Feature Request: Auto-Type

SteveW928

Hello, I downloaded the demo, and was just about to 'pull the trigger' when I realized there was no auto-type feature for 1Password. (I was kind of wondering why all the browser plug-in stuff, etc.) Since I actually use my password management for EVERYTHING, it has to work beyond the browser (terminal windows, remote logins, etc.). It's simply a no-go without this, as awesome as 1Password seems to be in most other regards.

I'm considering switching from PasswordWallet, which has had this pretty much forever (and I've been using it from my Palm days). The problem has become that the 'sync' setup for PasswordWallet doesn't seem flexible enough to work personally, within the home, and between external business partners. 1Password now seems to have a GREAT setup for this via Dropbox.... but if I can't use it half the time, it is a major productivity hit.

I was almost about to do it anyway (and just put up with copy/paste), but after talking to a couple of my business partners, they said NO! There are places where copy/paste don't work, which is true. Anyway, we can't make a move until auto-type is working. So, then I started to search the forum here, and find stuff talking about this way back at the beginning of LAST YEAR... that you were thinking about it and it being available on Windows. PLEASE bring this to the Mac version as well.

It would be best if it were a true auto-type where the sequence can be programmed in, such as: field1 (tab key) field2 (tab key) etc...
This way it works where paste does not. Also, some flexibility in the 'URL' ability would be great so other apps could be called. For example, in PasswordWallet, I can fill in a URL, or pick an app via a Finder dialog, which PasswordWallet will then launch.

You guys have killer features and a really nice looking app... but you're being killed on basic functionality and workflow. If you get both in order, you'll be the only game in town.

Megan

Hi @SteveW928,

Thanks so much for providing the feedback here. Unfortunately, auto-type in Mac is not a feature we can implement at this point. We're able to do this in Windows because it is a built-in component of the operating system. We would love to be able to auto-type in Mac as well, but there is no architecture available to us.

However, 1Password does have a handy filling feature so you don't have to copy and paste all your information. Just use ⌘\ when you are on a Login page that you have a saved Login for, and 1Password will fill and submit your username and password. :)

peterpanm

Auto-Type is a feature you can implement. The architecture IS available.

Check out AppleScript. It's built into the OS and they're easy to generate and run. This can be executed from command line using 'osascript' with multiple -e statements (check out the man page)

tell application "iTerm"
  tell application "System Events" to tell process "iTerm" to keystroke "password"
end

from command line in iTerm:

% osascript -e 'tell application "iTerm"' -e 'tell application "System Events" to tell process "iTerm" to keystroke "automated password"' -e 'end'
% automated password

sjk

Thanks for the suggestion, @peterpanm.

There are security implications with implementing something like this although we haven't ruled out the possibility.

SteveW928

Hi Megan,
I'm not seeing how to use Command-\ to do what I'm needing. 1Password seems limited to browsers and a few customized apps. With auto-type, it works with ANYTHING! I guess what I'm not understanding is why you guys can't do it, if others are. As I mentioned, I've personally been using auto-type in PasswordWallet for well over a decade now... and it works just fine on Mavericks. I'm attracted to your sync implementation (as I'm needing work-group type implementation), but can't give up core functionality to get it.

Jasper

Hey @SteveW928,

Auto-fill (and the Command-\ keyboard shortcut) only work on websites in your browser with the 1Password extension installed. That's what Megan meant. You'll need to copy and paste your logins into other apps on your Mac.

And see sjk's post from above too:

There are security implications with implementing something like [auto-type] although we haven't ruled out the possibility.

SteveW928

Hi JasperP, Yes, I understand sjk's comment about security issues with the kind of method peterpanm indicated, and I suppose most kinds of auto-type methods would suffer from the same... though SO DO copy/paste manually or showing your password (rather than bullets) so you can manually enter it. All are vulnerable. So, it seems that unless they are ONLY going to support certain browsers and a few apps, some kind of compromise needs to be made. PasswordWallet auto-types, then clears the clipboards, from what I understand. That's plenty secure enough for me (include a disclaimer maybe so people know). Only supporting certain apps, at least for me, somewhat defeats the purpose of having a password manager. :(

I guess we'll just stick with PasswordWallet for now, as I've figured out how to do the sync pretty well (it's just more convoluted to setup, and can't have individual paths into a sync-destination... so I'd have to use WiFi or WebDav for home, if I want to use Dropbox to sync to a workgroup, as I can only point to one dropbox area).

jpgoldberg

You are absolutely correct that copy/paste has similar security issues as your AppleScript suggestion. I suspect that some of the confusion (on our part) is that the "Auto type" is a mechanism we use in 1Password for Windows, although it uses a different mechanism altogether.

