thunderbird has issue getting "master password".
Ok, I was used to 1password3 on my mac/10.5. Now I upgraded to 1password5 on my mac/10.10.
Thunderbird has an issue now. When I enter the pop or smtp server authentication, it's accepts it, but tries to save it in the keychain (my guess). After accepting the password for email, it prompts for the master server password (something I never had to do in 1password3) and my login admin password or the 1password master password is not accepted. email works, but if restart Thunderbird, the passwords are not persistent and I have to enter them again.
since the last thing I remember is that my version of 1password3 "took over" the keychain within leopard, this must be something 1password5 is doing. I can invoke keychain access utility and see some passwords for a few applications.
What is the keychain master password now that 1password has taken over? Is there some place I can view it after I enter the master password for 1password?
Upgrading from leopard to yosemite is a bit confusing. My other issue is getting rid of the prompt that says I need the latest version of Java which in fact is ALREADY installed. Time to call applecare on that one.
Comments
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Hi @ddokoto,
It sounds like your keychain is indeed somewhat messed up but I'm not entirely sure how. I was a user of 1Password 3, 4 and 5 and it has never taken over my keychain. In fact 1Password 4 and 5 don't touch the OS X keychain at all. 1Password 3 offered the possibility of saving your Master Password in your login keychain but how it did that was no different from how any application stores passwords in the keychain.
Of course this doesn't help with whatever is causing problems on your system at the moment.
There is one suggestion that might be worth trying. One of our team had some problems recently where different items were using different passwords. We're not sure how it got to be in that state but they were looking for a way to reset everything to the same single password. I've asked and this is what is suggested. If we're lucky it helps you too.
- Open the Keychain Access application that you can find in
/Applications/Utilities/ - Click on the unlocked padlock in the top left hand corner. This will lock your login keychain.
- Click again to unlock. It will ask you for your OS X user account password.
- If you have items locked using another password it will indicate this somehow. Sorry I don't have anything more specific to say, I haven't seen this particular part before. It should give you the option somehow to reset everything to the same password. I recommend you reset everything to your OS X user account password. This way everything will be properly unlock when you log in.
Does that make any difference?
0 - Open the Keychain Access application that you can find in
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no difference. My login password re-opened keychain access.
What is the "software security device"? Is that the same as keychain access?
The error is "please enter the master password for the software security device?"
When I first enter the password, when I check "Use Password manager to remember this password." Is this the same as keychain access when 1password is running?
The change in wording is very confusing. I guess Thunderbird wanted to make it platform agnostic.
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Hi @ddokoto,
It might be worth looking in Thunderbird's preferences, specifically the Security tab and then a section titled Passwords. It's been a while since I looked in Thunderbird's preferences but turns out you can enable a master password as well as view the currently saved passwords. My gut feeling is these passwords are not stored in your Login keychain but probably part of Thunderbird's support files. What I can confirm is even though Thunderbird is referring to a password manager it is only a password manager internal to the Thunderbird. Thunderbird doesn't and actually can't interact with 1Password. Unfortunately I don't know what Thunderbird is referring to when it uses the phrase "software security device".
So if you're now being asked for a master password, is this particular feature enabled in your copy of Thunderbird? It isn't by default and I would have thought you would remember enabling it. If it is set though the only way to remove it is if you know this master password. Depending on what email accounts you have connected to Thunderbird you may need more expert advice on how to proceed if it does indeed turn out to be exclusively a Thunderbird issue.
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Apparently this is a KNOWN bug in thunderbird upgrades. There are no passwords saved from the previous version, yet the master password defaults to set even if it was not set in the previous version. I can see no passwords are listed. Your analysis is correct. This has nothing to do with 1password NOR keychain in the MacOS. I never used that feature before. Apparently Firefox may have the same issue although I haven't encountered yet on my upgrade. If you reset the password, all passwords are erased. Given I had no Thunderbird passwords saved, it was no problem, but it sure gave me pause in the event the erase passwords action extended beyond Thunderbird. The words around the reset fix did not give me 100% confidence it was a safe operation in my case. Apparently it was just Thunderbird so life is good.
I followed the instructions (http://kb.mozillazine.org/Master_password) and reset the password and now I think the issue is resolved. Too avoid confusion, I set the so-called master password to the 1password master password and now it will remember both the pop and smtp passwords. Wasn't clear that 1password could handle those popups. In any event, it will not popup any more given Thunderbird will be able to read the passwords directly in its own database.
thanks again for your analysis. Now I can go back to downloading more up-to-date applications for my yosemite system. So much as changed relative to the environment running on my dearly departed old mac running leopard. A new 1password version was just the start.
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Hi @ddokoto,
I'm glad to hear you managed to get this issue resolved. I can see how such a bug would cause a lot of confusion for any user with a particular set of programs. The overloading between these with the word "keychain" and phrase "master password" means without certain snippets of information you are left wondering.
Hopefully the rest of your transition to Yosemite runs more smoothly and if you have any questions regarding 1Password 5 please do ask :smile:
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