1password does not work well with change password screens

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MacOS Mojave + Chrome + 1password extension.

A typical "change password" screen has three fields:

  1. Old password
  2. New password
  3. Re-enter new password

There's a pretty annoying bug in 1password (maybe this affects other password managers too) where, selecting the "Use suggested password" option in the "New password" field causes all three fields to be populated with the new password. The resulting password change fails.

You might think, "just go back to the first field and let 1password fill it in for you". But that doesn't work. You end up in one of the following flows:

  1. After using the "Use suggested password" option, you choose to "update your existing password", which overwrites the existing password, which prevents you from going back to the first field to have 1password fill it in for you,
  2. You skip updating the existing password, allowing 1password to fill in the old password again, but now you don't have the new password saved anywhere so you end up having to do a password reset,
  3. You add a new password entry instead of updating the existing one and now you have two entries for the same site/service which you need to clean up by hand.

The only way to make this work is to skip the "use suggested password" option, and use the password generator feature in the browser extension to generate a new password which you cut and paste into the 2nd and 3rd fields. Even that doesn't always work because some really annoying websites prevent you from pasting passwords.


1Password Version: 1.12
Extension Version: 1.12
OS Version: MacOS 10.14 (Mojave)
Sync Type: Not Provided
Referrer: forum-search:Update password overwrites current password

Comments

  • littlebobbytables
    littlebobbytables
    1Password Alumni
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    Hi @drumboots,

    Are you saying that even after filling in your existing password that the suggested password is overwriting the contents of the field or are all three fields empty when you use the suggested password option? My understanding is it should only be filling the empty fields so if you fill the current password first and then use the suggested password option it should work. If you have a site where this didn't happen and I can easily create a test account I'll happily test and file a report if things aren't working as expected.

  • drumboots
    drumboots
    Community Member
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    It fills in all three fields, in almost 100% of cases (using Watchtower, I've been changing a lot of passwords!)

    1. Enter old password in "old password" field, either manually or let 1password do it,
    2. Switch focus to the first "new password" field and select the 1password suggested password that appears in the popup
    3. 1password fills the suggested password into the old, new, and "repeated new" password fields, and of course then asks if I want to save the new password in 1password
  • littlebobbytables
    littlebobbytables
    1Password Alumni
    Options

    Hi @drumboots,

    You say it's happening in almost 100% of cases but I just picked four test accounts at random (Twitter, Amazon, Microsoft and AirBnB) and was able to change the password in all four without issue. I filled the current password using 1Password X and then used 1Password X's suggested password for the first new field and it filled both it and the empty confirm field but in all four tries it left the already filled current password alone.

    Can you name one or two sites where you're not seeing this please and I will happily test to see if I observe anything other than the expected behaviour.

  • drumboots
    drumboots
    Community Member
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    I'll find a recent example and do a screen recording.

  • littlebobbytables
    littlebobbytables
    1Password Alumni
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    Hi @drumboots,

    If it's a site where I can easily create a test account (or may already have one) then a URL will be all we need and will save you having to take the time to create a screen recording (which was a kind offer). It also means I can collect various details about the page when filing a report. I'd also like to ensure you don't risk revealing anything accidentally in a screen recording given this support forum is public and visible to everybody.

  • Steindak
    Steindak
    Community Member
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    I have a similar problem with Amazon, PayPal and Google change password screens. I enter my old password, click 1Password create login, enter my email and select Generate Password, then select Fill and Save, and 1Password replaces my old password with the generated password and leaves the New Password and Confirm New Password fields blank.

    A work around is to retrieve and manually enter the generated password into both fields (the web page wouldn’t let me copy and paste). But this is super cumbersome and I had trouble using that also.

  • kaitlyn
    kaitlyn
    1Password Alumni
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    Hi there @Steindak! I gave it changing my password a try on Amazon, PayPal, and Google, and all three filled well for me. In fact, Google's new password field is on a different page than the current password, so I don't see how it would be possible to fill a field on the previous page.

    Just so we're clear, are you using the inline Suggested Password that's available with 1Password X? Here's a screenshot for you:

    Would you mind giving it another try and making sure you use what's in the screenshot above? If you're still having trouble, let me know.

This discussion has been closed.