Preserving selected category across lock/unlocks

Thanks for writing in, @Xenhat, and welcome to the forum! I moved your post to the Windows category as I think the trouble with 1Password X is likely more connected to some differences between how 1Password X behaves compared standard extension you'd have used with your standalone vault and the real issue is 100% Windows. I'll start by explaining what I'm getting at there.

Unlike the standard extension, 1Password X works only in your browser. That means if you are on a website's sign-in page when you open it, you'll see the proper suggested item, just as you would see matching items at the top of your list with your standalone vault. If you ever bring up mini outside of your browser, though, you'll still be seeing the old school mini, not 1Password X. That mini is coming from 1Password for Windows and actually has nothing to do with the extension at all. So, what will you see when? In your browser, using 1Password X, you'll see suggested items on sign-in pages, and the last selected category on the browser's start page. This is working fine for me with favorites – if I open a new tab, then open and unlock 1Password X, select favorites, then lock and unlock it again, I still see my favorites right away. Outside your browser using Ctrl + Alt + \? That shows 1Password for Windows' mini and, indeed, this doesn't display the category you have selected in 1Password for Windows. This is actually intentional for the moment. Mini on Windows lacks some of the super powers of its Mac cousin in that searching mini on Windows will only show results for the selected category. On Mac, searching searches All Items. It's a small thing, but the difference is that searching (what most folks do with mini outside a browser) is something naturally done in All Items. Since Mac can search All Items from any category, it can remember your selected category without impacting search. Windows can't yet, so it shows All Items every time. Once it catches up with Mac, though, I'd wager it'll join the party and start remembering your selected category, too. Regardless, I'll definitely pass your feedback onto the team. :+1:

Now, in the main app, I'm not seeing this issue at all. If I select Favorites then lock and unlock 1Password 7, Favorites is still selected for me. That said, if you happen to change categories in mini, that will also change what's selected in the main app. So, if you're using mini to copy/paste into an app outside your browser (where 1Password X isn't available), or in a browser where 1Password X isn't supported, this could be changing your selection in the main app as well. If you unlock 1Password 7, select Favorites, then immediately lock and unlock it again, do you find your selected category persists or is it changing? If you're seeing it change still, I'd like you to try something:

1. Make your window bigger or smaller – either is fine, just enough that it will definitely be noticeable if it changes.
2. Click the X to close 1Password.
3. Ctrl + click the 1Password icon in your notification area to reopen the main app.

Did 1Password remember what size it was? This and your selected category are remembered in the same way – in a dynamic file that updates as you change how 1Password is displayed and what you have selected. If none of this is being remembered, it may be that something is preventing 1Password from properly writing to that file or otherwise clearing your settings and that's something we should be able to track down (and fix!). Let me know what you find! :chuffed:

@Xenhat: Indeed, it can be a bit confusing to use 1Password X on a machine with the 1Password desktop apps because they're designed to be independent of each other. The reason 1Password X exists is so that people who can't install a native 1Password app (i.e. Linux, Chrome OS, work computers) on their computer can still use 1Password in their browser. So 1Password X is intentionally completely self-sufficient: it runs entirely in the browser. So that's the idea behind it, but we're also using it as a bit of a playground for some new things we've wanted to try in 1Password. The ones that are successful may make it to the desktop extensions as well. I wonder if part of the confusion is that you don't actually have that installed:

https://1password.com/browsers/

If you don't, the 1Password desktop app has no connection to the browser. It depends on its extension to integrate with it. Without it present, no matter what, when you open the main 1Password window or 1Password mini, it cannot reflect whatever you're doing in your browser because I has no foothold there.

Even if you do have the desktop extension installed, pressing Ctrl Alt \ is the shortcut to open 1Password mini to search. This also will ignore whatever else you're doing and just let you quickly find anything in your vault(s). But if you press Ctrl \ in the web browser (where the desktop extension is installed) or click 1Password's toolbar icon in the browser, that has 1Password either fill the matching login on the current page (if there is only one) or opens 1Password mini to let you select the one you wish to fill (if there are two or more that match the current URL).

I hope that helps clarify things, but be sure to let us know if you have any other extensions. :) questions (I guess I wrote "extensions" so many times my fingers thought another wouldn't hurt! :lol: )

I was outlining the fact that I have to "search" for my login every time the 1Password Mini user interface is invoked because it does not appear to remember its selected category.

@Xenhat: Can you tell me the context? 1Password mini is, in the browser, all about context. How are you opening it? What's the current URL when you do so? Its behaviour depends on those things, as I outlined above.

I was also mentioning that I wished it would default to "Favorites" instead of "All Items".

As Kate mentioned, it is intentional that 1Password mini defaults to All Items with the current design. We'll keep your feedback in mind as we design future versions though.

These are the two things I would like to see fixed in the future:
1. Persistence of 1Password Mini selected category
2. Configuration for the default selection should the data for 1. be missing. (i.e "Automatically open Mini to this category: [ Favorites ]"

The spec is to have 1Password mini remember where you left off temporarily, for when you return to it after using it to look up something and switching away briefly. We don't want it to persist long-term, as that breaks the contextual nature of 1Password mini, whose primary function is filling logins on websites. There may be ways we can accommodate your personal preference as well to some extent, but it needs to be considered carefully and the primary purpose of mini carries a heavy weight. For what you're describing, the main 1Password window is a better fit, since you can work there completely separate from the browser, and 1Password will remember what you've selected in the sidebar when you open it, and maintain your current view even if you go and do something with mini in the browser. I hope that helps shed some light on our goals here. Thank you for bringing this up! :)

Hi @Xenhat,

Thank you for your detailed reply! I have found your posts and restored them. Sorry about that.

If you fill your credentials in other Windows apps besides your browser, the workaround you are using now should work fine for you, but I want you to know that we have plans to bring Auto-Type to 1Password for Windows in the future. This feature will allow you to fill your credentials in other Windows apps (where you have sign in forms) and will be quite helpful.

At the moment, you can also use Type in Window functionality in 1Password mini. Press Ctrl + Alt + \, find the Login item that you need, then right click on username/password and select the window you want to fill your credentials in:

Please give it a try and let us know if it works for you. Thanks! :+1:

Cheers,
Greg