Cannot quit 1Password with one click of home button, and the first click shuts down touchID

rowen

I often "turn off" my iPhone (use the power button to put it to sleep) with 1Password running. Unfortunately 1P 6.1.2 has a bug that makes this a bad idea: when I wake the phone back up to do something other than get a password, 1P is running and asking for touchID, naturally (this is fine and expected). The problem is: when I press the home button to quit 1P it doesn't work; instead all it does is stop 1P from asking for touch ID (it now wants my pass phrase). I need to click the home button again to quit 1P, and this leaves 1P in a nasty state: next time I run 1P it does not ask for my touchID at all. I have to enter my pass phrase, which is really clumsy. For now I try to remember to quit 1P before allowing my phone to sleep, but I often forget.

My desired fixes are:
1. clicking the home button once will make 1P quit, regardless of what the app is doing (even asking for touchID).
2. Whenever I run 1P it will reliably ask for my touchID (unless I have totally powered off the phone or rebooted it, of course).

Also, a much more minor intermittent annoyance: sometimes 1P will wake up and show a circular fingerprint icon below the pass phrase entry box, and I have to click that icon before it will ask for my touchID. Fortunately that is rare (and I have not figured out how to reproduce it), but it is a minor nuisance. I would prefer that it reliably ask for touchID right away when I launch 1P, without any extra clicks on my part.

---

1Password Version: 6.1.2
_Extension Version: Not Relevant
OS Version: iOS 9.1
Sync Type: wifi

AGAlumB

@rowen: Sorry for the confusion! This is simply how Touch ID works, and individual apps don't have control over it. If you have 1Password setup to use Touch ID, it simply brings up the Touch ID prompt (as you've told it to) and no other interaction can happen until it is dismissed — either by canceling or authenticating.

clicking the home button once will make 1P quit, regardless of what the app is doing (even asking for touchID).

This isn't currently possible, as I've outlined above, though it may be something that changes in the future.

Whenever I run 1P it will reliably ask for my touchID (unless I have totally powered off the phone or rebooted it, of course).
.
Also, a much more minor intermittent annoyance: sometimes 1P will wake up and show a circular fingerprint icon below the pass phrase entry box, and I have to click that icon before it will ask for my touchID. Fortunately that is rare (and I have not figured out how to reproduce it), but it is a minor nuisance. I would prefer that it reliably ask for touchID right away when I launch 1P, without any extra clicks on my part.

These are connected: you are seeing the icon because you've previously dismissed Touch ID. Without the icon, you'd simply need to manually enter your Master Password any time you dismiss the prompt.

Previously when you dismissed a Touch ID prompt, this disabled Touch ID until you re-entered you Master Password. Due to popular demand, we've added the Touch ID button you're describing, so that if you merely cancel the Touch ID prompt by accident or to get it out of your way (like when you unlock your iPhone...) you don't need to enter your Master Password if you've previously done so; you can initiate the Touch ID prompt again yourself to unlock that way.

Unfortunately it isn't possible to 'have your cake and eat it too': you can either use Touch ID to unlock 1Password when prompted, cancel it and tap the icon to use Touch ID later, or enter your Master Password manually.

The problem is: when I press the home button to quit 1P it doesn't work; instead all it does is stop 1P from asking for touch ID (it now wants my pass phrase). I need to click the home button again to quit 1P, and this leaves 1P in a nasty state: next time I run 1P it does not ask for my touchID at all. I have to enter my pass phrase, which is really clumsy. For now I try to remember to quit 1P before allowing my phone to sleep, but I often forget.

This is the crux of the matter I think. If you don't want 1Password to disable Touch ID, don't press the Home button when you're asked to authenticate; just press Cancel. That way you can tap the icon and use Touch ID later if you wish. Pressing the Home button is a quick way to lockout Touch ID so you can't be forced into unlocking your vault when put in a possibly compromising situation.

On the other hand, if you don't want to see the icon, don't press Cancel; just authenticate using Touch ID normally. You won't have to enter your Master Password, and you can continue using Touch ID afterward as well. Cheers! :)

rowen

I think you can make the system more robust, based on the WSECU app (a banking app) that supports touch ID and always asks me for touch ID, even under the following situations, some of which cause 1Password to fail to ask for touch ID when launched:

• Start the WSECU app; press the Home button while the system is asking me for touch ID (thus cancelling touch ID); press the Power button to turn off my device; press Home to turn it back on; WSECU is the app running and the system asks me for touch ID.
• Start the WSECU app; press Home while the system is asking me for touch ID (thus cancelling touch ID), press Home again to quit WSECU app; press Power to turn off my device; press Home to turn it back on; start WSECU app again; the system asks me for touch ID.
• Start the WSECU app; press Home while the system is asking me for touch ID (thus cancelling touch ID), press Home again to quit WSECU app; start WSECU app again; the system asks me for touch ID.

No special icon is needed to make WSECU app ask for touch ID; it just always works. The only time I have found that WSECU app does not ask for touch ID is when you would expect it: if you cancel touch ID by pressing the Home button then you can still log in, but you must provide a password.

That said, I see that if I let my device power off while I am authenticated to WSECU then I am still authenticated next time I start up the device. Perhaps that's the difference. It's scary enough for a banking app to do that, but it would be even worse for 1Password to do that.

AGAlumB

@rowen: I'm sorry for not being more clear: 1Password can't control how the Touch ID prompt behaves. It's owned entirely by iOS, and supersedes any app currently running until dismissed.

That said, I see that if I let my device power off while I am authenticated to WSECU then I am still authenticated next time I start up the device. Perhaps that's the difference. It's scary enough for a banking app to do that, but it would be even worse for 1Password to do that.

I agree. And you're right! Crucially, 1Password does not store your Master Password at all; rather, Touch ID stores it securely on a temporary basis, and it will be cleared completely due to a Touch ID failure, a device restart, or when the timer expires.

I had some difficulty explaining in in my previous post, but 1Password offers the Touch ID button to open the prompt as a feature. It used to be that if you canceled the prompt, you were out of luck: you had to enter the Master password instead. But the button is now available in these instances unless you Touch ID is cleared completely as I describe above.

For those of us using 1Password on newer iPads, this prevents us from getting 'stuck' with the iOS Touch ID prompt when using Slide Over or Split View. Another thing to keep in mind is that on the iPhone 6S and Plus, the new Touch ID censor is so fast that nearly any touch of the Home button will produce a Touch ID authentication attempt. If it succeeds, you've just unlocked 1Password when you maybe didn't want to; and if it fails, you may quickly lock yourself out, requiring the Master Password again. So pressing the Home button isn't a good way to dismiss it on some devices.

Hopefully we'll have more tools at our disposal in the future to improve the experience for people across all devices — without sacrificing security. :chuffed: