Question

Watchtower Score not increased by MFA, passkeys or better passwords

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
January 21, 2025
3 replies
528 views

Months ago my score for over five hundred (mostly Login) items was N. Since then I have
* replaced many tens of VERY GOOD passwords with EXCELLENT passwords,
* added tens of one-time passwords†,
* added around ten passkeys,
* archived around ten Login items with GOOD or VERY GOOD passwords and no one-time passwords or passkeys, and
* added around ten Login items with EXCELLENT passwords, one-time passwords, and passkeys.

There are now no Login items with Two-factor authentication† or Passkeys available, or any of the other drop-down categories.

My score is now... N - that is, unchanged.

According to How to improve your Watchtower score in 1Password, at the very least Enable 2FA is one of the changes which should have increased the score.

Watchtower is an excellent feature and cleverly uses psychological methods to promote better behaviour. One way to increase the persuasiveness of the score is to compare it to relevant distribution(s) of scores. Obviously failing to increase the score to reflect substantial improvements does not help.

Since this isn't about the actual score, I've called it "N", but just in case the actual score is relevant, it's

! 1194 on desktop (various platforms) and 1154 on mobile (Android) where the Overall Password Strength bar clearly indicates that it's out-of-date.

†[Note the inconsistent naming.]

1Password Version: 8.10.56
Extension Version: 8.10.58.31
OS Version: Various
Browser: N/A

Non-Technical Question

1P_Dave

1Password Employee

Hello @AJCxZ0! 👋

Thanks for reaching out! You might not always see the Watchtower score go up since not all fixes result in a "whole number" increase to the Watchtower score. That being said, it does seem like you've made a lot of changes and I'd like to look into this further.

To help me better understand the situation I'd like to ask you to take a screenshot of what you're seeing on your various devices and send them in an email to support+forum@1Password.com along with a link to this thread. Please use the email address associated with your 1Password account.

After emailing in, you'll receive a reply from BitBot, our friendly robot assistant with a Support ID that looks something like [#ABC-12345-678]. Post that here, and I'll be able to locate your message and make sure it's gotten to the right place. 🙂

-Dave

L

Lightbird

I am experiencing the same issue. I am using both the Mac client and the iphone client. I have deleted, archived and improved passwords on literally hundreds of entires, but the Watchtower score has not moved a single digit.

I tried adding an entry with username test and password test. The score did not change.

The only thing that will influence the score is selecting/deselecting settings such as "check for vulnerable passwords" or "check for two-factor authentication".

It seems that Watchtower is not actually calculating a score based on the entires in the database at all. I upgraded the database from 1password 7 if that matters.

I am running 1Password for Mac 8.10.64 (81064007) and 8.10.64 for iOS.

1P_Tommy

1Password Employee

@Lightbird

If you're still experiencing this behavior Please email us using `support+forum@1password.com`. Be sure to use the email address tied to the account in question. I'd like to let the technical team take a closer inspection.

Cheers,

AJCxZ0Author

@1P_Dave That is going to be tricky given that the 1Password app on Android is protected from screenshots, giving the error, "This action isn't allowed by the app or your organization" or capturing a blank screen. I believe this is an application - not a user or platform - setting, so please direct me if I am mistaken.

While trying to do this I see that the version of the beta app from the Play store which I am now using, 8.10.58, correctly (or at least consistently) reports the same score as the desktop client, though the Overall Password Strength bar is still showing the old distribution.

Since the consistency of the scores and the bar are incidental to the primary issue, I have used a rather literal workaround. See [#IHV-91499-974].

AJCxZ0Author

During the migration and resurrection of this thread, the wonderful 1Password support team ignored my claim that this was not urgent or important and that I only emailed at @1P_Dave's request, and we dug into this issue.

What we found was that

Watchtower score can be easily lowered (by 5), e.g. by adding a Login item with username test and password test for insecure site http://example.com,
Watchtower score can be increased (by 1) by deleting a Login item with a GOOD password,
Watchtower score cannot be increased by removing several Login items with a VERY GOOD passwords,
the Overall Password Strength bar section lengths vary between clients and screen orientation in a manner consistent with making each section selectable on each interface, and
Support is asking the Watchtower developers to confirm that the bar variance is intended behaviour (and sharing unsolicited advice on persuasion techniques).

AJCxZ0Author

@1P_Dave, Are we still waiting for the Watchtower developers to confirm?

GreyM1P

1Password Employee

@AJCxZ0 – By default, yes, 1Password for Android blocks screenshots, but you can change that setting. Here's what to do:

Open and unlock 1Password.
Tap the account and collection chooser (the icon in the top-right corner) and choose Settings... > Advanced.
Turn on debugging tools, then turn on screenshots, and allow 1Password to quit and reopen.

Hope that helps!

AJCxZ0Author

Please excuse the delay in thanking you for this advice. Something about new a new forum and dredging this post from the archive.

I had stopped at the debugging tools when searching for myself, but have now found and successfully tested the option, but not before the aforementioned workaround.

While I am comfortable sharing the information blurry-but-visible in the photo, I do not encourage others to do so,

Sign up

1Password employees: Sign in with SSO

Login to the community

1Password employees: Sign in with SSO

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded