1Password browser extensions constantly breaking

Chaos215bar2
Chaos215bar2
Community Member

I'm a long-time 1Password customer, and use the product across several Mac and iOS devices. Recently, 1Password has, frankly, been a constant pain to use. On every Mac I use the product on, at least every couple weeks, I have to go through a dance of quitting my browsers, quitting 1Password itself, and sometimes repeating the process multiple times before things start working again. This is not isolated to one computer, and I gather it has something to do with automatic browser updates (Chrome) and app updates (affecting both Chrome and Safari).

I've seen 1Password just stop working. I've seen 1Password claim I need to install the Safari extension when it's already installed numerous times. I've even seen 1Password get into a state where the browser extension mostly works, but triggering autofill literally just opens up the 1Password menu, and does nothing else.

I'm not really interested in spending time debugging each of these issues. This happens across at least 5 separate computers all updated at different points (but, generally, running up to date software), so this is either an issue with my account (which I have no reason to believe is the case) or these just represent actual issues with the 1Password app which haven't been addressed in months if not years of use.

My question is, am I missing something? Am I really expected to close my browser (thus losing my state in perhaps a dozen plus open windows, and dumping them all into my currently active Space) or reboot my system on a regular basis just to keep 1Password working through various automatic updates? I'd love to figure this out, but at this point I'm seriously looking for alternatives. I'd like to get my family using a password manager, and there's just no way I could even begin to recommend 1Password in this state.


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

Comments

  • ag_ana
    ag_ana
    1Password Alumni

    Hi @Chaos215bar2!

    1Password has received a lot of updates recently, some of them very big ones, so it is possible that you might have to restart the app after one of these (especially if your browser have also been updated in the meantime). If you are not interested in troubleshooting the exact issue on your machine, a 1Password restart is typically all that you need to do. Should that not work, a system reboot normally fixes things.

    I am sorry to hear that you are looking for alternatives, but I understand how this could be annoying for you. We would be happy to help you look into why this is happening on your machine, when it happens, if you would like to reconsider the troubleshooting option :+1:

  • Chaos215bar2
    Chaos215bar2
    Community Member

    Yes, 1Password, browser, and/or system restarts always fix the issues, but 1Password has been broken far more often than it’s worked in the last few months, again across at least 5 separate machines. We’re not talking about 1-off issues, and this is well beyond the very occasional restart that might be needed to fix an unforeseen problem.

    This is really not acceptable for a product that’s supposed to sit in the background and be there when you need it, and considering the consistency of the issues, I can’t imagine how the 1Password team wouldn’t be aware of them already. (In fact, at least some of the issues seem to be an artifact of the way 1Password does its browser verification. Why should I need to restart 1Password just because a browser updates itself?) A product that requires restarts as a regular course of action to keep things working is broken.

  • ag_ana
    ag_ana
    1Password Alumni

    @Chaos215bar2:

    Thank you for the feedback! We would be happy to look at the specific issues that you are experiencing when they happen, if you reach out to us with a diagnostics report via email :+1:

  • DanielP
    DanielP
    1Password Alumni

    @Chaos215bar2:

    Why should I need to restart 1Password just because a browser updates itself?

    This is a great question! The quick answer is "tamper protection". The longer answer is here.

    1Password only connects to browsers that it trusts, and which have not been modified since the original connection. This is for security reasons: if something on your system somehow managed to tamper with your Chrome installation in such a way that it rendered it malicious, 1Password should stop connecting to it. The way 1Password looks for these events is by seeing if the Chrome installation "changed" since the original launch. But since it's not really possible to understand whether a change is malicious or not [1], 1Password will prevent you from connecting to the browser when the current state of it differs from the one it knows.

    Browser updates change a lot of things behind the scenes, enough that 1Password starts seeing them as different (or at least, different enough to prefer erring on the side of caution and blocking the connection). And I believe this is a sensible default behavior: 1Password is security software after all, so it's better to use a slightly stricter default baseline rather than risking to miss a change that turns out to be a malicious one.

    After relaunching the browser, 1Password can go through the usual security routine of checking whether the browser is trusted, and if everything looks ok, it will reopen the connection to it. So what you are seeing is indeed on purpose: we understand the usability annoyance that it could cause, but the alternative is something that we just cannot allow to happen.

