connection error when trying to connect postgres database to vscode

Question

I have an issue when I try to establish a connection with my Heroku database through the PostgreSQL extension in VScode. I type in all the credentials information and get an error saying "Input is not valid base64-encoded data."

Historically it worked like a charm. Seemingly out of nowhere (where nothing comes from, but I really can't establish any change in my setup) all my connections were gone from VScode and I cannot reestablish them. I uninstalled and reinstalled the plugin without any luck. I can connect to the database from my command line sooo - does anyone know what's up and down here?

Also I'm not a technical expert so pls bear with me.

and by the way, there seems to be too large postgresql extensions for vscode, I can get through with the Microsoft one, but I can only save results as excel though it does promiss me json. Solving that little issue would also work for me :-/

Thank you /Kira