Lost the Master Password for CSE... how do I start over?

🍱 Features & apps passwords
#1

First and foremost, I will admit that I screwed up, and I know all my passwords are gone, and I probably skimmed over the important warnings that would have saved me from this mess.

However, I do have a recent export of my passwords from LastPass (I was migrating after their announcement) that I can re-import, and start over , but I can’t figure out how to start over. I can’t get to the user settings, because it’s behind the Master password. I also don’t see any way of nuking it from the admin account (which is a separate NC account from the user account with the lost password). I did try disabling and deleting the passwords app from the NC server, and then re-installing and re-enabling (only to find the password screen still there, once I logged back in).

For those interested in how I got into this predicament (and would like a laugh at my expense):

I turned on the End to End Encryption, and had a lot of problems getting it to take a password (might help if the page listed the requirements, and yes, I had 12 characters). I finally gave up and let the browser extension generate a random one for me, and I used that . Smart fellow that I am, I made sure to save it in the Passwords vault, so I would have it. I did not realize that I would need this password to get back into the passwords app even from the web page.
Yes. I locked the combination in the safe.

I really like the app and the integration with multiple browsers and devices, and I would like to keep using it. I just can’t figure out how to get back to a place where I can start over.

#2

I read this an tought … but that can’t be, 12 characters is the only requirement … and then i checked it. You’re right. Not only does it not say anywhere what the requirement is, there is also an “length > 12” instead of “length >= 12” in the check for the save button. You need 13 characters.
I will fix that and add some more info.

To fix your issue we have 2 possible options: You can restore a server side backup in the app or an admin can use the occ command (via cli or occweb) passwords:user:delete to delete your data.

#3

Thank You!!!

I looked at the backups but assumed they would have been encrypted as well. I only lost a day’s worth of changes.

This is a great app!

#4

FWIW, my OS is TrueNAS (FreeBSD based) and the commands I had to use in the Jail shell were:

su -m www -c 'php /usr/local/www/nextcloud/occ passwords:backup:list'

To get the list of backup files. Then I had to find the one from yesterday and run this:

su -m www -c 'php /usr/local/www/nextcloud/occ passwords:backup:restore <BackupName>'

Where was the name of yesterday’s backup. Granted this means you have to have root access to the jail, and you can also use SSH rather than the web interface shell access, but these commands are simple enough to not need the extra effort of SSH.