Feedback: 1PW8 Mac Beta menubar item is mostly useless and the loss of mini panel is a deal breaker

In the 1Password 8 beta for Mac the menubar item is now kind of useless - it no longer opens the useful mini panel and instead only has options to open the main 1Password app (I already know how to do that, thanks), to open the Quick Access palette (which isn't as user friendly or as useful as the old mini panel), and to lock or quit the app. To do anything useful with the menu item I have to click something twice before I can even start searching. It's a small thing but it's frustrating - this way the menu item isn't actually a useful utility or shortcut, it's more like a fancy bookmark that takes up menubar space. Having it just pop open the Quick Access palette automatically would be more useful in most "quick search" cases.

But the main problem I've run into with v8 is the loss of the mini panel. With the old menubar item I could click it once to immediately see the mini panel and then I could quickly type in the keywords I wanted and then use arrow up/down in the list to show the corresponding entry contents in the main portion of the panel. This allowed me to quickly and easily see ALL of the entry's values which was especially helpful with entries that hold more information than just a username and password. Most of the entries that I deal with on a regular basis have many more fields than just username/password and I would use this method as a very easy way of getting to the info I needed. For example I could see how much time was left before an OTP token regenerated, I could read a note in the entry, I could click to copy a custom value like a complicated command line argument, I could glance at a phone number or the 3-digit credit card code, I could hold option down and view an obfuscated field, I could copy a secondary/related password for the entry... and I can't do any of that easily from the "Quick Access" palette.

In 1PW7 I could quickly and easily find what I was looking for and I could easily interact with all of the items in the entry all without having to jump through any hoops to get at what I wanted and all right there in one place that was easy to see. Quick, easy, unobtrusive, and useful. However, in 1PW8 I now have to arrow down the list, hit right arrow to see only some of the fields in the entry, hit left arrow to get back to the original list, down arrow to see the next entry ... and so on - and that still won't let me get to the other values in the entry that I'm looking for, like the notes or custom fields, without opening the entry in a new window. The v7 menubar item would also remember my last searches which was handy when I'd have to access related entries in an order, now I have to start the search over again each time.

It really feels to me like one of the most useful features of 1Password was removed in this new version and that the utility of this amazing tool has taken a large step backwards. I guess this is kind of a rant, and I apologize for that, but I'm frustrated because I love 1Password and use it dozens of times every day, but even with the other real improvements v8 comes with I can't see me upgrading to 8 and losing these features.


1Password Version: 80500079, on BETA channel
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: macOS 12.1

Comments

  • OAW
    OAW
    Community Member
    edited January 2022

    @bubbal AgileBits seems insistent on this new Quick Access feature and the 1PW Mini has essentially been abandoned. The closest thing currently available that functions like 1PW Mini is the 1PW in the Browser extension.

  • snozdop
    snozdop
    Community Member

    The menu bar item has essentially become completely useless for me. Whereas in 1PW 7 it was my primary method of interacting with 1Password and super quick to access almost anything, it now requires more clicks and finger gymnastics to access less information than before.

    I basically have to keep the whole 1Password main app running to do what 1Password mini did from the menubar previously.

  • tomjepp
    tomjepp
    Community Member

    @roustem previously stated that:

    The old mini was just too close to what the main 1Password app already does. It felt weird to replicate 90% of the main app functionality in the mini.

    But I think that misses the point - opening the main app is a big distraction from whatever task you're working on. They know this because the browser extensions exist, and mini is essentially almost exactly the same functionality as the browser extensions provide, but it works for every app on the system.

    I'd actually be reasonably happy if they did nothing else but lift the browser extension's popup and dropped that into the main app as a replacement for mini, but I don't see it happening. They've committed to quick access and don't seem interested in hearing criticism about it.

  • Hi folks, I just wanted to let you know I have passed on your feedback about Quick Access to our developers. Thank you for letting us know your views on this!

This discussion has been closed.