Why is Microsoft accessibility feature MouseKeys not working after using Firefox extension

diana_wright

Current OS environment where this problem arises: Windows 7 and Windows 8 and 8.1.

Current 1Password environment: 1Password version: 4.6.1.616 (19); Extension version: 4.6.2 (Mozilla Firefox); OS version: 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1

The problem

Microsoft MouseKeys allows users to use the number keypad to fulfil mouse movements if they cannot use a traditional mouse/pointing devise.

When I use Firefox (current version 50.2) 1Password extension to auto login to a website, i.e control key plus \, the Microsoft accessibility feature MouseKeys stops working.

The number keypad cannot be used to fulfil mouse movements: the number keypad reverts to its normal application which is obviously useless for me. Clearly something is happening 1Password extension takes control for and it is not returning control in the same state it took over from.

The only way that I can use 1Password with Firefox and retain the use of the Microsoft accessibility feature Mousekeys is to open my 1 password vault and copy the relevant userid and password to the clipboard and then go to the relevant logon screen in the Firefox browser and paste the password into the relevant fields and then click submit. This is extremely irritating.

I need the accessibility feature MouseKeys to continue working when I use 1Password with my preferred browser Firefox. Please can you come back to me with your suggested fix for the extension?

I wish to emphasise here that THIS IS NOT AN ISSUE WHEN I USE THE INTERNET EXPLORER OR GOOGLE CHROME (sorry for shouting: I just want to make it clear that I have tested thoroughly before writing this post).

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1Password Version: 4.6.1.616 (19)
Extension Version: 4.6.2 (Mozilla Firefox)
OS Version: 7, 8 and 8.1
Sync Type: Dropbox

MikeT

Hi @diana_wright,

Thanks for reporting this. We do apologize and we're not trying to block anything with 1Password Helper, it is supposed to return you to the previous state. We use the same 1Password Helper for Chrome and Firefox, so the fact that it works fine in Chrome but not Firefox makes it even stranger. We have seen a few edge cases with Firefox before where it keeps stealing focus when you open up 1Password Helper, causing it to be de-focused and not able to return you properly.

When you use the Control + \ shortcut in Firefox, does the issue also occurs when it does a direct fill with a single item? We have two different states depending on how many items you have for the site; if you have one item, 1Password just goes ahead and fill the data in without bringing up anything and if you have more than one, it brings up the UI. Can you confirm it happens the same way in both states in Firefox?

diana_wright

Hi Mike,

Thanks for your reply and in answer to your question, I experience the same behaviour for the two different states that you describe.

I have done some further testing and discovered the following:

Regardless of browser, if I am on a logon screen prompting for a user ID and password and I place my mouse cursor in the userid field the mousekeys feature works perfectly. If I then click in the password field, mousekeys ceases to function, i.e. the number pad acts as a number pad.

So, placing the cursor in the password field, i.e. if the focus browser is on the password field, mousekeys ceases to function. This happens on all websites that I visit requiring logon.

The difference is that with Internet Explorer and Chrome once the logon has been completed and the focus has moved away from the password field, mousekeys returns to function normally; whereas, if I am using Firefox the mouse key is a functionality the does not return to normal after the focus has moved away from the password field.

Regards, D

MikeT

Hi @diana_wright,

Thanks for writing back with more details. I am not 100% sure and I'll look into it but I suspect this may be a Windows security thing where if you focus the password field, it may not allow anything to intercept your keyboard, which is why you can't copy the password in them. As soon as you submit the login form, the password field is no longer visible, so the security thing is disabled. I can tell you that this is a security feature on macOS known as Secure Input Mode and anytime the password field is focused, all external keyboard/mouse tools are temporarily disabled.

However, this does mean the issue isn't with 1Password, this is something I can certainly confirm is not of our doing. One thing is that we do focus your password field as soon as you press the shortcut, this is required for the auto-submit function to work, so that we can simulate pressing the enter key and the login form submits.

diana_wright

Hi Mike,

Thanks again.

The only way I can get mousekeys to work after using 1Password with Firefox is to follow Field-level auto-type:

If the one-click auto-type method doesn’t fill in the form correctly, you can fill in the fields one at a time:
Display the login form in the browser or other program and click the username field.
In the main 1Password program, select the Login item you want to use.
In the details area, click the auto-type icon next to the Username field. After 1Password fills in the stored username value, click the OK button in the message that appears.
Back on the login page, click the password field.
In 1Password again, click the auto-type icon next to the Password field. After 1Password fills in the stored password value, submit the login page.

Using Autotype Control+\ in Firefox does something to upset mousekeys.

Regards, D

AGAlumB

@diana_wright: Thanks for following up! I'm not able to reproduce this myself, so it seems like it's either something specific to your setup or I'm misunderstanding the steps. Here's what I did:

1. Enabled MouseKeys in Control Panel > Ease of Access
2. Tested to make sure the cursor could be moved with the bumped arrows
3. Set the login to "Always use AutoType in browser"
4. Filled using Ctrl \ in Firefox
5. Tried moving the cursor again with the numbed arrows — success

Since this seems to involve a lot of moving parts, it's totally possible that I'm missing something, or that another element is at play here. Can you confirm or revise my steps above? I wonder if it's an interaction with a specific website, since normally it shouldn't be necessary to use AutoType in the browser. What is a URL where you're encountering this? Do you have other extensions or apps that may be capturing or modifying input?

Also, it sounds like you're encountering this issue exclusively when using AutoType to fill. Is that correct? If so, this won't actually involve the 1Password browser extension, only the main 1Password app. But please let me know if this happens also when not using AutoType, and filling in the browser using the extension alone. I think this may be the key:

So, placing the cursor in the password field, i.e. if the focus browser is on the password field, mousekeys ceases to function. This happens on all websites that I visit requiring logon.

In my testing, MouseKeys still works even if I have the cursor in the password field, regardless of the browser. You seem to be saying that placing the cursor in the password field disables MouseKeys, even without touching 1Password. So it makes sense that it would be disabled after filling with AutoType if the cursor is still in the password field, if MouseKeys is being disabled any time you're in a password field. And, if I'm not misunderstanding your description, that really sounds like Firefox is failing to release it again once the cursor is no longer in a password field.

If you open Task Manager and kill all 1Password processes, does a password field still kill MouseKeys? It seems like that will be the case, since, if it was related to 1Password, I'd probably be having the same issue. I will say though that I didn't have an Windows 7 or 8 PC to test this on, so I'm using Windows 10. It's possible that this is a bug related to Firefox and Windows itself. Hopefully we'll be able to get to the bottom of this! :)