No autofill for app authentication

rzla

I'm still utterly flummoxed by how 1Password is supposed to work, at least on my iPhone. I open an app on my iPhone, see a login screen, and expect 1Password to autofill the login and password. (I checked my vault, and I see the app name as one of the entries in my vault, with an associated username and password). Is there some distinction between the way 1Password handles an app login as opposed to a website login? For companies that provide their own app as well as a website login, the two are nearly always identical. Under the 1Password Settings, I see an item labelled "Password AutoFill", but that seems to relate only to one-time passwords. If you need the names of specific apps, I can provide them.

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1Password Version: 7.4.7
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: 13.3.1
Sync Type: Not Provided

ag_ana

Hi @rzla!

AutoFill is exactly what you need to use in order to fill your login information inside apps on your iOS device. I think this tutorial will be useful for you:

Use 1Password to fill and save on your iPhone and iPad

rzla

I already had "Settings --> Passwords & Accounts --> AutoFill Passwords" enabled, and under "Allow Filling From", 1Password is checked (and iCloud Keychain is not). So that's not the issue.

I did try an experiment and removed the vault entry for an app which is giving me authentication problems (one among several). I clicked the "Forgot My Password" link on the app sign-in screen, created a new password, and then signed in successfully. The odd thing is that there was no message from 1Password (which was still running) about creating a new vault entry, and when I checked my Personal vault (the only one I have), sure enough there was no new entry created. If you have any other ideas, feel free to pass them along.

Ben

Hi @rzla

To clarify: 1Password never automatically fills your credentials on any platform. It only fills when instructed to do so. Have you opened the autofill interface from the top of the keyboard and tapped on the Login item that you want filled? For example you can see in this screenshot autofill offering a Login item from 1Password:

You would have to tap on the password field then on that item for it to be filled. Are you seeing items being suggested, or the word "Passwords" at the top of your keyboard after tapping into password fields in apps? Please let me know.

There are a few caveats to be aware of:

• Not all apps are compatible with autofill. Basic support pretty much comes out of the box but tighter integration requires developers update their apps. Some developers are slow at updating.
• Not all apps and their corresponding website share the same associated domain (AMC Theaters is a good example of this)
• On iOS we are unable to detect when you do things like fill in login forms or change your password, so 1Password will never prompt you to save changes as a result of these actions. Instead if you need to do one of these things we're recommend starting the process from the autofill interface.

Ben

rzla

I appreciate the efforts to assist, but things are still not working.

Being unable to detect filled login forms or password changes on iOS seems like a huge limitation. I guess if iOS doesn't allow it, it is what it is, but then how do I get a new entry for the app into my vault? I even tried manually creating a vault entry using 1Password running on a Mac desktop (I couldn't figure out how to do this under iOS), but when I return to the iPhone app, it doesn't present me with the autofill interface you showed in your reply.

I'm not sure how 1Password makes the association between a vault entry and an app, but at least for my manually created entry, it's not working (that's why I figured it would be better to allow 1Password to create it).

So before I can try the autofill method you suggested, I need to figure out how to get a working vault entry for the app in place. And FWIW I already tried deleting and re-installing the app. Thanks ...

Ben

I guess if iOS doesn't allow it, it is what it is

Exactly. Maybe that'll come in a future iteration of autofill...

but then how do I get a new entry for the app into my vault?

That is covered in the "fill and save passwords" section of the guide:
https://support.1password.com/ios-autofill/#fill-and-save-passwords

I'm not sure how 1Password makes the association between a vault entry and an app, but at least for my manually created entry, it's not working (that's why I figured it would be better to allow 1Password to create it).

It would indeed be better to allow 1Password to create it, as then we can capture the appropriate Associated Domain. You would have to know what that is in order to save a login for an app manually. Many use the same as their website... e.g. chase.com works for the Chase app. But that isn't universally true.

So before I can try the autofill method you suggested, I need to figure out how to get a working vault entry for the app in place. And FWIW I already tried deleting and re-installing the app. Thanks ...

What app is it that you're struggling with?

Ben

rzla

Apologies for the late reply. Not sure if I didn't receive an email notifying me of your reply from last week, or I accidentally deleted it.

The app is "Noah's Bagels" and it was downloaded from the App Store. (It's a California bagels-and-coffee chain).

I managed to get 1Password to create a vault entry which allows me to log in via their website (https://rewards.noahs.com/login) on my iPhone. However, when I open their app and position the cursor in the username or password field, I never see my username above a keyboard, nor do I see the key icon with "Passwords" next to it - 1Password doesn't intervene at all. But if I manually enter the same username and password I use to log in to the web site, I can log in to the app successfully (and 1Password doesn't ask to save my credentials). You might ask why I just don't use their website, but to actually place an order, you need to use their app.

I would have guessed that apps from the App Store meet certain standards with respect to how they handle authentication, but that doesn't appear to be the case. Anyway, if you have any ideas, feel free to pass them along, and thanks.

Ben

@rzla

I downloaded the Noah's Bagels app to test this out, and it appears they either:

1. Haven't updated the app to support autofill or
2. Have updated it, and it is designed explicitly to disallow autofill

On the one hand, with situation #1, we would normally expect to see the autofill interface pop up on top of the keyboard when tapping into the password field, but this doesn't happen, suggesting this may be situation #2. On the other hand, it seems odd that a bagel company would do work to intentionally disallow a security feature within their app. Either way, this is something the Noah's Bagel app developers would need to address.

I'm sorry for the inconvenience.

Ben

rzla

Okay - I'll reach out to the company via their "Contact Us" link, and let them know. I'll just use a relatively simple (but not too simple) password for the app for now. Many thanks for your assistance in working through this issue with me.

Ben

You're welcome. :) An alternative to using a simple password would be to copy & paste from 1Password.

Ben