwords is to transfer your logins to Google Chrome and then download them as a CSV file.

First, you’ll need to download Google Chrome – if you haven’t already – and then close down all of your Firefox windows.

In Google Chrome, click on the menu button in the top-right of the window (three vertical dots) and select Bookmarks | Import Bookmarks and Settings. This will generate a simple pop-up with a drop-down menu, from which you should choose Mozilla Firefox.

By default, all of the boxes above will be checked, but you should untick all but the “Saved passwords” and click the blue Import button. If the import has been successful, you’ll see this pop-up…

Now that Google Chrome is flush with all of your logins, it’s time to download them as a CSV file. This means you can easily import them into a dedicated password manager.

Type chrome://flags into the Chrome address bar and hit Enter. In the “Search flags” box that appears, type “Password export”.

Instead of Default, change the drop-down menu to Enabled. Then click the Relaunch Now button that appears at the bottom of the window. Handily, your open tabs will also be restored.

Click the menu button in the top-right of the Chrome window again and select Settings. Scroll down and click Advanced. Underneath the “Passwords and forms” subheading, select “Manage passwords”.

Click on the three vertical dots roughly in line with the “Saved passwords” subheading in the page that appears (bottom-right in the image below).

Click on “Export passwords” and then again as you’re presented with a warning pop-up…

Select a destination for your password CSV file – and then upload/import it to your password manager of choice. Job done.

Export passwords from Firefox: the laborious technique if you only have a few

If you just have a few key passwords to transfer across, there is another way to export your Firefox passwords: copy your logins from the Saved Logins window and paste them into your new password manager.

First, you have to find where your Firefox passwords are actually stored. Fortunately, The Big Tech Question‘s co-editor Barry Collins has already written a guide to where passwords are stored in Firefox.

Create a new entry in your password manager of choice and then follow the instructions in Barry’s article to get to the Firefox Saved Logins window.

Right-click on the password you wish to transfer and select Copy Password.

Paste the password into the relevant field of the new entry in your password manager and fill out the other details (such as username). Here’s what that would look like in LastPass.

Repeat the process for every password saved in Firefox. That’s why this technique isn’t recommended for more than a few!

Once you’re done, you can permanently delete the passwords from Firefox by clicking the Remove All button in the Saved Logins window.

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