My Opera forgets, doesn't remember

Opera/Linux

My browser doesn't "remember" when it should.

For example, it won't remember my login details for sites that I tell it to remember.

How do I fix this?

When you log in, the password toolbar will popup at the bottom of the window. Check the box to remember the details for that page.

If you mean the "save" for the Password Manager, then I see that pop up at the top of a page.

It doesn't remember my login info nor my save.

So if you go to www.somesite.com and click to save your username/password, next time you go to the same site you can't use the password manager icon or ctrl+enter to login?

Correct.

I just went to a site that I know I have not been to in a few weeks, but I know I have entered my ID and password recently. In other words, Opera _should_ have my login info ready.

I clicked on the login link and it opened the login gadget, for me to enter the info manually or whatever.

I clicked on the username box and pressed CTRL-Enter.

Nothing...

Mind you, I have never tried to do it this way before (never needed to...), so I presume that is the way it works.

If I manually enter the info and close the tab, later, I can just reload the page and I am logged in, but that is within the same browser session, not a fresh one.

Menu > Settings > Preferences > Forms > Password Manager. There is any entries for sites which you recently have saved password for?

There are some entries there and, if I select a site and try to enter it, the password works.

However, the list is limited and it should be much bigger.
It seems to not be accepting new additions to the list.

Try this: Close Opera, rename wand.dat to wand.old, (re)start Opera, Go to some sites on which you have to login, input your username and password and choose to save it.

See if Opera now remembers the login info.

Also, some sites rely on a cookie as well as the password entry box to complete a log-in. If you routinely clear out Opera's cookies, these sites will develop "amnesia" after a cookie clean-out - unless you take measures to preserve those sites' cookies. I log in to 3 financial and governmental sites that fall into this category.

OK, it seems Opera is logging me into the troublesome sites now.

What all did I lose in my old wand.dat file?


@blackbird71: I don't like deleting my cookies. I like my cookies, even the gooey chocolate chip ones.

It seems that the old wand.dat became corrupted somehow. Or maybe was set to read only.

Hmmm, it may not be auto logging me into all of the sites that I expect it to.
I'll have to check some more.


What info is held in wand.dat? The old wand.dat file also has read and write permission.

Originally posted by ddalleydotca:

Hmmm, it may not be auto logging me into all of the sites that I expect it to.

Opera does not automatic logs you into sites with the password manager, it's just for "remember" your login (username and password) information for a site.

When on a site that Wand (Password Manager) knows the login info, the username and password fields will be surrounded by a yellow line and you can use the key iocn or Ctrl+Enter to login.

Originally posted by ddalleydotca:

Hmmm, it may not be auto logging me into all of the sites that I expect it to.
I'll have to check some more. ...

Just to re-emphasize my earlier comments, some websites use cookies as part of their log-in process. Opera's forum site is one of them, in the sense that once I log in (using Wand), Opera's site sets a couple of cookies that save session information and preserve my log-in. That is, if I close Opera leaving those cookies in place and then later re-open Opera and browse to the Opera site, it will show me as "automatically" logged in (without having to go through any log-in process). If I instruct Opera to delete the Opera site cookies, I will have to log-in all over again using Wand. Subsequent log-in "preservation" is contained in the cookies (although preserved log-ins only seem to last for a week or two with Opera's sites, and I suspect the cookies expire and a re-log-in via Wand is then required). If you have Opera set to delete cookies upon exiting and don't take measures to preserve the Opera site cookies first, when you close Opera, you will immediately lose your "preserved" or "automatic" log-in. Opera's site is not the only site that operates this way... a number of other forums and a few financial and governmental sites operate this same way, though certainly not all log-in sites use cookies.

The key to making Opera preserve log-in cookies while still deleting other cookies upon exiting Opera is to make sure Opera only deletes new cookies after first having logged into (and having set any cookies for) all the sites you want to "automatically" log into in the future.

To do this, first turn on Opera and set Preferences > Cookies to uncheck the "Delete cookies upon exit" box > OK; then manually delete all cookies using Opera's cookie manager; then manually log into each website for which you want to "preserve" log-ins (and visit no other sites or pages); finally, exit Opera. Wait a moment for things to settle and turn Opera back on; set Preferences > Cookies to check the "Delete cookies upon exit" box > OK. From this point on, Opera will preserve log-in-related cookies from those sites with the already-stored cookies in Opera (since they've now become "old" cookies) and will delete cookies from any new sites thereafter upon exiting Opera.

I've found that manually deleting all the cookies in the first step to be useful since some sites set other cookies besides the log-in ones, and I like to dump those out (along with those from any new sites) upon exiting Opera. Once the cookies are entered into the cookie manager, it's hard to tell log-in cookies from any others set by the same site, so I find it better to dump everything initially and simply start out fresh with just log-ins to build up my store of cookies to be retained. To add new site log-ins later, I simply exit Opera (with "delete new cookies upon exit" enabled), turn Opera back on and disable cookie deletion upon exit, only log-in to the new site, then again exit Opera, and finally turn Opera on again and re-enable cookie deletion upon exit. The newly added cookie will now have become an "old" cookie and be retained.

Also, keep in mind that many/most sites will have some kind of expiry to the cookie/log-in process that will force you to periodically log back in manually from time to time, probably for security reasons.