1Password is no longer supported on Windows Phone
I just signed in to the 1Password app on Windows 10 Mobile and a few moments later received this email from 1Password:
"1Password is no longer supported on Windows Phone"
You recently signed in to your 1Password account from a Windows Phone device.
The Windows Phone version of 1Password is no longer supported. The app has not been updated in over a year and will soon stop being able to connect to your 1Password account.
We are sorry for the bad news. But in case you didn't know, we just introduced a brand new version of 1Password for Windows. It's built from the ground up for your Windows PC or Surface tablet, and it's the best Windows experience we've ever offered. We'd love you to try it out.
I know that this original phone-compatible UWP app has been withdrawn from new downloads but, so far, it works fine (except for allowing itself to be backed up to OneDrive by the OS, but that's easy to disable). I also know there's the desktop app re-packaged as a UWP app, but that's not Windows 10 Mobile compatible nor does it support Windows Hello. Finally, it's clear that Windows 10 Mobile is going away in favour of a variant of full Windows 10 for mobile devices - but that's not here yet (1 year or more, it seems).
In the meantime, what are Windows 10 Mobile users supposed to use? Despite what the email says, I didn't sign in from Windows Phone (was Windows 10 Mobile) and the suggested solution will not work. I understand the need to reduce costs by not maintaining or developing two versions, but this feels like being left with no options.
So, where to from here? Would you like to subsidise a reluctant Android phone purchase? ;-) Given the messages about using the latest development tools from Microsoft (see Edge sticky), it doesn't ring true if you can't support all devices (HoloLens excepted, that's truely niche) through UWP.
Or is this a mis-understanding - if this about getting desktop users from the UWP app to the new one? If so, can the email be targetted better (to the relevant users) and the withdrawal of support limited to desktop users?
1Password Version: Not Provided
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: Not Provided
Sync Type: Not Provided
Comments
-
I'll second this. I also had this email and use 1Password on my Windows Phone daily. There really is no need to remove this version as for Windows Phone users, it's the only version we can use.
0 -
(edit) - when I say Windows Phone - I mean Windows 10 Mobile (Lumia 950XL) - just in case there is some confusion.
0 -
Do we have any comments?
0 -
@architect1337, @TildaColon: Thanks for reaching out. I'm really sorry you're affected by this. I'll try to give some background, and answer any questions you have.
Ultimately it's about putting our resources where we can do the most good for the greatest number of users, so right now we're focused on the desktop. The vast majority of people are using Windows 7 still, and we have a lot more work to do on the desktop app, which will benefit them as well as anyone using Windows 10 (and even 8.1). So we're not in a position right now to ship a new version for Windows Phones. There are just very, very few users there. That said, we would like to bring out a new UWP app in the future, which would work for folks on Windows 10 PCs and tablet/mobile devices. If we had to develop an app exclusively for Windows Phone, I'd have to tell you that would almost certainly never happen, as even Microsoft has largely abandoned the platform. But as it stands, the tools are that that should allow us to offer Windows Phone support "for free" with a new UWP app once we're able to ship that. I just can't say when that will be at this time. However, regardless of the Windows Phone situation, UWP is clearly the future for Windows, so I do think it's safe to say that we'll have something there in time, even without knowing the time frame.
The reason this is happening now is that we've continued to make improvements to 1Password.com which the old Windows Phone-compatible app(s) cannot support. Ideally users continue using those as they have been, but allowing that for this long has had a negative impact on every other 1Password.com user on other platforms since we could not enable improvements to the service without breaking things for the old versions on Windows Phone. It just isn't tenable to continue this though, so we've made the decision to flip the switch and allow 1Password.com — and users — to move forward. I'm sorry that this is at the expense of some folks who have been relying on an outdated version of 1Password there though. Fortunately, if you're up to date, you should be able to access your 1Password.com account in the browser, as we did go back and make some changes long ago to work around some of the WebCrypto limitations of Edge. I know this isn't a replacement for a native app, but we're not able to divert resources from other projects currently to ship a new version for Windows Phones.
