Forum Discussion

kherge's avatar
kherge
New Contributor
2 years ago

Browser verification fails if browser installed elsewhere?

In macOS, there are two accepted locations for installing applications:

  • /Applications/
  • /Users/$USER/Applications/

(If you create this folder in your home directory, you will magically see the default folder icon replaced with the same Applications folder icon in the global Applications directory. This is recognized by macOS as an alternative directory for apps.)

I installed Firefox in my user's applications folder like I have with all of my non-Mac App Store apps. This works fine with Firefox and all of my other extensions except for 1Password. I checked the browser support logs for details and I saw one vague message about verification failing but not why.

On a hunch, I moved the same exact Firefox application to /Applications/ and re-launched Firefox. It forced me into using a new Firefox profile, but this time when I installed the 1Password extension it integrated fine with the 1Password application. Everything is now working as expected.

There are two possible explanations that I can think of:

  1. There was a problem with my original Firefox profile.
  2. The 1Password desktop application did not like Firefox being installed elsewhere.

I am leaning towards there being something about the browser verification process not expecting Firefox being installed someplace other than /Application/ because my issue was being experienced on a clean installation of macOS.

I resolved my issue, but now Firefox is installed in a place other than where I had originally wanted. I just wanted to provide feedback that could see browser verification tweaked a little bit.

1Password Version: 8.10.3
Extension Version: 2.9.0
OS Version: macOS 13.3.1
Browser:_ Firefox

browser extension
  • Former Member's avatar
    Former Member
    2 years ago

    Hey there kherge - Thanks for raising this one 🙂

    I'm sorry for any disruption in your workflow caused by the investigation you got into here. You are correct - the 1Password browser verification process requires that the browser be installed under the /Applications directory. If it is installed outside of that, we aren't able to properly validate the browser's signature, and for security reasons, the app integration features will not work (as you noted).

    I installed Firefox in my user's applications folder like I have with all of my non-Mac App Store apps.
    I just wanted to provide feedback that could see browser verification tweaked a little bit.

    While I can't promise anything, I'll be happy to pass your feedback forward to the team here. We're always working to improve the user experience, while at the same time, maintain a strong focus on security.

    Let me know if you have any questions and I'll be happy to assist further!