We are unable to decode the file storing your credentials. Need help?!

[Aisling Jameson]

I am using the firestorm viewer.  I was in the middle of logging off when my computer unexpectly shut down on me.  I reboot it and upon relogging into sl the following message appeared:

We are unable to decode the file storing your credentials.  At this point saving or deleting your credentials will earse all those previously stored.  This may happen when you change your network setup.  Restarting the viewer with the previous network configuration may help recovering your saved login credentials.

 

I have tried uninstalling the viewer and restarting.  I have tried to look for any extra hidden files (even though I can't seem to locate certain parts like c:\user\name\library ... or c:\user\name\appdata.    I also can't seem to find where the xml files are located as another post has stated to try to delete.  

Please if someone can help me or walk me through this I would greatly appreciate it.

 

 

Update: 7/7/13

I followed the link as provided and did a clean uninstall and deleted all hidden files.  It is no longer stating the previous error message but now will not allow me to login.  I have double checked my user name and password and it should work.  I have even tried logging into Smith, Hippo Hallow and Hatton but it still says that I cannot login due to wrong username/password or caps lock on.  

Additional help is needed.  Thank you!

 

Update part 2

I tried a new password and that still didn't help.  I found that previously (before the new install) I was able to log into SL with my first/last name and no space between them.  After the new install there has to be a space between first/last name.  Everything is in working order now.

 

 

[angelpatty]

On 4/13/2017 at 8:27 PM, Whirly Fizzle said:

This is unfortunately expected behaviour with the way login credentials are stored.
The login credentials are hashed using the machine ID. Larger Windows 10 updates often issue a new machine ID - hence the saved login credentials can't be decoded.

Thanks, Whirly!   I wondered if it was perversity, but actually it's a reasonable precaution to keep SL residents' login information private!  And your explanation makes it clear that Microsoft is (as I suspected) entirely responsible for this.  I just wish my banking information were this secure.

Edited April 30, 2017 by angelpatty

[angelpatty]

On 4/13/2017 at 10:08 PM, Lindal Kidd said:

I'm not sure what all the fuss is about.  I've gotten this message a time or two when I updated my Firestorm viewer (including with a clean install), and at least once when Windows 10 did updates.

Just manually type in your username and your password.  Problem solved.

The only time this might become a problem is if you forgot your password, and were relying on the "Remember my Password" option on the login screen.  This is very poor security practice, and you should not do it.

I have more than one alt.  In the interest of enhanced security, I use a different password on each.  Moreover, I just use one computer, my laptop, for Second Life.  But it's an inconvenience, not a tragedy.  One that I could easily avoid by purchasing a purse-size notebook and entering each password and username into it, perhaps in the Cyrillic alphabet so casual violations of my privacy are difficult.

Moreover, Whirly answered my question - this is a "feature", not a "bug" and its purpose is to bind easy access to our SL accounts to the specific computers we use to access Second Life, which works for me.  If I'd been aware that's how Firestorm worked, I wouldn't even have brought the question here.

[SpiritSparrow Skydancer]

On 4/13/2017 at 8:29 PM, LittleMe Jewell said:

Oh goody, something else to look forward to when I upgrade to Windows 10.  

 I am on a MAC and I constantly have this issue even when no OS upgrade is preformed.  It happened twice to me today.  

[garaouelle Giha]

u found noine of the advice had any relation tpo the issue.
whether updation or clean instal YOU STILL GET SAME ERROR!
 

how i solved it was this way:
originally my avatar/user name was garaouelle Giha, and i got the error when using this user namje.
as soon as i made the firt name, garaouelle, with first letter as upper-case to Garaouelle, then it now let's me in.

WHY COULDN'T SL HAVE USED A MORE RELEVANT AND INFORMATIVE ERROR MESSGE THAT HAD ANY BEARING UPON THE REALITY OF THE SIT6UATION.

i'm getting  very tired of SL now as i can run other open worlds on my android phone much better than SL has ever worked on a PC.

[Joceus]

Yes, confirming this worked for me .... and boy ... I am glad I write my credentials on paper sheet

Locate and delete the file called bin_conf.dat.

