Why is there not an email field for login items?

deathwishdave

When signing up for this forum, 1password sprang to life and recorded my new registration details, however it did not save the password I added. I am really confused as every "login" I have come across requires an email associated with the account, and many have both an email and a username, but 1password does not store this by default.

I find it a bit confusing that the "username" field is used for email addresses, unless the site supports usernames, in which case the "username" field stores an actual username, and a custom email field must be created to store the email address.

It's inconsistent, isn't it?

sjk

Hi @deathwishdave,

I'm sorry about the confusion with 1Password and the forum registration. Have you been able to get a working Login item to use with the forum?

Both the username and email address entered during forum registration are saved as web form fields, which can be displayed by clicking Show web form details in item details, e.g.:

The head silhouette icon next to the Email field associates that field with the main username field. Selecting that icon for the_Name_ field now associates that field with the main username field, e.g.:

In cases like this, where separate username and email address fields are available during registration, 1Password may associate the email address with the username by default. Forums are still a good example of the type of site where it's possible to have a username that isn't an email address, which I personally prefer.

Using a custom field for an email address in the main details is the suggested place for it if you don't want to rely on it being in a web form field and possibly overwritten by changing the main username field. I'm filing a bug report about this unintentional loss of the only copy of an email address in an item, which may be required for password recovery and other purposes,

One possibility would be a builtin email field in the main section of Login item details, added automatically when possible and if it differs from the username, that's not associated with any web form field (by default, if at all). More like a website than username field. Do you think that would be less confusing and inconsistent?

Sites are getting increasingly "creative" about what types of login credentials are required. 1Password is evolving and improving to handle that.

deathwishdave

Thanks for the reply sjk, you have understood my problem, and provided me with some workarounds. I think your suggestion about a built in email field is a step in the right direction.

Would it not be possible to have both username and email fields, if a username exists, then it is used for authentication, if not, the email is used. When auto creating 1password entries, detect whether we are dealing with a username or email by way of a regular expression, and populate the necessary fields accordingly.

I guess my problem with the way it currently works is that I will end up with email addresses under both username fields and email fields. 1password is essentially a database, and this kind of storage is a violation of the third normal form of database normalisation.

deathwishdave

Further to the above, I just logged into my Pinterest account, and 1password popped up to store my login details. Pinterest has both a username and password, however, only the email address can be used to login. I therefore end up with the following:

Note the two username entries, how would others handle this?

dteare

Thanks for the additional report @deathwishdave‌. Just to be clear, which URL did you use to signup to Pinterest? I ask because I was unable to recreate this issue so I'm wondering if perhaps I'm at a different registration page. Was this the URL you were at?

https://www.pinterest.com/join/register/email/

Cheers!

deathwishdave

Used the UrL: https://gb.pinterest.com/join/register/email/

But the issue is pinterest accounts have both an username and email associated with them, however the email is used to authenticate. If I want to record both email and username in 1password, and have it auto login, the only way to store this information is with two "username" fields as shown above.

sjk

Hi @deathwishdave,

The Pinterest sign up page only has an Email Address field and its value is what 1Password uses for the main section username field and associated web form email field when creating a new Login item. In cases like this it would be more accurate if the former could be (re)labeled as email and a custom username-labeled field wouldn't look redundant. Adding a new email field in this section is another possibility.

Currently the main section of a Login item is limited to the two username and password fields (with fixed labels) that can each be associated with a web form field, plus the website field(s). Any custom fields in other sections have no association with web form fields. All those fields are optional; an "empty" Login item can be created:

That's how it is at the moment. :)

Speaking of Pinterest, 1Password won't fill the Email field on the pinterest.com/login page using the email web form field created on the sign up page. Changing its label to username_or_email is a workaround (ironic, since it only accepts an email address). Or manually saving a new Login with the correct credentials. We are improving 1Password's field handling on separate or combined registration and login pages.