    ===
    Daniel
    1Password Security Team


    [1] Technically there is a way to do this: you "just" need to keep a list of all known malicious changes (cfr. signature-based antimalware solutions), but this would only ever protect you when you see a known modification. If it's a new type of attack (something that you have not seen before), this approach wouldn't help. This just doesn't scale well.

  • Chaos215bar2
    Chaos215bar2
    Community Member
    edited March 2020

    Thanks for the detailed answer. I do apologize as it was a bit of a rhetorical question, but nevertheless that’s good information for anyone reading this.

    The problem is this: In practice, I don’t see that it’s reasonable to expect people to restart 1Password, browsers, etc. in the name of security almost every other week (and without any notice other than 1Password not working). For me, given the choice between spending 5+ minutes sorting through a dozen windows full of easily half a dozen tabs each (because macOS will not restore windows to the same Space they were on last when you intentionally quit an app) and then at least as long remembering what I was actually doing before the whole ordeal vs. just copying my password into the browser, it gets kind of hard to choose the former after the 10th (okay, maybe only 5th or 6th) time in a month I’m having the same problem. And the later not only still exposes my password to an untrusted browser, it exposes my password to literally every other app on the system via the pasteboard.

    The problem is that in all support documents and communications, the 1Password team’s stance seems to be that restarting apps is just an occasional but necessary evil. Running 1Password on multiple systems and actually using nearly every single one of those systems for things that mostly can’t be interrupted at a moment’s notice, that’s just not the case. Even something as seemingly simple as relaunching a browser can be incredibly disruptive, and when I need to enter a password, that usually can’t wait for a more convenient moment. The result is that all the extra verification 1Password is doing to protect my security, because that verification isn’t robust to totally normal and fairly frequent things like updates, actually ends up reducing my security when I need to just get things done. I’m very sympathetic to the difficult problems here, but the current solution does not seem to be workable.

  • ag_ana
    ag_ana
    1Password Alumni

    @Chaos215bar2:

    Thank you for your feedback! We will keep it in mind moving forward.

  • Chaos215bar2
    Chaos215bar2
    Community Member

    Thanks.

  • ag_ana
    ag_ana
    1Password Alumni

    :+1: :)

  • tommigdal
    tommigdal
    Community Member

    I have the same problem where my 1Password 7 extension for my Safari browser disappears for no apparent reason. This is my default browser on my iMac. I do not see the same things happening with Chrome. This is also very frustrating for me as it takes me a half hour or more shutting down my browser, shutting down 1Password, turning off my computer then repeating perhaps multiple times to get the extension working again. I have used this product for years and have NEVER had a similar problem with any of the older versions.
    Could you make an option to install the extension for Safari on your help page as a separate action. Safari is the only browser listed that does not provide a stand alone extension add it. It makes me re-install the software since it says the extension is included. This is a nightmare. Why does this have to be so hard???????

  • Hi @tommigdal

    I'm sorry to hear you are having trouble when trying to use 1Password with Safari.

    Could you make an option to install the extension for Safari on your help page as a separate action

    We can't, no. Safari extensions don't work that way anymore. There is nothing separate to install. Safari extensions are bundled as part of apps now (they're called "Safari App Extensions"). The old "Safari Extension Gallery" has been retired, so the only way to install extensions into Safari is through the new Safari App Extension framework.

    Safari is the only browser listed that does not provide a stand alone extension add it.

    Correct. That is a Safari thing, not a 1Password thing.

    This is a nightmare.

    I'm truly sorry that has been your experience. Please try these instructions:

    1. Quit Safari
    2. Open and then quit 1Password completely — ⌘⌥⌃Q (Command Option Control Q)
    3. Drag 1Password to the Trash, but DO NOT use a "cleaner" app to remove 1Password if you have one (MacKeeper, CleanMyMac, AppZapper, etc)
    4. Empty the Trash
    5. Restart your Mac
    6. Install 1Password from our website: Download for Mac
    7. Open 1Password
    8. Make sure the extension is shown and enabled in Safari under Preferences > Extensions (do not click "More Extensions")
    9. Verify that you're able to use the extension to fill logins

    Let me know how it turns out. :) Hopefully that should alleviate any issues with 1Password + Safari going forward.

    Ben

This discussion has been closed.