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fligtar edited this page Sep 13, 2010 · 2 revisions

Installation

For easiest installation, click Add to Firefox (or Download Now) from the Mozilla Add-ons listing page. A dialog will prompt you to install the add-on and will require a browser restart. After restarting Firefox, the add-on is installed.

Finding the Add-on

Please follow the instructions for the application you’re using.

Firefox 3+ and Thunderbird 3+

There are two ways to open the Password Exporter dialog:

  • Open the Firefox or Thunderbird Preferences/Options window, click on the Security tab, and click the Import/Export Passwords button.
  • Open the Add-on Manager by going to Tools → Add-ons. Locate Password Exporter in the Extensions tab and click Preferences.

SeaMonkey 2

  • Open the Add-on Manager by going to Tools → Add-ons Manager. Locate Password Exporter in the Extensions tab and click Preferences.

Legacy Versions (Firefox 1.5 & 2, Thunderbird 1.5 & 2)

In older versions of Firefox and Thunderbird, there are three ways to open the Password Exporter dialog:

  • Open the Firefox/Thunderbird Preferences/Options window, click on the Privacy tab, click on the Passwords sub-tab, and click the Import/Export Passwords button.
  • Open the Firefox/Thunderbird Preferences/Options window, click on the Privacy tab, click on the Passwords sub-tab, click on the View Saved Passwords button, and click on the Import/Export tab.
  • Open the Extension/Add-on Manager by going to Tools → Extensions or Add-ons. Locate Password Exporter in the Extensions tab and click Preferences.

Exporting Passwords

To export your saved passwords, just click the Export Passwords button and select where to save the file. You can rename the file and choose whether to export as an XML or CSV file. You can also choose whether to encrypt the usernames and passwords.

When the export is complete, an alert will appear. If there were any problems exporting, you will be given the option to see which entries had problems.

Be sure to store the file in a safe place, as even if it is encrypted, sensitive information can still be obtained from it. You may be able to read the files in another application, such a Microsoft Excel for CSV files.

Importing Passwords

To import an exported file, click Import Passwords and select the XML or CSV file. In Firefox 3, a progress bar will show the status of the import and allow you to cancel at any time. In other applications, you will get an alert when the import is complete. In Firefox 3, if there were any problems importing, a View Details link will appear to detail the problems encountered.

Disabled Login Hosts

The list of sites that never save your password can also be exported and imported. Just click Export Disabled Hosts to export this list to XML (no CSV support) and Import Disabled Hosts to import it again.

Import Compatibilities

All versions of Password Exporter are backwards-compatible, meaning that an exported file from Password Exporter 1.0 can be imported by Password Exporter 1.1. The reverse is not true, however. A version of Password Exporter cannot import from future versions that it did not know about when it was released.

Imports are cross-platform and cross-application, so an exported list from Firefox on Windows can be imported into Flock on Mac.

That’s all there is to know about importing and exporting passwords! If you have a question or run into some trouble, first check out the FAQ.