 

[Callum Meriman]

18 hours ago, HomerWilson said:

Linden Labs and Windows people need to have a sit down and talk about how to fix this issue. because some people do not save pass words with pen and paper, for fear of kids logging in on their account, or a spouse logging in to see who they been "cybering" with on sl.

This is not an issue or fault, it's by clear design. The passwords are encrypted with your network card's MAC address for safety. Why? To stop your spouse or anyone taking the file, installing it on their computer, and then logging in as you to see who you have been with.

If you don't want to write down your avatars on paper, then go to https://keep.google.com and create a note there. Write the password backwards if you like. Another solution is to use a password manager, like https://lastpass.com or any number of others - which is a good idea for all your passwords anyway.

[Chaz Longstaff]

I have two physical drives in my desktop. C and D, they are actually separate physical drives.  Windows and programmes are installed on C. D is for data.

Someone has suggested that if I installed Firestorm on drive D, the non-system disk, that this problem would go away. Any idea if this is so?

This constant loss of password is a real pain in the butt for me as I need many alts for my biz / work in SL.  I understand the reasoning from reading above but that doesn't mean I have to like it . I have a million other pieces of software I use on a daily basis, and this is the only one that loses all passwords when a Windows update occurs. Heck, my Chrome browser remembers and retains all my SL passwords for the secondlife.com site, which have even travelled with me cached in the browser to a new computer when I've upgraded to new computers.

Edited June 12, 2018 by Chaz Longstaff

[Callum Meriman]

4 hours ago, Chaz Longstaff said:

Someone has suggested that if I installed Firestorm on drive D, the non-system disk, that this problem would go away. Any idea if this is so?

Not really, it happens when a major part of your computer has changed.

This time around though it's that the last major update to Windows 10 did something that changed a critical value used in the encryption of the passwords. If I recall, the last major update before this one did it too.

[Kianta Silverfall]

On 4/14/2017 at 3:02 AM, angelpatty said:

My advice?  Strongly consider any other choice of an OS.

Well I have upgraded my system on MAC, same glitch, and with the last firestorm viewer :)

[Nalates Urriah]

On 3/3/2019 at 6:26 PM, Shudo said:

Sorry Lindal, it *is* the fault of the viewer. The viewer is written to encrypt the credentials with a transient configuration.

You have misunderstood the idea of security that Firestorm is using. The transient part is not Firestorm, it is Windows and Mac. The OS are designed to protect data and block some uncommon attack paths. One of those being people changing the OS to get a new password in. The encryption on Windows is tightly tied to the user and Windows and affects what FS does.

If the viewer, which is open source, were the only encryption protection and they kept all the plain text passwords in an encrypted file then it would be simple to use the code built into the viewer to crack the passwords.

So, for money-involved-password level security the responsibility for remembering passwords falls to you. 

Edited March 12, 2019 by Nalates Urriah

[Lindal Kidd]

9 hours ago, Shudo said:

Would you trust your front door key to a lump of putty?

The fault is the viewers for chosing a poor encryption key to store the list of account names.

I think you missed Nalates' point.  As I understand it, the "lost password" phenomenon is a direct result of using a MORE secure way to store your credentials.  I'd rather have to re-enter a password than find some hacker has cocked up my OS and substituted his own passwords for mine.

[LittleMe Jewell]

[NoahGoldFox]

This problem for me showed up right after i upgraded my PC majorly (new MB, cpu, gpu, ram) and updated it, and iv tried a clean reinstall and iv tested on an alternate PC on the same connection, so i know its not my network settings. I use firestorm so i tried installing the vanilla viewer and the problem still happened. Where can i download new certificates to see if that could fix it? 

[LittleMe Jewell]

5 hours ago, NoahGoldFox said:

This problem for me showed up right after i upgraded my PC majorly (new MB, cpu, gpu, ram) and updated it, and iv tried a clean reinstall and iv tested on an alternate PC on the same connection, so i know its not my network settings. I use firestorm so i tried installing the vanilla viewer and the problem still happened. Where can i download new certificates to see if that could fix it? 