You, of course, need to find what works best for you. We certainly don't have this "auto type" mechanism (yet), and you need to make your decisions based on what is available now. Particularly as the best I can offer you is "interesting idea, we will look into it." I wish you well with whatever you choose, and again, thank you for suggestion.

peterpanm

AppleScript is available now and it's far more secure than copy/paste. Also, why are we talking about "security" like we're talking about storing a billion dollars in milk crates, we're trying to send keystrokes to an application - that's inherently insecure. You do it on Windows and I guarantee it's not any more secure - it's not like you can send encrypted key strokes to an application that will auto magically know to decrypt 1pass input

SteveW928

jpgoldberg, no, the confusion wasn’t between the Windows and OSX versions, as I didn’t know there was any feature disparity until I looked into this. I just see auto-type as a core feature (which I was shocked was missing from an app I’ve heard so much good about!) and started searching the support forums. Yes, the absolutely means I need to stick with what I’ve got... and, incidentally, though all this research and struggling, figured out how to do what I needed with it. I was incorrect above when I said it couldn’t do multiple paths to Dropbox.

peterpanm, does Windows maybe have some encrypted path to ‘paste’ into any entry box? I don’t know, but I suppose it’s possible there is a more secure way on Windows. But, it’s all relative to security needs, and I’d be fine with a less-secure auto-type in trade for being able to use the app on more than just browser forms. For me, that’s a deal-killer as I work outside of the browser so much. I suppose that for most people, they only work within the browser 95% of the time.

Thanks for the discussion everyone. I’ll probably check back one day and see if this feature has been added and then maybe reevaluate.

jpgoldberg

the confusion wasn’t between the Windows and OSX versions, as I didn’t know there was any feature disparity until I looked into this.

I was talking about the confusion in our responses to this request. I got confused about the term.

peterpanm

@steveW928 no, windows doesn't have some cryptographic copy+paste. if it did it would be stupidly easy to break. OTOH, piping the password to the macscript crap is, when compared with the copy/paste problem, far more difficult to break.

more likely, they wrote 1pass in a way that they can't figure out where to put the code to pipe a password to the commands i pasted above

peterpanm

any news on this or is it just generally being ignored?

Ben

We don't have any definite plans in this regard at the moment (either to do or not to do), but it is certainly on the list of things to consider for the future. Currently our focus is on getting 1Password 4 for Windows and 1Password 4 for Android out the door. Once they are released and the dust settles from that we can take a more serious look at some of these outstanding feature requests and begin to prioritize.

One of our long term goals is certainly to have a more consistent feature set between the products.

Thanks!

Ben

peterpanm

Is this on the list yet?

sjk

Hi @peterpanm,

There's nothing new to report about this since Ben's reply, which mentions it already being on our consideration list. :)

ref: OPM-990

peterpanm

How about now?

Jasper

Hi @peterpanm,

There's nothing new to report about this since last week. But, like was said above, it's on our list to consider for the future. If/when we have anything to announce, we'll be sure to let everyone know! :)

peterpanm

How about now?

jpgoldberg

Sorry, still nothing to report at this time.

signe

The fact that this hasn't been made more of a priority is disappointing.

This is really the only thing that's giving me second thoughts about purchasing. I've been using KeePass on Windows and Kypass on iOS for a very long time, now... but there's really just no usable Mac version of KeePass. (Yes, Kypass Companion exists but, bluntly, it's a piece of crap.)

MikeT

Hi guys,

@signe‌: I've added your vote to our tracker, which already includes everybody in this thread along with dozens if not hundreds more from emails and social media. It's a big list we have in our tracker and we do want to try to implement this in the future for 1Password.

We have a long list of features we want to add 1Password in addition to improving the current important features like Watchtower. Auto-type is on that same list but there is no ETA or progress that we can share here, we have an explicit policy that we only reveal features after we test and verified it works.

We have tried this in the past, like the accessibility APIs, which is better than the actionscript but there were unexpected issues we ran into, along with sandboxing issues. After that, we had to divert resources to focus on things we can add to 1Password that works.

As we continue to work on support for the upcoming Yosemite and iOS 8 updates, we do plan to revisit our big list and add new features. Hopefully, we get to tackle Auto-type. I'm hoping the new extension APIs on Yosemite might make this more feasible for us to adopt quicker than the other APIs/Actionscript.

joshr7k

I would also like to see autotype available for the Mac client. And I'd also like to thank the agilebits team for your incredible patience and your willingness to engage with your users.