Technically this is also about getting folks using UWP on the desktop to use the actual desktop app as well, since it is up to date and has grown a lot since we were last able to work on UWP. But I think that's sort of irrelevant to this discussion, since Windows Phone users are the ones who won't have a native app to use for the time being.
To be clear, you should only have received this message if you have a device running an outdated version of 1Password 6 on Windows which has attempted to connect to the server recently. It isn't being cut off immediately after all this time, but it will cease to be able to connect at all relatively soon.
Again, I apologize for the trouble (and perhaps confusion) this has caused. Let me know if you have any other questions.
0 -
If you have a more specific timeframe, that would help. I do use this app on Windows 10 mobile almost daily (seems like I'm one of a handful that do) so it will be a shame to see it go and having a date will allow me to not get caught out i.e. August? November?
As you say, creating a new UWP app is the way to go and this then gives you the option to support desktop and mobile (whatever form that takes after the current feature2 update) from the same codebase.
0 -
I've just tried the 1Password.com website via Edge on Windows 10 mobile (Lumia 950XL). Interesting experience - I don't think the website is set up for touch use on a small screen but it's semi-useable and should allow me to do what I want in an emergency while I'm out and about.
I was able to log in (entering my emergency kit codes etc). I was able to navigate around but the biggest issue is that it's quite difficult, on a mobile screen, to select an option to be able to view a password e.g. if you choose a login item, tap on the *'d out password, focus seems to move away and you need to zoom in and do a bit of tapping / wiggling to get the menu up with password reveal options (large, reveal etc).
It's doable, but not great. Not sure if it's the same experience on Safari or Google on iOS / Android mobile phone - but may be an area for improvement of the website? i.e. small screen web support?
0 -
Oh and logging in seems to take a few seconds too? Website doing something that taxes the mobile CPU?
0 -
@architect1337: We don't have an exact timeframe on when access to 1Password.com may be disabled for those using the older Windows apps. It likely depends on how quickly folks get updated or swapped over to the desktop app as needed. That said, I'm sure we'll warn y'all before access is cut off.
As for 1Password.com on Edge, that's not something I experience in Chrome on my Android phone. I will admit I hate navigating nearly any website on my tiny phone screen, but I don't notice any focus issues. I'm not familiar enough with Windows phones to know if it's possible to share a video? Edge is a bit of an oddball of a browser and, as I understand, handles some common things a bit differently from Chrome or Safari so I could definitely believe that an issue may exist specific to Edge. If you can't share a video, that's totally okay. I think I understand well enough to pass along your feedback. :+1:
Finally, logging in. Our authentication process may well be a bit slow on mobile. I notice the same thing on my Android so I don't think this is browser-specific. There's a fair bit going on behind the scenes when you sign in. There's a balance to be struck between speed and security, but ultimately we'll err on the side of security which may slow down the mobile experience a bit. That said, for the most part, folks aren't using the web app on mobile with native apps available and it may be something we need to ponder tweaking until we have something in place for Windows mobile users in the future. :chuffed:
Thanks for your feedback and please do let us know if you have any more suggestions to make your 1Password experience better while we get our UWP/Windows mobile ducks in a row. :+1:
0 -
Thanks for the feedback. The only comment I can make is for Agile Bits to consider to make a ' mobile' version of it's 1psssword.com website. This would then be compatible across all mobile browsers and would probably look something like the iOS native client. Perhaps building a website may be faster than an app?
0 -
That is certainly something worth considering, @architect1337. Thanks!
Ben
0 -
I too am affected by this and may be forced to stop using 1password if I can't use it for mobile. Therefore would I be able to get a pro-rated refund on my subscription?
0 -
@shahiddev: To be clear, we don't advertise or sell 1Password as supporting Windows Phones. But if you'll shoot us an email at support@1password.com from your registered account we'll see what we can do to help.
0 -
Hmmm no emails here for either of two users, and 1 phone now broken and unable to get passwords with 0day notice. Finding this thread not much help. Keeping the app available to read Dropbox vaults which sync around many devices would have been reasonable. This (along with the pressure via no edge extension to move to subs service) suggests my time with, and recommending, 1Password is about up.