This is expected behavior when a major system upgrade happens.  You do not need new certificates.  This info, from the first page, gives the solution:

 

And you WILL have to re-enter your username and password for login.

 

Edited January 7, 2020 by LittleMe Jewell

[NoahGoldFox]

But i tried that, it didnt work.

[LittleMe Jewell]

1 hour ago, NoahGoldFox said:

But i tried that, it didnt work.

Well, there are no certificates involved in the login process. 

Install the LL viewer so that you can get logged in and then start asking questions in the Firestorm Support group

[NoahGoldFox]

I remember my login and can get in, it just dosnt remember my details and its a pain having to type them every time i log in. I also installed the LL viewer and it has the same problem.

[Rolig Loon]

21 minutes ago, NoahGoldFox said:

I remember my login and can get in, it just dosnt remember my details

Which details, specifically?  If you simply want it to remember your login name and password so that they fill automatically when you start the viewer, just set the debug setting AutoLogin to TRUE (its default setting is FALSE).  You'll find debug settings in your Advanced menu.

[NoahGoldFox]

That dosnt really help because the error window comes up every time i start firestorm. Something is wrong so it just cant decode my login credentials

[Mollymews]

2 hours ago, NoahGoldFox said:

That dosnt really help because the error window comes up every time i start firestorm. Something is wrong so it just cant decode my login credentials

mostly probably the viewer finds an older (not updated) version of file bin_conf.dat on your computer

augmeta gave an answer on a fix for them in this thread back in 2015

2. Browse to C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Firestorm_x64\user_settings\

3. Delete bin_conf.dat (click yes for admin rights)

where YOURUSERNAME is your Windows 10 username and not your SL name

if do this and restart the viewer it should result in your having to enter name and password as for a new install.  After which it should use the new updated version of bin_conf.dat for subsequent logins

[NoahGoldFox]

I just updated my computer and it seems to have fixed it. I hope it stays fixed.

[Amandelina]

On 6/6/2018 at 3:25 PM, HomerWilson said:

deleting the log in credentials sees to it that if you do not have your passwords all written down in an "Avatar Bible" that kids do not use as a coloring book. you will lose Avatars. if you do not back up your information some how, have fun trying to recover your avatars..... Linden Labs and Windows people need to have a sit down and talk about how to fix this issue. because some people do not save pass words with pen and paper, for fear of kids logging in on their account, or a spouse logging in to see who they been "cybering" with on sl.

Homar Wilson

Avid SL Addict.

thinks about starting an SL anonymous Group

Thanks.  But all my passwords and names are in a little red book. lol So I know what the name is. But that doesn't help. And I know the password. But that doesn't help either. You gave me a good laugh tho. And luckily I don't have any of those problems. I feel sympathy for those who do.

[friscolives]

All I know is firestorm just randomly forgot all the stored info for my accounts, so frustrating! I didn't do a reinstall or anything, just logged in and it can't decode my stored credentials. No reason for this sort of thing, Its so hard to remember all these damn passwords! I have like 6 that change all the time at work, and emails, medical log ins, its insane! I just log in every day because my computer remembers this stuff, now suddenly firestorm has amnesia 😒 very frustrating.

 

[Rowan Amore]

5 minutes ago, friscolives said:

All I know is firestorm just randomly forgot all the stored info for my accounts, so frustrating! I didn't do a reinstall or anything, just logged in and it can't decode my stored credentials. No reason for this sort of thing, Its so hard to remember all these damn passwords! I have like 6 that change all the time at work, and emails, medical log ins, its insane! I just log in every day because my computer remembers this stuff, now suddenly firestorm has amnesia 😒 very frustrating.

 

I know the big win 10 update a few weeks back wiped all my stored info for logins on firestorm.

Oh and this thread is 7 years old.

Edited November 20, 2020 by RowanMinx

[LittleMe Jewell]

13 minutes ago, friscolives said:

All I know is firestorm just randomly forgot all the stored info for my accounts, so frustrating! 

 

Not Firestorm.  You can thank Windows Update for that.