Why so many unnecessary changes in 1password 8?

unhappychappy

As a long time user of 1password, previously using 1password 7, I have just upgraded to 1password 8. I have to say, I'm not impressed. My workflow with 1password has been abruptly disrupted! I have yet to fully explore every possible scenario but in the first 24 hours I have found these issues:

1. When browsing through entries in 1password, it used to be possible to double click an entry to "open and fill" whereas now it appears to just open the particular entry in a small window.

2. Previously, the tags visible would be dependant on the selected vault, whereas now all tags appear to be always visible no matter which vault is selected.

3. When selecting a vault, by default all categories is selected, whereas almost all the time it's Logins that I'm interested in. Switching the selection to Logins is temporary and is reset as soon as I leave the vault.

4. You can no longer scroll through logins in the currently selected vault or change the currently selected vault using 1password mini.

I've looked through the settings but I can't find any way to change these behaviours. So far I'm very disappointed that I have to change so much about the way I work with 1password to accommodate this new version. This version feels like a step backwards to me so far.

Am I missing something?

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1Password Version: 8.9.15
Extension Version: 2.6.0
OS Version: macOS 13.1
Browser:_ Safari

Netpog

@unhappychappy, I suggest that you've presented an assortment of the troublesome aspects of 1Password 8, and that they've distinct causes:
1. That's a UI change. Strikes me as a bad decision, one that was under-informed by user-testing. (Only experienced 1Pwd users would expect this features.) There's a workaround: click on the website in the right-side panel, but you and I have formed different habits!)
2. Sounds like a stone-cold bug. Unless it's the same cause that I suggest for #4, below.
3. (Wait, what? This was the behavior in 1Pwd 7? I missed it.)
4. Because 1Pwd was a major rewrite -- which is usually necessary at some point in the life rapidly-evolving product -- the team dropped some features, such as 1Password Mini. Some of those omissions strike me as ill-advised: either 1Pwd 8 shipped too soon or the team didn't do enough user studies.

Apropos my gripe in #4, this blog post is reassuring: https://blog.1password.com/better-more-useful-1password/

Curious what the team has to say.

unhappychappy

Thanks for your reply @Netpog.

I thought I found another missing feature 'Pin on screen' but it seems that is simply achieved by double clicking an item.

I have found another issue though - there are many more steps required to generate a password, it can't just be quickly done via 1password mini.

unhappychappy

I've dealt with issue number 2 (the tags visible) by creating a collection for each individual vault. It works but I don't see why it should have been necessary!

This also helps with issue #3 as now when you click a category (e.g Logins) it only includes logins from the selected vault (actually - collection).

andrew.l_1P

Hi @unhappychappy,

Thanks for surfacing these and sharing your updates. You're spot on that collections are the best way to "scope" what you see in the 1Password apps, such as tags and categories. While placing each vault in its own collection is one solution, I'd also encourage you to explore if it's applicable for you to group any of your vaults together. For example, I have a couple shared vaults with family members and when I want to view that data separate from my own, I switch to a collection that contains all those shared vaults.

You're also correct about "open in a new window" being the successor to the "pin to screen" function. There are a couple other ways to accomplish this:

• Right-click the item in the item list and select "Open item in new window"
• Use the command + O keyboard shortcut
• Click the 3 dots in the corner of the item details:

That said, I can see the benefit in bringing more customization to what action is taken when double clicking an item. I'll share this with our Product team for their consideration.

It sounds like you'd also like to see category selection persist when switching between vaults and/or collections so you can stick with Login items most of the time. I'd be interested in learning more about your use case here. If you use 1Password as a launcher for websites, I'd encourage you to try Quick Access if you haven't already: Get to know Quick Access

And last but not least, generating passwords! Within browsers, we recommend using the 1Password browser extensions as they'll offer inline password suggestions. You can also click the 1Password icon in your browser's toolbar to access a standalone generator:

Outside of browsers, you can find a similar password generator within the desktop app when creating a new item. Do you find yourself needing to generate passwords outside of these scenarios?

Let me know if you give these a try or have any questions and thanks for your insight. Thank you as well, @Netpog, always great to see blog posts being read and circulated. 😊

ref: PB-30933086

Netpog

I gotta confess that I'd not even been aware of Quick Access in 1Pwd 8. Now, I was aware of the mini app in 1Pwd 7, but I never found any use for it.

THIS by contrast, seems quite handy, because I do indeed use the app as a launcher. So thanks, @andrew.l_1P, for highlighting it!

(Of course, when Quick Access launches a website it uses the first website in the login item, just like "Open and Fill". This is a primary reason I eagerly await the reintroduction of website reordering into 1Pwd 8!)

PS re UI consistency:
Surely tag/category selection doesn't behave differently for vaults within categories/accounts than for single-vault categories within accounts? If so, I suggest that this difference wouldn't be obvious or expected by most of us.
_(If, as I suspect, I'm just failing to understand the conversation, please feel free to brush this comment aside or ignore it.) _

andrew.l_1P

I'm glad to hear that @Netpog, I'm a big fan of Quick Access! Once the muscle memory for the keyboard shortcut is established, I found I rarely needed to open the main app anymore.

Have we already recorded your feedback re: website reordering? Our latest update included field reordering, but testing locally I see that doesn't include websites. In the meantime, you could save the same credentials as a new login item to better utilize Quick Access, though keep in mind doing this would invoke Watchtower's reused password alert.

To clarify the tag/category point from earlier, the current behaviour is that switching from a collection/account to another one would remove any tag or category filter being applied. This is the same regardless of how many vaults are included.

As always, let me know if you have any questions. 😊

andrew.l_1P

Hi @AlexUK,

Thanks for your insight! In the realm of "not needing to open the main app" I can certainly see the benefit in being able to edit an item after opening it in a new window, I'll share this with our Product team.

I'm afraid I don't have any updates to share re: empty categories but if you're open to an alternative, resetting the app should clear these in the meantime: How to reset the 1Password app on a specific device

We'll keep working on rolling out improvements and fixes, let me know if you have any questions. 🙂

ref: PB-31019159
ref: dev/core/core#13984