0 -
Hmmm no emails here for either of two users, and 1 phone now broken and unable to get passwords with 0day notice.
@pjbryant: I'm not sure why you wouldn't have received them. We emailed literally everyone who had connected to 1Password.com from Windows Phone, with more than a month's notice. The fact that you're only noticing now illustrates that, albeit unhelpfully. I understand it is inconvenient, but that is unfortunately the reality of prerelease software (beta or alpha, depending on the version you were using). The UWP app for Windows Phone never made it out of beta, and we needed to focus our efforts on where most of our Windows users are, and that means a desktop app that runs on Windows 7 and later.
Finding this thread not much help. Keeping the app available to read Dropbox vaults which sync around many devices would have been reasonable. This (along with the pressure via no edge extension to move to subs service) suggests my time with, and recommending, 1Password is about up.
I'm not sure I understand. We did not remove the app from your device or remove your vaults, so you can use the app without 1Password.com. And we already have an Edge extension in beta for some time, which should be available to everyone shortly once it proliferates through the Windows Store. The reality is that the only reason it was possible for us to build that is because we did not divert development resources to support platforms that are not supported by Microsoft, such as Vista, XP, Internet Explorer, and Windows Phone. I'm sorry that isn't going to be much consolation in your case, but I hope you'll at least appreciate why we need to make tough decisions like this. Ultimately we'd like 1Password to be available everywhere, but since that is not possible we need to focus on the areas that will do the most good for the greatest number of users. :blush:
0 -
You didn’t remove it, but I did whilst trying to fix an issue and discovered it couldn’t be restored. The vault is there, and Dropbox synchronised. So restoring the app would allow access again. There is no sync with 1Password.com in use so where’s the problem letting us continue to use that model of use? The edge comment was about the repeated “we hope to do something” I got from support without ever getting a commitment to deliver (whilst lastpass were already out of the gate). Additionally I was pressured to move to 1p6 and 1Password vault and subs to get a better edge experience.
0 -
@pjbryant: Ah, understood. You should be able to install it from your purchase history. It just isn't available for new customers, or something we recommend, as it's very outdated version. If you have a compatible browser, you should be able to use 1Password.com there though. We certainly haven't told anyone that Windows Phone is an officially supported platform, but nevertheless I'm sorry if you decided to use 1Password.com in hopes that we would. Regardless of our intent, that sucks. I can't offer you something that doesn't exist, but definitely shoot us an email at support@1password.com and post the Support ID you receive here so we can see if there's something else we can do to help.
0 -
As you've removed it from the store it no longer appears in My Apps list on the phone, so reinstall is not available (ironically the non-working 1password beta does). if you could reinstate that then at least that phone would be usable.
