Please (!!!) give us access to the Trash!

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HippoMan
HippoMan
Community Member

I know that we do not have access to the Trash when using the Android app (and the same is true with the iOS app).

In this comment, I am begging you folks to add Trash access to your mobile apps.

Sometimes I accidentally delete an item under the mobile app, and it's a major PITA to have to wait until later when I can use the desktop app to restore it.

I can see no benefit to mobile users, whatsoever, to prevent them from accessing the Trash, and instead, this is a drawback.

I wouldn't mind if we have to take extra steps to access the Trash via the mobile app. As long as there would be some way to get to the Trash, this would be a major benefit.

Thank you very much.

Comments

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni
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    @HippoMan: Thanks for getting in touch. I'm sorry to do this do you, but I have to know: is there a story behind this? It's certainly something we can consider, but I have to say, it doesn't come up often at all, and I can't say I've ever heard from anyone so passionate about Trash. So you've piqued my interest! I guess the other part of the question is, how did you accidentally delete something in the first place? I'm not sure I've ever managed that in the Android app, but maybe there's something we're overlooking, that we could improve. Thanks in advance!

  • HippoMan
    HippoMan
    Community Member
    edited June 2018
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    I have accidentally deleted something by inadvertantly choosing the wrong item to delete. I have LOTS of secure notes, and I am contantly editing them. I make mistakes.

    Here's one example: on the train, I lose the mobile phone signal a lot, and then when the signal resumes, I have to return to the 1Password app and continue with what I was doing before signal loss. Recently, I was ready to delete a secure note but lost the phone signal, and I only had a short time to delete it when the signal returned and before I lost the signal again. In my haste, I accidentally chose the wrong secure note and deleted it.

    Also, I have noticed that sometimes, if I lose the cell signal, the app crashes, and the entire Secure Note I was working has become empty when I get a signal again and return to the message.

    My python wrapper around the CLI has to do the following when I use it to update items: (1) create a new item with the same name that has the updates; (2) Trash the original item. This means that the original item is in the Trash, and if I am using the CLI wrapper a lot for any given item, there are many older versions of that item sitting in the Trash. If I have accidentally deleted an item or lost the data for an item due to the app crashing as described above, I could go back to the Trash to retrieve the previous version of the item, so at least I have a recent version to work on. But I can't do that until I get home, because the Trash is not accessible from the app.

    As for my interest in the Trash ...

    Since the CLI cannot actually delete items and only Trashes them, and since the CLI currently can't remove items from the Trash, the Trash folders are important components within the processing flow of my CLI wrapper. The items in the Trash become backups, and this is turns out to be quite useful and helpful in cases like those I have described above.

  • HippoMan
    HippoMan
    Community Member
    edited June 2018
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    PS: I have tried to go to the 1Password web site from my mobile phone's browser to attempt to restore items from the Trash. I'm not sure why, but that web page doesn't work properly from my mobile browser, and the "Restore" function does not appear when I am viewing items in the Trash.

    If this worked, I could access the Trash the way I want from my mobile browser. But alas ...

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni
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    I have accidentally deleted something by inadvertantly choosing the wrong item to delete. I have LOTS of secure notes, and I am contantly editing them. I make mistakes.

    @HippoMan: I make a lot of mistakes. This just doesn't happen to be one that's common for me, so I really appreciate you taking the time to elaborate! :)

    Here's one example: on the train, I lose the mobile phone signal a lot, and then when the signal resumes, I have to return to the 1Password app and continue with what I was doing before signal loss. Recently, I was ready to delete a secure note but lost the phone signal, and I only had a short time to delete it when the signal returned and before I lost the signal again. In my haste, I accidentally chose the wrong secure note and deleted it.

    That's a good example, and makes sense. Thank you! I'm not sure an "undo" function would help in this specific case, but one this I do run into often myself is accidentally deleting reminders in todo apps since I can easily mis-swipe -- especially in a moving train!

    Also, I have noticed that sometimes, if I lose the cell signal, the app crashes, and the entire Secure Note I was working has become empty when I get a signal again and return to the message.

    Okay, that actually sounds like a bug we need to fix. Is this something you're able to reproduce somewhat consistently? If so, can you let me know the exact steps? It seems like 1Password should handle situations like that more gracefully.

    My python wrapper around the CLI has to do the following when I use it to update items: (1) create a new item with the same name that has the updates; (2) Trash the original item. This means that the original item is in the Trash, and if I am using the CLI wrapper a lot for any given item, there are many older versions of that item sitting in the Trash. If I have accidentally deleted an item or lost the data for an item due to the app crashing as described above, I could go back to the Trash to retrieve the previous version of the item, so at least I have a recent version to work on. But I can't do that until I get home, because the Trash is not accessible from the app.

    Aha! I knew there was going to be something interesting here I hadn't considered. I also knew your username sounded familiar, but couldn't place it. I've been following your posts in the CLI category, but never would have made this connection if you hadn't mentioned it. That makes a lot of since. It isn't going to be a common usage scenario, but it definitely helps to know why you're running into this more than others.

