How to backup your passwords from Firefox and import them into a fresh copy, or LibreWolf, without Firefox Sync.

Mozilla implemented support for importing CSV-formatted password lists generated by Firefox or other Web browsers, but it’s hiding by default.

It’s fairly clear that Mozilla wants everyone to be pressured to create an account to use their Web browser. That way all of your browsing data is stored on a server you have no control over, and Mozilla may not either.

(We don’t know if they farm this out to Clown Computing partners like Microsoft or Amazon.)

To enable password import in Firefox or LibreWolf, type about:config into the address bar and hit enter, agree that you’ll be careful.

Search for this entry:

signon.management.page.fileImport.enabled

Double click to make it True.

Now you are able to import passwords in CSV format. You should be able to export passwords from another browser and into Firefox or LibreWolf (where there is no Firefox Sync, due to privacy reasons), without needing any pesky Sync servers.

Just remember that your passwords are in plain text form in the CSV file, so you probably want to delete that or put it in an encrypted archive and back it up somewhere and delete the plain text version as soon as you have it imported.

Edit: I goofed and listed the wrong pref in an earlier version. Thanks Grzegorz!