Firefox extension pops up every time I try to login to a site and interferes with login. Why?

The 1Password extension for Firefox on Windows 10 gets in my face every time I visit a site where I have a saved login. It pops up and blocks the login screen even if 1Password is unlocked.

Why does it do this annoying behaviour? I can't login to my Ars Technica account because of this. I have to quit 1Password (including the background helper) or disable the extension in order to login. Is this the intended behaviour or has the extension been abandoned?


1Password Version: 7.6.780
Extension Version: 4.7.5.90
OS Version: Windows 10
Sync Type: 1Password

Comments

  • Greg
    Greg
    1Password Alumni

    Hi @Boosh,

    1Password companion extension should not pop up and suggest you to update a Login item, if 1Password 7 is unlocked.

    Could you please check the extensions in Firefox and make sure that you do not have 1Password X installed in addition to 1Password companion extension?

    Let me know what you find and we'll work from there. Thanks! :+1:

    ++
    Greg

  • Boosh
    Boosh
    Community Member

    @greg,

    Yes, I have the latest extension installed.

    The Firefox 1Password plugin pops up and gets in my face whenever I log into a site using credentials saved in Firefox's own password vault. This happens when 1Password is locked. If I unlock it, the behaviour goes away. However, this behaviour does not match the behaviour of the 1Password extension for Firefox on macOS. On macOS, with 1Password locked, the extension doesn't pop up with every login using Firefox's built-in password manager.

    In short, there is a behaviour discrepancy for the Firefox 1Password extension on Windows vs macOS.

  • Greg
    Greg
    1Password Alumni

    Hello @Boosh, thank you for the update! Do you use the same version of 1Password extension in Firefox on macOS?

    This is an intended behaviour on Windows at the moment. This is a security measure, 1Password for Windows does not know what you data you have until you unlock first. It's trying to save the data but it needs access to your encrypted content before it knows if it should save or not.

    Moreover, I would recommend you to disable the built-in password manager in your browser in order to avoid any conflicts:

    Turn off the built-in password manager in your browser

    We have plans to make this experience more consistent across platforms, so please stay tuned. Thanks!

    ++
    Greg

  • Boosh
    Boosh
    Community Member

    @Greg,

    OK, well that explains the behaviour difference between macOS and Windows 10. I'll disable the Firefox feature. But it would be nice if 1Password's browser extensions could work with a browsers native password manager without conflict. Maybe one day.

    As for the Firefox extension on macOS, yes, it is the same version as on the Windows side.

    Thanks.

  • Greg
    Greg
    1Password Alumni

    Hi @Boosh,

    Is there a particular reason why you use the built-in password manager alongside 1Password in your browser? It is quite unusual, since this way you have duplicating features. Is there something that the built-in password manager can do that 1Password can't? Please let me know. Thanks! :+1:

    ++
    Greg

  • Boosh
    Boosh
    Community Member

    @Greg,

    Partly for convenience and speed and reliability. The browser password manager autofills the login fields every time, but with 1Password, I always have to manually trigger autofill. It's an extra step or two and that makes the process feel a bit clunky compared to the built-in password manager.

    And in some cases (e.g., arstechnica.com), the 1Password Firefox extension for Windows is unable to autofill the email/username and password fields. So I have to copy and paste the username and password from 1Password to Firefox.

    Little frustrations like this add up and taint my experience with 1Password. 1Password never feels or behaves as seamless and integrated as I would like it to.

    I tend to use 1Password more as a repository or archive of logins, passwords, and other important information. I have nearly a 1300 entries in 1Password, but I tend to use the browser password manager for frequently accessed websites like social media sites, forums, and webmail. I use 1Password for everything else.

  • Greg
    Greg
    1Password Alumni

    Hi @Boosh,

    Thank you for your detailed reply! Definitely, this is not the way how 1Password is supposed to work, so let's try to understand why it doesn't work as expected.

    First of all, I would like to point out that 1Password extensions never auto-fill your credentials in your browser for your security. Please check this post in our blog for more information:

    1Password keeps you safe by keeping you in the loop

    If you use 1Password companion extension, you can use a simple keyboard shortcut (CTRL + \) in order to fill your credentials on the websites you visit. If it doesn't happen, we will need to look at each website individually. For example, I managed to fill my Login item on https://arstechnica.com/. I selected one of the sign-in fields, then pressed CTRL + \ and voila, it worked:

    Could you please tell me what steps do you take on their website? I am here to help.

    Secondly, if you have a 1Password account, you can also give 1Password X a try:

    Get to know 1Password X

    1Password X works entirely in your browser and it shows you a 1Password icon right within the sign-in forms:

    This way you will be able to select and fill your credentials without extra steps. What do you think?

    Thanks in advance! :+

    ++
    Greg

  • Boosh
    Boosh
    Community Member

    @Greg,

    Thanks for the informative post about auto-filling.

    As for arstechnica.com, the CTRL + \ keyboard shortcut works, but both the browser extension and 1Password X extension cannot populate the login fields when I click the Autofill button. When I click the Arstechnica sign-in button, a slide down menu sheet appears with the login fields. As soon as I click Autofill in either of the 1Password Firefox extensions, the sign-in window instantly vanishes without having the fields populated.

    Also, I'm unclear as to why there are two different browser extensions for 1Password. This is the first I've heard of 1Password X for browsers. Wasn't 1Password X the name of the old Mac version of 1Password that still permitted local vaults and Dropbox syncing before they switched to the subscription-only model?

  • ag_ana
    ag_ana
    1Password Alumni

    @Boosh:

    I have also just tested the arstechnica website and I was able to get 1Password to fill both username and password for me. Can you perhaps try creating a new Login item from scratch and see if that one works for you?

    Also, I'm unclear as to why there are two different browser extensions for 1Password. This is the first I've heard of 1Password X for browsers.

    1Password X is our latest version of the browser extension, designed to run entirely in the browser without the need to install the 1Password desktop app. You can read more about it here:

    1Password X

    The companion browser extension is our older browser extension, the one that required the 1Password app to be installed. Because 1Password X is an exclusive for 1Password subscribers, you would use the older companion browser extension if you don't have a 1Password account, for example.

    But ultimately, it is up to you which one you choose: if you have a 1Password Membership, I recommend giving 1Password X a try :) In the future I would imagine we will go back to a single extension.

  • Boosh
    Boosh
    Community Member

    @ag_ana,

    I created a new login. I noticed that my original entry had an old url for arstechnica.com which they no longer used. With the new login entry, the 1Password X icon showed up in the Arstechnica sign-in field. Clicking the sign-in fields triggered the autofill.

    However, both the regular browser extension and the 1Password X browser extension failed to populate the sign-in fields when I click the Autofill button in the extension or the suggested entry.

    So 1Password is clearly having some difficulties with Arstechnica's sign-in menu.

  • Thanks for letting us know that you're still seeing this issue, @Boosh

    After testing things out here on my end as well, I wasn't able to reproduce any of the issues you mentioned with ArsTechnica. 😥

    Can you go ahead and shoot me and my team an email over to support+windows@1password.com so we can take a closer look at things with you there?

    Talk to you soon,

  • Boosh
    Boosh
    Community Member

    @Blake,

    OK, I've sent an email to your support team.

  • Blake
    edited November 2020

    Thanks!

    I saw your email roll in, and we will continue our conversation there moving forward. 😊

    ref: LCJ-66222-853

This discussion has been closed.