Along with Chrome and Microsoft Edge, Firefox is one of the big three browsers and one of the easiest to customize. This includes a wide range of quality of life tools and security features – including one of the most convenient password managers around.
We’ll show you how to delete your saved passwords in Mozilla Firefox, down to the very last website. That way, you can wipe the slate clean as well as ensure that cybercriminals won’t find it too easy to steal your accounts.
But before we get into our step by step guide, you might you might want to learn why knowing how to delete saved passwords on Firefox matters. Actually, it’s a great question – with answers that every Firefox user should consider.
Why delete your saved Firefox passwords
Most browsers regularly save passwords for many online services, from news feeds and apparel shops to chat rooms and social media networks. Most of the time, it’s a really useful feature that allows Firefox users to access websites instantly, without having to laboriously enter their passwords each time.
However, this can also be a major security problem. There are several reasons for this. First off, if your device is stolen, the passwords stored by Firefox can become a huge liability. They are not encrypted or protected in any way, which allows thieves to access whatever saved accounts you use.
Some sites, however, are not included in browser caches. For instance, online banking credentials aren’t stored. But the details that are stored can still help cybercriminals access your banking account. Most of the time, our passwords vary very little – and other accounts include plenty of valuable personal data. This data can be used to steal our identities or mount social engineering attacks.
Moreover, if you want to sell your computer without wiping the hard disk, it may be a good idea to make Firefox delete saved passwords. That way, the next user won’t be tempted to take advantage of them.
Finally, it’s just not necessary for Firefox to store your saved passwords. Instead, you can use password managers to store unique encrypted passwords securely, and link them to your browser, which is a much safer solution.
With that in mind, let’s move over to the main question here: how to delete saved passwords on Firefox.
How to delete saved passwords on Firefox: a step-by-step guide
If you want to erase your passwords completely, you’ll need to follow a few steps. Here’s how it’s done:
First, you’ll need to prepare to delete your saved Firefox passwords. There’s always a risk that you’ll reconsider when deleting this kind of data. This means that if you have any doubts, make put your passwords on paper. Or write them in a .doc file and turn it into an encoded .zip file. That way, they’ll be available for you to use in the future, but inaccessible to malicious outsiders.
Deleting your Firefox passwords
1. First, launch your Firefox browser.
2. Next, head to the Menu button in the top right-hand corner, and choose Options.
3. Choose Privacy and Security from the next menu.
4. Now, go to Saved Logins. If you want to delete all of your Firefox passwords, you’ll need to pick the Remove All option on the Saved Logins tab.
5. If you want to remove passwords one by one, just choose the login you want to remove, then press the Remove button. You can also use the Show Password button to remind yourself of your passwords before you delete them.
6. Press Close, and you’re all done.
If you’re simply changing your browsing habits and don’t want Firefox to save more passwords in the future, return to the Logins & Passwords section of the Preferences menu.
You’ll see a toggle marked Remember logins for sites. Simply untick the box, and you won’t need to worry about how to delete saved passwords from Firefox ever again.
Can I recover my stored passwords if I reconsider?
Sometimes, we all make mistakes. So, if you’ve deleted all your passwords from Firefox, is there a way back?
In theory, you’d hope it would be very difficult. If you could simply reinstate deleted passwords, it would definitely make life easier for criminals who steal laptops.
And that seems to be the case. Older versions of Firefox made it much easier to recover passwords, but since 2015 that hasn’t been the case. So it’s safe to assume that your deletions are permanent – which is just the way it should be, and why backing up passwords is a sensible option.
Are there alternatives to deleting my Firefox passwords?
In many cases, you wouldn’t want to delete all of their passwords. That’s understandable. Especially if you use many different retailers and have accounts on every social media network.
If that sounds like you, there’s an alternative. Firefox allows you to set a “Master Password” which grants access to the Password Manager. This should place an impenetrable barrier between your passwords and thieves should disaster strike.
To set a master password, head to the Preferences menu we directed you to earlier. Now, instead of choosing Saved Logins, flag the box next to Use a master password.
Enter a strong password (Firefox will give you some guidance about how you’re doing), and then press OK.
