QR code functionality just doens't work [Investigating]
This doesn't work, I've tried it on win10 desktop and win10 mobile and all I get is "no account info found". This is seriously aggrevating as now I have to type in that monster account key again (due to the fact that I had to re-download the app from the store on mobile).
Also the whole experience is less than optimal on Win10 mobile as I have to take a picture, wait 5 seconds (with no indication of anything going on) just to receive a message saying it didn't work.
You should look at how WhatsApp works when you use Web access, the camera view is live, I don't don't have to take a picture to make it work, just point it to the QR code and instantly it buzzes and loads what I need.
1Password Version: Not Provided
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: Win 10
Sync Type: Not Provided
Comments
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On mobile it was the PDF, on the desktop I don't remember. Why would that matter?
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Hi @redoz,
We had some reports with some older PDF files that wouldn't return any information but if you try from the website, it works.
We'll test the PDF files and see if we can reproduce it. I did just test the desktop app with the image of QR code in the clipboard and it worked, so it might be an issue with the camera code.
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No, I tried it on desktop with my QR as well and got the same message. So I bet it's the PDF that's incorrect then.
I still recommend fixing up the UX for the QR functionality on mobile though, it's clunky at best and user-unfriendly at worst, and I would've cut you some slack but WhatsApp proved it can be done much better ;)
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Hi @redoz,
Okay, I just got confirmations from the engineering team that right now, the PDF file must be printed out for the app's scanner to work. I am not sure why but we'll improve the QR scanning process in the future.
One thing is that we do want to add the same clipboard support we have in the desktop version, where if you take a screenshot of the QR code and copy it (to store in clipboard), the app will detect it and use it before it scans.
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Yeah ideally the QR handling will be a bit more robust than that (and again, whatsapp proves that it certainly can be).
You also want to add an option for getting it from the local album then, as that's where your screenshots will show up on win10 mobile.
So if you chose QR then you'd have to pick either "clipboard", "album", or "camera".But I don't think auto-picking clipboard over camera is a good thing as you might not be aware what's in your clipboard, and if there's something that gets picked up but you wanted the camera it will be really annoying.
I'm not in the fast-ring on mobile so I don't know what's coming in the new anniversary release, but as far as I can tell there's also no way of actually copying an image into the clipboard on Win10 mobile. Just tried it from the photo gallery as well as the browser and neither have an option to do that.
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In fact, if you hit QR, you could do the live camera view like whatsapp does, and have an option on that same screen to load from the album instead, that way the camera is default (as you expect for anything QR related) and you don't need an extra click to get there. And if you want album it's just one additional click.
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Hi @redoz,
The reason it is the way it is right now is because Windows didn't have any component that supports QR scanning in real time, so we had to start with the basic picture style for now. We will work on adding custom code for real-time video scanning or something identical to it in the future. Hopefully, Microsoft might have a solution for us as well.
In addition, we had issues with different cameras that couldn't process QR simply because of the quality of the camera or the image. So, going the clipboard style would help as well.
But I don't think auto-picking clipboard over camera is a good thing as you might not be aware what's in your clipboard, and if there's something that gets picked up but you wanted the camera it will be really annoying.
We already have it implemented in the desktop app version and it works well. It's not going to enter any random text, it must be in the same format as the QR code. It must be a screenshot or an image file that includes the QR code and it will not submit without your master password anyway.
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Just a little info from my personal experience with QR scanning on Windows Phone. On Lumia 950/950XL (with 20mpx camera) high quality images almost never got recognized. However, attempt to force camera to take lower resolution picture leaded to camera app crashes. So we took a break while things are stabilized in the platform. On less powerful devices (Lumia 635 for example) it was around 75% success QR recognition rate, just because camera takes less detailed pictures.
What worked for me - change focus distance, my best results were from approximately 20-25cm distance (around 10 inches). Personally I didn't notice much difference between laptop screen or paper. It's all comes down to the camera.
Anyway, we are looking forward to improve experience, WhatsApp or Microsoft Authenticator has good examples that this is possible.
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As a customer I look at it like this: This is a solved problem, other companies have proved as much. Trying to work around it with clipboard images is not really "good enough" as far as I'm concerned. And no one has explained how I'm even supposed to put images in the clipboard on my mobile phone. But ignoring that, it's still not very user friendly and not how people expect QR scanning to work in the first place.
As a developer I understand you can't deliver everything at once, but I expect you to set the bar where it belongs.
And as far as anecdotal evidence goes, I had no issues with this on my 920, nor on my 950 XL. QR codes by definition are full of redundant information, if your code requires perfect images to work, you might be doing something wrong.
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Hi @redoz,
It's not solely for the mobile device, the same app runs on the desktop unchanged, so it would be more useful on the desktops to have this support. We have more users on desktops than we do on Windows 10 mobile devices.
We do understand that we have a lot of improvements to do and this is one area we'll work on later as right now, this isn't an area that our customers are asking to fix first based on the current beta testing feedback. We are doing everything we can but it will take some time.
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A couple of things, I know it's the same app, but that doesn't mean you should ignore obvious platform differences and compromise the experience on one for the other. For the people who still use a Win10 mobile (which given a 5% market share in DE and UK has to be a sizable number [source: http://mspoweruser.com/kantar-10-new-android-customers-come-windows-phone/]) you are the only game in town, don't spoil that opportunity. I know that is the only reason why I opted to use 1Password over the competition, but if you treat the Win 10 Mobile platform as an afterthought you're no better than them, and then I have no reason to keep using 1P.
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I understand your frustration @redoz , I'm Windows Phone user myself. You are right, QR scanning is proven, doable and done by others. And I'm all up to get it done as nicely as MS Authenticator or WhatsApp did. But it all comes down to priorities - browser extension, safe and reliable item editing, sync and permissions - there are many more things we need to pay attention to. QR scanning is mostly 1 time process (well, I'm cheating here, it's many times during beta).
I have some solution for you meanwhile - save an URL like this op://signin&domain=myteamname&accountKey=A3-XXEFS-9CBZ2M-LPPEA-233AY-VC97N-8Q9SW&email=sergey@agilebits.com in OneNote and you can quickly open/fill fields (including that long account key!) on the phone. Just paste it to Edge browser.
TLTR; it will be better, but later.
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Are there any updates since June? I just tried to set up the 1P-App (6) on my Windows Surface and had to use the Workaround with the QR-Code from the Clipboard. It took about 1 Minute to solve this - but I had to Google for about 10 mins to find out that it's not me being too silly... quel dommage. As you had several months to implement this.. are there any News?
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@georg_karner: I'm not sure I understand. It sounds like you were able to add it successfully using the clipboard. Is that not the case? Alternatively, you can open an image file itself. Both of these options are available from the QR code button when adding a 1Password Account. Please let me know if that helps!
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