Difficulty entering master password (Android and iOS)

danco

I just had my master password rejected (on an Android phone) several times before I got it to work. The cause was almost certainly "fat fingers", pressing the wrong letter or an additional letter.

It occurred to me that the risk of this (whicvh must be fairly common, I've just done it here on a physical keyboard) could be reduced if each character remained on screen until the next character was typed. At present it does appear for a short time and then gets replaced by a bullet, so it is quite easy to fail to see an error.

Or are there any other good ways of avoiding finger error?

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sjk

Hey @danco,

I know fat fingering of Master Password entry all too well from many failed attempts on my iPhone 5c. :tongue:

I'm pretty sure, and can check with our developers, that Master Password input is handled through APIs in the operating system and won't allow adjustments like retaining the visible character until the next one is typed.

Or are there any other good ways of avoiding finger error?

Some suggestions in the Toward Better Master Passwords blog post might help come up with one that's both strong and easier to type without errors.

Maybe other folks have creative, clever ideas to offer and let's already agree that "slim your fingers" isn't one of 'em. :lol:

AGAlumB

Master Password input is handled through APIs in the operating system and won't allow adjustments like retaining the visible character until the next one is typed.

@sjk, danco: Yep, but I'll add that the important thing here is that the password field itself is what's masking the characters, and that's handled by the OS, regardless of the keyboard used. This is pretty standard across platforms now even, so there isn't a lot of flexibility there unless we do something custom — and that potentially means giving up the security afforded to us by letting the OS handle it.

Maybe other folks have creative, clever ideas to offer and let's already agree that "slim your fingers" isn't one of 'em. :lol:

Ha! I personally find it helpful to keep an eye on the popup character indicator that's displayed above the "key" when pressed, but having devices of different sizes is, for me, the biggest contributor to mistyping on onscreen keyboards. I used to have incredibly accurate touch typing when all I used for years were 4 inch iOS devices, but my muscle memory is worthless when going between my Nexus 6P, iPhone 6S, and iPads of various sizes. Just can't count on the "keys" being in the same place like I used to. The only ways I've found to cut down on errors are to learn the keyboard really well (not an option for me these days), pay close attention to what I'm typing, or type more slowly. Sorry I don't have a better suggestion than those.

sjk

Spotted in 1Password for iOS Release Notes for 6.7:

• The size of the secure entry "dots" on the Master Password field no longer change size while typing.

While that probably won't help with 'fat fingering', it makes me curious to know what else might be adjustable there. :)

Cheers!