Bug: Spaces in passwords are hard to see on IoS

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adam667
adam667
Community Member

Hi,

If I have a password of the form "fooby-beep-wham (8dfdksfd)" then when it displays on ISS, the space between m and ( is invisible.

Repro: create a password with lots of spaces, display it on IOS using the "large type" option. Wonder why the password you carefully type in is rejected. The space is visible in "reveal", but I didn't think to look there. It also displays well in large type on MacOS, and the character numbering you do on MacOS might be part of the solution.

Impact: Can't get password out effectively.


1Password Version: 7.0.5
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: IOS 11
Sync Type: Not Provided
Referrer: forum-search:space

Comments

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni
    edited March 2018
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    @adam667: I'm not sure I agree. Can you give a visual example of something 1Password generated? That one seems a bit contrived, as you could easily eliminate the space, use another character, or simply have 1Password generate a completely random password for you.

    What I'm seeing is that, since we're using a fixed width font for Large Type passwords, a space is exactly the same width as any other character — which, for me at least, makes it fairly easy to tell that there's an (empty) space between characters. Also, since underscores need to be reserved for actual underscores, we can't use those in place of spaces to try to make it clearer. I agree that it's slightly more problematic for Large Type since lines have to wrap more, but I'm not sure what the solution to that would be. You can always Reveal the password instead though, so that more of it fits on a single line. And, of course, using 1Password to fill, or copying and pasting, helps you avoid any guesswork. Hopefully we'll be able to come up with a way to make it clearer in the future though. Thanks for bringing this up! :)

  • adam667
    adam667
    Community Member
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    @brenty it may seem contrived, it actually happened, although not with a pw that was generated by 1password. I needed a set of passwords for a system, and it was easier to grab text out of a linux install that was scrolling by then to generate it.

    Fixes might include the character separating bars you use on MacOS, a ] rotated 90 degrees, or even the string in small letters (since the other characters are big, you can fit it in.

    I would understand you not prioritizing a fix, especially as once it happened I'm likely to look at it in multiple ways.

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni
    edited March 2018
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    @brenty it may seem contrived, it actually happened, although not with a pw that was generated by 1password. I needed a set of passwords for a system, and it was easier to grab text out of a linux install that was scrolling by then to generate it.

    @adam667: No problem! Just trying to make sure we're on the same page. :)

    Fixes might include the character separating bars you use on MacOS, a ] rotated 90 degrees, or even the string in small letters (since the other characters are big, you can fit it in.

    I would personally love that...but just as the spaces are problematic for you, it would confuse a lot of other users, who would literally be looking for a 90º-rotated ] on their keyboard. I really like this idea though, so perhaps we can come up with something sort of in that same vein that would be less ambiguous or confusing. Maybe like...changing the background colour to show that spaces are a character too...

    I would understand you not prioritizing a fix, especially as once it happened I'm likely to look at it in multiple ways.

    It's certainly a tough one, so I'm glad we're discussing it. :blush:

  • adam667
    adam667
    Community Member
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    I think we see eye to i on this one. :)

    How about a thought balloon saying "space" "tab" etc? Is there a reason the MacOS solution of having numbered character boxes, or the word in a small font wouldn't work? How about a notice bar across the top saying "hey, this password has a space at character 17, between i and e? You can also see that better using the `reveal' option" Or, that leads me to: show the entire password on a single line under the large type version, possibly under words like "This password has blank characters in it, so we're showing it to you in a second way."

    It's a fun usability problem! :)

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni
    Options

    I think we see eye to i on this one. :)

    @adam667: :chuffed: :+1:

    How about a thought balloon saying "space" "tab" etc? Is there a reason the MacOS solution of having numbered character boxes, or the word in a small font wouldn't work?

    I think that would be best, yes. :)

    How about a notice bar across the top saying "hey, this password has a space at character 17, between i and e? You can also see that better using the `reveal' option" Or, that leads me to: show the entire password on a single line under the large type version, possibly under words like "This password has blank characters in it, so we're showing it to you in a second way." It's a fun usability problem! :)

    Definitely! I think that the answer lies somewhere in between, and while fitting it onto small screens is certainly a challenge, going more in the direction of 1Password for Mac (where we added this feature a while after the iOS version) seems like a good thing. Thank you! :)

    ref: OPI-3180

This discussion has been closed.