Lost passwords after Windows update

[Alan Medic]

Seems this is a thing. I did an update as was suggested (Windows 7,) and all my saved passwords are gone (Microsoft Edge).

Any suggestions please that aren't too difficult to implement? I was wondering if a system restore might be the way to go. Very annoying as I don't bank on having to remember passwords.

[TheCat]

I had something simialr happen a few months back, and unfrot ended up having to hit a lot of 'forgot your password?' Links over the following few weeks!.....be interested if there is a secret cache somewhere where they could be recovered...

[Sephiroth]

I think in this instance, you are going to have to start from scratch

Rather than using a specific Browser to remember your passwords in future it might be worth looking at some of the 3rdparty cloud based options like 1Password or mSecure - which means you can access them on any other pc/device as well

[Spartacus]

Did you not utilise the time honoured security feature of writing them on a piece of paper and leaving it under the keyboard?

Sadly, if you did leave them in your browsers cache, the only option is to do the whole "forgotten password" route

[ianr]

Some suggestions here that it may be due to unwanted interactions with other software, and two reports, from Atif on p.1, and someone responding to him on p.2, on resolving it via a tinker with Avast: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftedge/forum/all/passwords-disappeared-after-microsoft-edge-update/0c48a4fa-ddcf-4b7e-b7c2-2a67f28366b2?page=1

You could also try this simple password-viewing stratagem - though I don't know if it's available under W7 - on the slight offchance that there are multiple routes to, or locations of, the passwords. https://www.howtogeek.com/678483/how-to-view-a-saved-password-in-microsoft-edge/.

[Alan Medic]

Weird. This morning they are all there again. Anyway know why that might have happened?

[ianr]

Possibly a software update that's been made in the background. Or perhaps you'd been using an account that wasn't the one the passwords were encrypted and stored under. Or ...

[Alan Medic]

It's possibly your first 'Or' as I was asked for my PC login password the first time I used something which required its own password. But I had never knowingly logged out. Perhaps I unknowingly logged out? I may never know.

[diable rouge]

I recently had a Windows 10 update, just went to a webpage that I know I hadn't signed out of, and it asked me to sign back in with the password. I also got the cookie settings blurb about what I consented to, something I'd done previously...