If you didn't publicly commit absolutely to Windows Phone, I had several interactions last and this year around Windows 10 and UWP that led me to beleive that something would contine on that platform to support existing users using non 1Password.com vaults. That's why I stuck with it. I get that you want to move us to v6 and vaults in your cloud, but having paid for the software on several platforms and wishing to keep the vault in my control I'm quite happy to stay where i am and accept the limitations. Removing that capability from me without notice, and (IMHO) without an absolute need really sucks. If you can get the app back in the store (but with a notice about supprort), that would fix me now. I've no ambition to make v4 tech work with a v6 platform.0 -
@pjbryant: I'm actually struggling with what to tell you as I double checked with the engineering team and you're correct you won't be able to reinstall it. Given how you found out support had ended for Windows Phone, I can definitely understand how that would be upsetting to say the least. :frown: In reality, we had no way to warn folks who were using standalone vaults with the Windows Phone app that it was going away. We do our best to know as little about y'all as possible, even with folks who use 1Password.com, and that definitely gets taken to the next level with standalone vaults used in apps installed via app stores of all sorts. These app stores don't tell us you purchased or installed the app, so we don't have a clue who is using them. That's awesome for privacy and we genuinely wouldn't have it any other way, but it does mean that we weren't able to give you a heads up in this case. Like brenty I can't offer anything more than to add my apologies to those already given, but I'd reiterate his suggestion to shoot us an e-mail if you're interested in exploring alternatives. :+1:
0 -
@pjbryant: I'm sorry. I had misunderstood completely. We've never sold a Windows Phone app, so I had though you had paid for a 1Password.com account for Windows Phone support, perhaps due to a misunderstanding we'd caused. Apologies, as that was my mistake, as we did not take away something you had paid for. I don't think it's fair to expect us to support any platform for free, especially given that in this case the platform owner has all but abandoned it, as have most users. I'm not sure it would even be possible, but we definitely do not have plans to resubmit an outdated version to the Windows Store. That explains why you were not informed that the alpha/beta app was being retired: you were not using it with 1Password.com; so we would have had no way of knowing you were using it, or information to contact you anyway. I'd like to see us have a UWP app again in the future that will work on Windows Phone, but it isn't something we can do right now for literally only a few dozen users, or that our development team can work on for free. :frown:
0 -
@brenty / @bundtkate I guess i'm stuck for words. I've purchased on more than one platform and I guess having gone from beta to non-beta expected this meant normal levels of support. I don't recall paying for it, but then again, don't recall not paying for it (as the process is quite friction free). Either way my expectations had been set; and I didn't inspect the app to determine if it was a UWP or a WP10 specific build. I don't expect things like this for free, but had it been the basis of a UWP then it would have been covered with desktop software purchase.
I see how we got here, but I still think that removing it rather than allowing it to wither on the vine was a poor decision that unnecessarily impacted users (albeit not many of us). I'm not asserting that you should have continued developement; just that whilst it could continue to work with a dropbox share it should have been left available. I'll email in as you suggest, but will you at least prime support so i dont get the "we withdrew it" response.0 -
@pjbryant: It wasn't an easy decision by any means, but we really did let it wither for some time. It hasn't been under active development since I joined AgileBits, and it turns out it was closer to its end of useful life than we might have thought. Dropbox just retired the API the Windows Phone app was using, so it actually would have stopped syncing with Dropbox about a week ago (relying on my memory here, so give or take a few days). We knew this was happening, but not exactly when so it is just mere luck that we withdrew the app prior to Dropbox killing sync.
Again, I totally understand that this wasn't a great experience for you and I do believe you have every right to be unsettled by it, but keeping this app active wouldn't have bought you many extra days. The future of Windows Phone itself is uncertain and, as a fan of many of the early models, I'm saddened by the current state of things but realistically I expect that we won't be the last to pull out of the market. I sincerely hope Microsoft finds its rudder with its mobile products and I have my fingers crossed that they'll surprise me with something amazing, but until that happens I'd say its wise to approach the platform as whole with a degree of skepticism.
0 -
I suppose most people will have seen the news that Windows Phone is only going to get security updates and bug fixes from now on (with no new features or hardware planned):
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/10/windows-phone-is-now-officially-dead-a-sad-tale-of-what-might-have-been/It's a shame, as I loved the two Windows phones I owned (a Nokia 520 and 640), and especially enjoyed using the OS, despite its lack of apps (though it was good we got 1Password for a while). A third mobile OS would have been great for us users but it wasn't meant to be - R.I.P. Windows Phone :+1:
0 -
Hi @pbryanw,
Agreed, competition is always a good thing, it improves everyone on all sides as well and Windows smartphones did have a lot of nice things going for it.
It does beg the question as to what that does to the entire Universal Windows Platform ecosystem. Not having Windows 10 Mobile included could end up improving UWP on desktops by allowing more powerful APIs that wouldn't be possible on the mobile phones. We would've port the desktop version of 1Password to Windows Store if it could support other browsers, not just Edge and we could evolve it to be full UWP over time as long as Microsoft keeps improving it.
