@dhostetter 

In FireFox, click on the menu bar TOOLS, then OPTIONS. On the tab that opens, click on Privacy and Security, and then LOGINS & PASSWORDS. Scroll the list for the website  and you'll see what FF has stored. In my case (I use ROBOFORM by the way which overrides FF's entries) I can see the same as you (it has an 'eye' to allow you to see it), a long bunch of letters and numbers (I didn't count them ). You CAN delete that and then you should be able to enter what you want again and save it. Give it a try.

@IrvSp 

I think their issue is with not knowing what the router password is so they can change it and wants to avoid a factory reset. Firefox has it stored correctly. They just can not see what is stored and what appears to be stored in Firefox is larger than the router's login screen allows.

I use Dashlane for my passwords and have used Lastpass in the past. I use Firefox and have an extension (add-on) called "show me the password" that I can see the password with a mouse over. I do not know if the extension would help them or not.

I would load a third party password manager that can import the user-ids and passwords from Firefox. Most do. Should be able to see the password in the third party manager. Then could switch back to using Firefox password manager. 

@ArcherC8 

Yes, and it seems that Firefox handles passwords 2 ways? Some of them are 'clear' text, others are encrypted (the string of numbers and letters, hex ones only, and are quite long). I think it has to do with the web page itself? For instance, my old Netgear router uses the IP Address and it is listed in plain text. The 2 TP-Link ones are not plain text.

I think I know the reason too. Netgear doesn't using your E-Mail address as TP-Link does when you use the TP-Link ID. Firefox doesn't even show the email address itself but just 'EMAIL'. Either the input has to be encrypted or it knows it needs that as the GUI does the encryption to send it out to cloud?

ArcherC8 wrote

@IrvSp 

 

I think their issue is with not knowing what the router password is so they can change it and wants to avoid a factory reset. Firefox has it stored correctly. They just can not see what is stored and what appears to be stored in Firefox is larger than the router's login screen allows.

I didn't think it was knowing the password and being able to change it (the log in one I assume) as the OP stated:

" In either case, while I can log into the router using Firefox's stored password, I can't change the admin password."

So I assumed once into the router GUI the PASSWORD used there could be changed. The problem was overriding the Firefox password?

Using the Firefox OPTION the OP could either change it there or just delete it and let Firefox save a new one?

I've found Firefox, although OPTIONS indicates its credential saving option has been surplanted by RoboForm in my case, still messes up some RoboForm password operations. In some places, like the TP-Link ID on my Archer A20, where I have to click the RoboForm entry a few times to make it work.

Hm.  I considered that Firefox isn't literally using a 256 byte password string, that it is an encrypted representation.  But usually the eye icon in a password box shows me the actual password, even when Firefox has saved it.  Firefox is managing passwords using FireFox Lockwise and when I get it to show me the password, it shows me the long string, not a sensible password. When I get Firefox to show me other passwords it has stored, it shows me sensible passwords that I recognize.

Usually I store my passwords in Keepass but like I said, when I switched back from Cloud managed somehow I let Firefox provide the password and now I don't know what it is, assuming it is not actually that long string.

I'll see if I can get email from the router working and try "forgot my password".  Otherwise I guess I could back up the config, default it, restore the config and see if that overwrites the new password I would select after defaulting.  Defaulting and setting up again from scratch isn't terrible either.

@IrvSp   That was the first thing I tried... it shows me the 256 byte string that it fills into the password box.  Editing that won't help if it doesn't match what the router password actually is.  That's the issue, Firefox picked a "secure password" for me, I believe, and the 256 byte string seems to be it.

" In either case, while I can log into the router using Firefox's stored password, I can't change the admin password."

What I mean is that, other than the long secure string Firefox is using, I don't know what the actual router password is.  I think Firefox chose it and as I have said, the only password Firefox shows me is the long secure string.

When I try to change the password I have to enter the "old" password. See above sentence... If somehow that long string IS the actual password, I can't enter that into the old password box, it doesn't accept that many characters and Firefox won't do it's magical pasting thing that it does (bypassing the character limit) on the actual login page.

@IrvSp Yes, that's the page.  I can't type or paste the Firefox "password" into "old password" field because it is too long.  My screen is slightly different than your screen and says "old password".  Can I paste screenshot?



AHH Look at that.  Now I can be much clearer.

My guess is that Firefox is encrypting some passwords but not others because I can get Firefox to show me plain text of some of my passwords but my current router password (this one) and a previously stored router password (old dead router) both look similar - long secure string.

If I can't find a way, in 10 minutes of googling, to decrypt this string, then I will set up email in the router and try the forgot password function.

leads to

Very long string, longer than it lets me type, if I try to manually enter.  But that is not accepted as password.

On the login page though, it is accepted.

leads to

again. a much longer string than you can actually key in, but that works for login.

Firefox stores it as...



A very long string.  But when I look at other Firefox stored passwords they are my actual passwords.

Like I said a few times, I think Firefox created for me a "securely generated password".


 

@dhostetter 

What happens when you use 'forgot password' on the first GUI page to login?