Feature Request: More granular controls on password generator

syntax53
syntax53
Community Member

Currently your password generator has a length and what to allow, but not what to require. A more complete solution would be to "include numbers" and "include symbols" and "include different case", etc. Sometime a 10 character password is generated (like for me just now causing me to submit this thread) that doesn't contain a number.

I also don't like to see periods and equal signs in passwords, for example. There isn't a way to stop that. The "include symbols" option could be expanded to provide a "valid symbols" box with a list of potential characters to use.


1Password Version: Not Provided
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: Not Provided
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Comments

  • blaxxz
    blaxxz
    Community Member
    edited April 2018

    I like this Request. ;)
    Hope that is accepted.

    Like this?

  • littlebobbytables
    littlebobbytables
    1Password Alumni

    Hi @syntax53,

    The Password Generator is part of the native 1Password application so can you let us know what version of 1Password you're running please. I'll make sure to move your request to the platform specific section of our forums so the right people see your request :smile:

  • @syntax53: We want to keep the password generator fairly simple and focus on giving you a password with the most possible entropy. The best way thing to do right now is to regenerate the password, or manually edit it before copying, if what you're given doesn't work for a particular site. Part of being truly random does mean a password set to include digits won't always, but it shouldn't be terribly common, particularly with longer passwords (and we all know longer is better when possible). We do expect some changes here down the road, but I can't speak to what form they will take at this point. All the same, we'll keep your feedback in mind as we make that decision and I'll be sure to pass it along to the team. :chuffed:

  • sas_sam
    sas_sam
    Community Member

    +1 for this request! I miss the option to set the number of digits and symbols!

  • Thanks for the feedback @sas_sam! I'll be sure to pass it along. :chuffed:

  • kuoirad
    kuoirad
    Community Member

    Another +1 for this. I recently moved from a standalone 1PW 4 on Windows to the 7 Beta, and discovered this missing feature. I'd really like to have it back. It's still there in 1PW 6 for Mac.

    I don't pretend to know how complex to do this would be, but could it be an advanced preference toggle so those of us that want it can turn it on, but the default is as you have it now?

  • Thanks for sharing your feedback, @kuoirad! :chuffed:

  • Mousit
    Mousit
    Community Member

    Just wanted to jump in and +1 this too. I usually end up moving over to my Mac to generate a password (even if I started the new entry or change on Windows), because I like the Mac's generator tuning. Combined with the fact that you currently have not implemented always-visible password strength meters on Windows (something I love on Mac and Win 1P4), I end up feeling quite leery of the Windows generator and its results, even if they're perfectly fine.

  • Greg
    Greg
    1Password Alumni

    Hi @Mousit,

    We are building 1Password 7 for Windows from the ground up, nothing was carried over from 1Password 4, so we have a lot on our plates. It is only the beginning and there will be a lot of polishing and improvements in the future updates. Moreover, we try to make 1Password experience consistent across different platforms, so your feedback is appreciated. :chuffed:

    Let me know if you have any other questions, we are always here for you. Thanks!

    ++
    Greg

  • sniem
    sniem
    Community Member

    I second that request.
    There are several websites that require symbols but allow only some of them (often no §<>|...#') so it would be helpful to have a limited set of symbols/all symbols option and/or to manually add symbols that may be added to the pw generation - my workaround yesterday was to create a pw without symbols and less characters than possible and then I manually added some special characters while counting so that I would get over the max allowed - not the perfect solution :)

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni

    @sniem: I'm not sure what would be a good user-friendly way to do it, but it's definitely something we're evaluating. For now, I find it's easier (and more random) to generate a longer password than necessary and then simply remove any banned characters from it. Thanks for the feedback! :)

  • mstgrv
    mstgrv
    Community Member

    A lot of sites (mostly banking sites) support [b]only certain symbols[/b] in their passwords.

    1password's password generator is difficult to use for these sites, because enabling symbols will invariably generate passwords that are incompatible with these sites' symbols requirements.

    The random password generator should have a way to limit the symbols it will use when generating random passwords, to make generating new random passwords easier for sites that enforce limited support for symbols in their passwords.


    1Password Version: Not Provided
    Extension Version: Not Provided
    OS Version: Not Provided
    Sync Type: Not Provided

  • mstgrv
    mstgrv
    Community Member

    Didn't intend for this to end up in the iOS forum btw!

  • sniem
    sniem
    Community Member

    I second this request, you may want to add a supportive comment in this support thread: https://discussions.agilebits.com/discussion/comment/437923#Comment_437923

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni

    you may want to add a supportive comment in this support thread

    Please don't. Posting the same thing in multiple places just makes it take longer for us to reply to everyone. I've merged these discussions into a single one in the Lounge since it isn't platform-specific. :)

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni

    @mstgrv: I don't really have anything to add to earlier comments on this subject, but I appreciate you letting us know this is a feature you want us to add to the apps. Cheers! :)

  • zebdro
    zebdro
    Community Member

    I've requested a way to select which symbols that PW Generator includes in the past. Today I came across an excellent example of how sites limit symbols allowed. I'd like to set up 1P so that it makes acceptable passwords for sties like this one (in my experience, most sites doing secure business).

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni

    It isn't possible today, but we're working on some things that might help. :)

  • zebdro
    zebdro
    Community Member


    Another example from Chase bank.

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni
    edited February 2019

    Oh yeah. They're the worst. I've got too many accounts with them...

    ref: xplatform/b5book#306

  • zebdro
    zebdro
    Community Member

    Yet another example. Please make an update allowing users to select excluded symbols for generated passwords!

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni

    It's something that's possible with our new password generator, which is being rolled out across all platforms. However, there is no user-facing way to do this currently. It's something we'd like to add, but it needs to suck less than these websites. So bad! :lol:

  • @syntax53

    I think perhaps we've done a poor job conveying our position. We aren't saying that we are not considering improvements. On the contrary, we have improvements for the password generator planned... many of which have already been writen. We're still struggling with some of the UI aspects, but as Brenty mentioned "It's something we'd like to add [...]."

    Ben

  • Ben
    Ben
    edited June 2019

    @syntax53

    In the latest iteration of the password generator (on Mac, currently) there is a checkbox if you'd like to include numbers:

    If that isn't checked then generated passwords won't include a number. You can spot at a quick glance if a symbol or number is included because symbols will be red and numbers will be blue while letters are white. We will likely be rolling out this generator to the other platforms as well.

    Ben

  • I understand it doesn't help for the immediate future. That's why I mentioned "We will likely be rolling out this generator to the other platforms as well."

    What was posted earlier is what needs to be done.

    I can say with some confidence that we won't be doing exactly that, but hopefully we can continue to make improvements here.

    Ben

  • jpgoldberg
    jpgoldberg
    1Password Alumni

    We really are trying to bring uniformity to this across platforms, @syntax53. Indeed, our "new" password generator was part of an early test case as it was also something where we needed to improve consistency the most. But it was a test case, meaning that we knew at the outset that the tech we were using for common code might not work out in practice or at scale. We've learned a lot, and I'm more optimistic about us getting the 1Password clients more in tune with each other.

    I should also say that if you look back over the span of years (instead of just months), you will see that we do have much more consistency across platforms than we used to. It's an on-going process, but it really is happening even if I can't say when 1Password for Windows will get the "new" password generator.

This discussion has been closed.