Why does PayPal auto fill only work for the main site?

sdjmchattie

On iOS, if I go to PayPal.com in Safari and use the 1Password action to log in, it fills the username and password and presses the login button for me which is great. However, when I am about to make a transaction, I will be given the prompt to log in to PayPal and I'll use the same 1Password action but then it will only fill in the username and the password stays blank. Every time this happens I then have to open the 1Password action again, press the detail indicator on the right of the PayPal entry in my safe, tap the password field, choose copy, press back, press cancel, tap the password field on the PayPal site and paste into it. This is tedious and I don't know why it doesn't just autofill this for me. I suspect the password field on the PayPal website during a transaction doesn't have the same identifiers so 1Password can't identify that it's the correct place to put the password, but it should work it out anyway as PayPal is a popular site.

If there's anything else you might need to know, please get in touch.

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1Password Version: 6.4.4
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: iOS 9.4
Sync Type: 1Password Family

Ben

Hi @sdjmchattie

Yes, I've run into this myself before as well. Unfortunately this is not something we can fix. The difficulty is that for PayPal's mobile transaction login page they use a technology called an iframe. At present Safari extensions (such as 1Password) are not allowed to interact with the contents of iframe elements.

The only way we'd be able to work with this particular login would be if Apple were to update Safari to improve the capabilities extensions have with regard to iframes, or if PayPal were to stop using an iframe for its mobile login page.

I wish I had a more promising answer but hopefully either Apple or PayPal can address this in the future.

Ben

sdjmchattie

Thanks Ben, that's a fair answer. I understand what an iframe is but I'm not sure I understand Apple's decision to block interaction with them from extensions. Anyway, if you're already aware then that's all I wanted to achieve out of asking this question. As there's nothing you can do I can't ask any more than that. It's a pain, but I'll carry on copying via the extension and pasting. Maybe it'll save me from making impulse purchases when it's so hard to log in to PayPal for the payment. :smile:

Ben

I understand what an iframe is but I'm not sure I understand Apple's decision to block interaction with them from extensions.

I don't think it is so much a block as it is not having written the extension API to support them, yet. I'm not a developer myself (though I am quite familiar with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript), but my limited understanding is that we just have no way to reference the content in the iframe through the existing extension API.

Maybe it'll save me from making impulse purchases

I know that feeling! ;)

Thanks for the feedback.

Ben