Why isn’t Face ID used more often on my iPad?

7 replies
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Hello! I am keen to understand why and when 1Password is able to leverage Face ID, versus when I have to put in my password. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to it, and given that typing in my password takes longer on a software keyboard than it does using Face ID, I wish I could understand why Face ID isn’t used more often.

For example, this morning, I had to type in my 1Password account four times 😕 in the same browser (Safari) over the span of two minutes. I never exited the browser. Why is that? On my Android phone, touch ID is used to seamlessly and I rarely if ever have to put in my password, I wish I had the same level of ease-of-use on my iPad.

I don’t think this matters, but this is a 2021 iPad Pro running the latest software, and it hasn’t been rebooted in a couple of weeks, so it’s not that I haven’t put in the password recently.

1Password Version: Not Provided
Extension Version: Not Provided
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iOS

1P_Dave

1Password Employee

Hello @jasondunn! 👋

I'm sorry to hear that you're having trouble with Face ID when filling logins in Safari. It sounds like Face ID has expired (which it can for a variety of reasons including iOS updates, failing Face ID authentication too many times, restarting the iPad, or iOS disabling Face ID for some reason). Once Face ID expires you'll need to open the main 1Password app from your iPad's home screen (not from Safari) using your account password. Once this is done you'll be able to use Face ID again for subsequent unlocks.

Please let me know if this helps. :)

A

Anonymous

Interesting. So you're saying that when I'm on a web site, 1Password is triggered, I put in my password...that doesn't actually authorize anything but that ONE session? And that I have to open 1Password manually, put in my password, then Face ID will work on subsequent calls to the app/service via the browser, until at some point it...won't?

This seems rather...janky. 🤔

A

Anonymous

@jasondunn:

And that I have to open 1Password manually, put in my password, then Face ID will work on subsequent calls to the app/service via the browser, until at some point it...won't?

That is correct. Sessions don't last indefinitely for security reasons, so when this happens, you can create a new one by unlocking the main 1Password app once.

A

Anonymous

I'm a little upset at the time I've wasted over the years not realizing this, using 1Password on my iPad and typing in my password over and over. 😵 I hardly ever open it up directly, 99.9% of the time it's being triggered by a browser. When it's triggered from the browser and I type in my password, why doesn't that count as authentication in the same way it does when you manually open the app?

1P_Dave

1Password Employee

@jasondunn I'm sorry for the frustration. This behaviour is a consequence of our integration with the iOS Password AutoFill feature. The version of 1Password invoked by Password AutoFill is more limited than the main 1Password app and isn't able to perform the background tasks necessary to setup Face ID unlock. Opening the main 1Password app does allow those background tasks to complete, and so subsequent calls from Password AutoFill can make use of them.

Our developers are aware of the limitation and it's possible that we may be able to improve this behaviour in the future.

ref: dev/apple/issues#2729

A

Anonymous

Thanks for the explanation Dave. So long as it's a recognized poor customer experience and it will improve in the future if Apple allows it, that's good enough for me. 🙃

A

Anonymous

Sounds good @jasondunn :+1:

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