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StonesRP99's avatar
StonesRP99
New Contributor
1 month ago

How to increase biometric auth attempts in the app?

Hi everyone,

Ive been having a recurring issue with biometric authentication (fingerprint) in the 1Password app. Sometimes my finger is slightly wet, or I don't place it correctly on the first try, and the app immediately locks me out and asks for the master password

From a usability standpoint, this feels a bit counterproductive. The whole point of enabling biometrics is to make authentication faster and more convenient, but having only one attempt before being forced to type the full password can be frustrating. Is there any way to increase the number of allowed biometric attempts (for example, 3–5 tries) before the app falls back to requiring the master password? Or is this behavior fixed for security reasons? Id love to know if there's a setting I'm missing, or if this could be considered as a feature request

Thanks!

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6 Replies

  • 1P_Timothy's avatar
    1P_Timothy
    Icon for Community Manager rankCommunity Manager
    1 month ago

    Hi StonesRP99​, thanks for your question. 

    There isn't a setting to determine the number of attempts you have to unlock 1Password for Android with biometrics. That said, you should typically have 5 attempts before you're prompted for your account password. Testing with a Pixel and Samsung device I have on hand, I had 5 attempts as expected. 

    Much of the biometric unlock process is handled by the device itself, not 1Password (though still encrypted and secured with a random, authenticated, and master key). My guess here is that the manufacturer of your device is doing something unique with biometric security, or that you could be running into a bug that I'm not seeing on my end. Could you let me know which device you're using, and if you've seen this behaviour with any other apps?

    • StonesRP99's avatar
      StonesRP99
      New Contributor
      1 month ago

      Hi, sorry for the late reply. My device is a Nubia Z70 ultra running android 15, I only have biometrics enabled in my banking app, and in that case it does ask me three times before requesting my password.

      Since u mentioned this, i tested the same thing on an older phone i still have, and there it does show multiple attempts correctly. The only difference ive noticed is that on my current device, for example in the banking app, the biometric dialog closes and immediately reopens by itself for each attempt (so it repeats that cycle 3 times). On the older phone, the fingerprint prompt dialog stays open the whole time until all attempts are used up.

      So im guessing those microclosures and reopenings on my device might be the reason why 1password doesnt detect the reprompt anymore

       

      • 1P_Timothy's avatar
        1P_Timothy
        Icon for Community Manager rankCommunity Manager
        1 month ago

        Thanks for following up with me StonesRP99​. That's an interesting note about the microclosures. It definitely sounds like your device is handling biometric prompts a little differently than other Android devices. I'm not sure if this is something that could be addressed from our end, but a diagnostics report may be helpful to determine if 1Password is mishandling anything in the unlock process. 

        You can find steps to send in a diagnostics report in our guide. With your diagnostics please include a link to this thread, your Community username:

         

        After sending in report you can share your ticket ID in the thread here. Thanks again!