Chrome extension does not "update existing" when changing a password within a website

chris_zombik
chris_zombik
Community Member
in 1Password in the Browser

Hi,

I have had this problem a bunch of times but it just happened again and I've lost my patience so I'm finally here to report it.

Using Chrome browser (Version 62.0.3202.75 (Official Build) (64-bit)) on MacOS (versions 10.11.6).

I got 1password on the recommendation of a friend, as well as after hearing half a dozen podcast hosts I respect and trust sing its praises for over a year. But it constantly undermines my ability to do anything password-related in my daily life, because it does not properly save the information when I change my password on a given service in the browser.

Here is what happened to me a few minutes ago (longer than that actually, because getting into this forum was harder than breaking into Fort Knox):

  1. I visit the website Zapier.com, which I haven't used in ages but would like to use for a new project I'm starting.
  2. After logging into Zapier using Chrome autofill, I realize that my Zapier password is still my old crummy "use everywhere but not that strong" password from before I bought 1password and started slowly transitioning to it using the services that are most important to me.
  3. I navigated to my account page on Zapier and used their built-in "change password" function. I (a) typed my old password, then (b) used the 1password Chrome extension to generate and fill a new strong password, which also pressed the "confirm change password" button and completed the process.
  4. That done, I got a popup asking if I would like to update my 1password login for Zapier—because it turns out, I did have it saved in 1password, but with the old crummy password. Of course, I would love to save the new one, so I clicked the "confirm" button or whatever it says.
  5. Zapier kicked me out and prompted me to login again using the new password, so I clicked the Chrome extension and hovered the Zapier login option from the top of the page, then went and copied the password from the popup login info window, and pasted it to the webpage in the password field. Oh no! It's the same stupid old 8 character password I made 10 years ago, and my "new password" that I "updated" is nowhere in sight.
  6. I go through the rigamarole of "I forgot my password," and do it all right the second time, this time avoiding disaster by manually copy-pasting the auto-generated 1password password to my clipboard just in case it doesn't "update existing" (it worked perfectly this time I don't know how or why).

This whole process wasted 20 minutes of my life and gave me a splitting headache. In terms of that project I was trying to get started on, all my momentum is gone and now I have to go out to an appointment.

So, what am I doing wrong? Am I just an idiot, or is 1password really this badly designed?

Thanks in advance.

1Password Version: 6.8.3
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: MacOS 10.11.6
Sync Type: Not Provided
Referrer: forum-search:Chrome extension does not "update existing" when changing a password within a website

Comments

  • littlebobbytables
    littlebobbytables
    1Password Alumni

    Hi @chris_zombik,

    At the moment I cannot provide a definitive answer as to why it didn't work for you. I don't have an account at this site but it was easy to create one so I did precisely this to test where I did find 1Password didn't do a good job of recognising the sign-in form which we will have to investigate. After ensuring I had a working Login item in my vault though I went through the process of changing my password with the assistance of 1Password and the Login item correctly updated. I logged out and it allowed me to log in with the new password.

    As I wasn't able to reproduce the results that you've described I'm not in a position to offer any form of concrete explanation as to why it didn't work for you where it did for me. Should you be willing to try again there are a couple of things worth understanding about 1Password that might help if things don't go perfectly smoothly.

    1. Whenever you use the Password Generator in 1Password mini to fill or copy a generated password it creates a Password item in your vault with the generated password used. If you used 1Password mini in a browser the Password item's title will be the domain of the site in the open page and the Password item will also contain the full URL of the open page. This is a safety net in case 1Password doesn't recognise the password change form for any reason. 1Password deletes these Password items if they become redundant and this redundancy is defined as 1Password correctly identifying that a Login item is to be updated, the user instructing 1Password to update and the freshly saved password matches the one stored in the Password item.
    2. Every Login item has a password history that can be accessed to view previous passwords and the timestamp for when the item's password was last changed.

    If you are able to reproduce at all I would be curious to learn if the Password item is still present or if the password history for this Login item sheds any light on what happened. The primary role of the Password item is so you don't need to go through the forgotten password process should 1Password not successfully identify a change password form. Given 1Password has to analyse a page and attempt to determine the purpose it is possible it won't always get it right. We do like to learn when this happens so we can use this to help guide future development and improve 1Password.

This discussion has been closed.