    As for my interest in the Trash ... Since the CLI cannot actually delete items and only Trashes them, and since the CLI currently can't remove items from the Trash, the Trash folders are important components within the processing flow of my CLI wrapper. The items in the Trash become backups, and this is turns out to be quite useful and helpful in cases like those I have described above.

    Indeed, the backup and item history functions of 1Password.com can help a lot with scenarios like this, but...

    PS: I have tried to go to the 1Password web site from my mobile phone's browser to attempt to restore items from the Trash. I'm not sure why, but that web page doesn't work properly from my mobile browser, and the "Restore" function does not appear when I am viewing items in the Trash.

    That sounds like another thing we should address. What browser version are you using, and on what device? If we can make the web interface more compatible, that would be good to do as well.

    If this worked, I could access the Trash the way I want from my mobile browser. But alas ...

    While I can argue fairly reasonably that Trash is less relevant on mobile devices and wouldn't be used by most people (hence the dearth of requests for it), you raise some really good points. And perhaps the most compelling argument is that as the "mobile" apps get used on more and more less-mobile devices (iPad Pro, Chromebook, etc.) it makes sense to have them come closer in functionality to the desktop apps as well. Thank you for bringing this up, and for all of your feedback! :chuffed: :+1:

  • HippoMan
    HippoMan
    Community Member
    edited June 2018
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    I'm using the latest version of Boat Browser under Android 7. I could try other browsers, but I after evaluating all (or at least most) of the others, I have settled on that one, and I prefer not to have to use one special browser simply to access the 1Password web site.

    Thank you for reading and understanding all my concerns!

    I will do more investigation about the 1Password web site issues using my preferred mobile browser (and other mobile browsers). If I could have a reliable way to access the Trash on the mobile device via a browser, that can address my issues.

  • HippoMan
    HippoMan
    Community Member
    edited June 2018
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    OK. I see what's happening in the mobile browser. The "Restore" button for the Trash does indeed exist, but it is rendered as a small rectangle at the lower right of the screen with an "e" superimposed over the bottom of an "R". The "-store" part of that label is totally missing, and the tiny button is barely noticeable.

    If the buttons on your site could be rendered differently so their label text doesn't get scrunched together like that under small screen real-estate situations (as with mobile devices), that would be helpful.

    But at least I have a mobile-device way to restore from the Trash now.

    Onward!

  • HippoMan
    HippoMan
    Community Member
    edited June 2018
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    Also, I am forced to use a mobile device for personal purposes when at work, since our company has very strict protections on their internet. This is more and more the case for many companies these days.

    Also, nowadays, I use a traditional laptop at home as my "desktop computer", and I use an Android device as my "portable computer". More and more people are doing things like this these days.

    Therefore, making the mobile versions of the 1Password application more functional is indeed going to be more and more helpful as time goes on.

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni
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    I'm using the latest version of Boat Browser under Android 7. I could try other browsers, but I after evaluating all (or at least most) of the others, I have settled on that one, and I prefer not to have to use one special browser simply to access the 1Password web site. Thank you for reading and understanding all my concerns!

    @HippoMan: Likewise, thanks for getting back to me, and all of your your input here. I'd never even heard of that browser until now though, so it definitely isn't something we explicitly support. More on that later though.

    I will do more investigation about the 1Password web site issues using my preferred mobile browser (and other mobile browsers). If I could have a reliable way to access the Trash on the mobile device via a browser, that can address my issues.

    :) :+1:

    OK. I see what's happening in the mobile browser. The "Restore" button for the Trash does indeed exist, but it is rendered as a small rectangle at the lower right of the screen with an "e" superimposed over the bottom of an "R". The "-store" part of that label is totally missing, and the tiny button is barely noticeable. If the buttons on your site could be rendered differently so their label text doesn't get scrunched together like that under small screen real-estate situations (as with mobile devices), that would be helpful. But at least I have a mobile-device way to restore from the Trash now. Onward!

    I'm glad that you were able to find that workaround. I have to be honest, it's unlikely that we're going to make changes to the site just for this browser. It appears it only exists on Android, and I wasn't even able to find information on if this is based on Chrome or something. There just isn't a lot of info available it seems, and I'm not sure we could justify spending time trying to tweak the design to accommodate this. :(

    Also, I am forced to use a mobile device for personal purposes when at work, since our company has very strict protections on their internet. This is more and more the case for many companies these days. Also, nowadays, I use a traditional laptop at home as my "desktop computer", and I use an Android device as my "portable computer". More and more people are doing things like this these days. Therefore, making the mobile versions of the 1Password application more functional is indeed going to be more and more helpful as time goes on.

    I couldn't agree with you more. I'm not sure that Trash is something we can prioritize right now with so many other things we can do to make the mobile apps more powerful for use cases like yours, but we'll absolutely keep it in mind as we go through checking more and more items off our todo lists. I think if we can make them more capable without sacrificing usability, that's a win for everyone. Cheers! :)

This discussion has been closed.