0 -
@pbryanw: Agreed 100%. I loved the potential I saw in Windows Phone. I think that, for a time, it really did force Apple and Google to take notice and try new things. Not saying that the iOS 7 "flat" redesign and "Material Design" on the Android side are necessarily a win (this has been walked back a bit), but there's certainly some influence there, and also in less superficial things. The writing has been on the wall for a while, but it is, in a bittersweet way, nice to see Microsoft acknowledging that they're done here. Great hardware and software, but even with 1Password it wasn't enough even for diehards like us. The competition (such as it was) and creativity there will be missed. :(
0 -
Whilst I really look forward to a future UWP app (or PWA, depending on the way the world goes), the closing up of the UWP beta has been done poorly. I've just noticed that passwords created on the phone haven't been syncing back for a while - I've been through desktop program and mobile app, sorting by modification time and manually re-creating them on the desktop app. It looks like it stopped syncing for me in mid to late August, not the October date alluded to above.
What should of happened is that notification was given with a specific date when syncing would be stopped, an app update pushed out to give an in-app version of this notification and then when the date came, the app should have prevented modification of the vault and network connectivity removed from the app. Now maybe this wasn't possible given the mess up with the UWP app (where everyone got upgraded to the desktop bridge version), but if it this were true, it wouldn't stop a clear, timely and honest message UWP users of what would happen. Certainly, for me, the statement "That said, I'm sure we'll warn y'all before access is cut off" was not true for me. The messaging all seemed a bit vague.
I don't want to discourage future UWP app development - I just feel this should have been handled better and there are potential lessons to be learned. Keep up the good work with the service - I'm still a happy user overall.
0 -
Whilst I really look forward to a future UWP app (or PWA, depending on the way the world goes), the closing up of the UWP beta has been done poorly. I've just noticed that passwords created on the phone haven't been syncing back for a while - I've been through desktop program and mobile app, sorting by modification time and manually re-creating them on the desktop app. It looks like it stopped syncing for me in mid to late August, not the October date alluded to above.
@TildaColon: We're really kicking a dead horse here: that beta is from literally about a year ago. October is when Dropbox killed their old API. And updating data from Dropbox in that app was always a manual process anyway. Not to put too fine a point on it, but this is a risk of running beta software: it may be discontinued. :blush:
What should of happened is that notification was given with a specific date when syncing would be stopped, an app update pushed out to give an in-app version of this notification and then when the date came, the app should have prevented modification of the vault and network connectivity removed from the app.
As mentioned above, we unless you were using a 1Password.com account, we didn't know you exist. We emailed those people, but we cannot hunt you down to notify you about outdated prerelease software you've been using on your own will stop working.
Now maybe this wasn't possible given the mess up with the UWP app (where everyone got upgraded to the desktop bridge version), but if it this were true, it wouldn't stop a clear, timely and honest message UWP users of what would happen. Certainly, for me, the statement "That said, I'm sure we'll warn y'all before access is cut off" was not true for me. The messaging all seemed a bit vague.
Again, we warned everyone we could months beforehand. I'm sorry that didn't help in your case. :(
I don't want to discourage future UWP app development - I just feel this should have been handled better and there are potential lessons to be learned. Keep up the good work with the service - I'm still a happy user overall.
Thanks for the kind words, especially under the circumstances. I really hope we can revisit UWP, but we've got a lot of work to do on things that many more people need/want (local vaults, and UWP will not run on Windows 7) most of all before we're in a position to tackle something like that. In the future, maybe it makes sense to limit betas to 1Password.com members since that would allow us to notify people running obsolete versions.
0 -
Like another user, was troubleshooting on my Lumia 950XL and uninstalled, only to find out there is nothing left in the Windows Store for the phone :'(
This is just a 'me too' for a solution (that doesn't involve an iPhone)
0 -
@Tims_AgileBits: Thanks for letting us know. I'm sorry to say that we (and Microsoft, unfortunately) don't currently have plans for Windows Phone, but as I mentioned above you may be able to access your 1Password.com account in the browser there to access your data in a pinch. Let me know if that works on your device. :blush:
0
