Biometric unlock not working in Gener8 browser

ADanny · February 24, 2025, 6:21am

“biometric unlock is unavailable because the bitwarden desktop app is closed”
I am unable to use the Mac’s biometric despite the desktop app opened.

I run from:

Bitwarden: Version 2023.10.1 (13648)
Browser: Gener8, Version 133.0.6943.54 (Official Build) (arm64)
Mac: MacBook Pro (13-inch, M2, 2022)
MacOs: macOS Monterey Version 12.5 (21G72)

Nail1684 · February 24, 2025, 10:46am

I guess you mean the desktop app? - Anyway… any version “2023.10.x” is completely outdated and you should update it (I guess, your Bitwarden browser extension is up-to-date?!).

ADanny · February 25, 2025, 3:25am

Oh wow, didn’t realise that. Thanks!

Updated them all

Bitwarden Desktop: Version 2025.2.0 (37899)
Bitwarden Extension: Version: 2025.2.1, SDK: ‘main (28c7e29)’

Unfortunately, I still get the “Biometric unlock is unavailable because the bitwarden desktop app is closed”

Flipflop · February 25, 2025, 11:37pm

Have you logged out of the desktop app and logged back in since making those changes? I was dealing with this recently and noticed when making some changes, need to log out and log back in on both the app and extension before the changes take place.

Nail1684 · February 25, 2025, 11:48pm

Adding to @Flipflop , make sure,

that your MacOS desktop app is installed via the app store
you enabled biometrics correctly (Unlock with Biometrics | Bitwarden)
and if it still doesn’t work, it might be that you are affected by some current bugs around biometrics (there were some reports)… I’m not that into the details here… for Firefox and/or Windows there are definitely some current bugs…

ADanny · February 26, 2025, 9:20am

that your MacOS desktop app is installed via the app store

Unfortunately, this may be my issue. Gener8 is not available on the app store, therefore I have side loaded it. I also found this note which further supports it. Understandably, not much can be done for now.

## 2021-01-19 Post-Release Update

Biometric Unlock for Browser Extensions is available for only Chromium-based browsers (e.g. Chrome, Edge) with v1.48.0 of the Browser Extension, provided you have the latest version (2021-01-19) of the Desktop App.

When your Browser Extension updates to this version, you may be asked to accept a new permission for Bitwarden to Communicate with cooperating native applications. This permission is safe, but optional, and will enable the Browser Extension to communicate with the Bitwarden Desktop App, which is required to enable Biometric Unlock (see here for details). Declining this permission will allow you to use v1.48.0 without Biometric Unlock functionality.

Biometric Unlock is currently not available for:

Firefox Browser Extensions below version 87.

Microsoft App Store Desktop Apps (a side-loaded Windows Desktop App, available at bitwarden.com/download/ will work fine).

Side-loaded MacOS Desktop Apps (an App Store Desktop app will work fine).

Nail1684 · February 26, 2025, 11:11am

It seems to be still like in the 2021 Release Notes… Here - in the “browser extension” tab - is this (same) list:

That’s where I saw it…

Quexten · February 26, 2025, 6:47pm

Hey! Support for biometric unlock has to be added for each browser individually, in these places:

github.com/bitwarden/clients

apps/desktop/src/main/native-messaging.main.ts

14584c8ab


      
          return {
            Firefox: `${this.homedir()}/Library/Application\ Support/Mozilla/`,
            Chrome: `${this.homedir()}/Library/Application\ Support/Google/Chrome/`,
            "Chrome Beta": `${this.homedir()}/Library/Application\ Support/Google/Chrome\ Beta/`,
            "Chrome Dev": `${this.homedir()}/Library/Application\ Support/Google/Chrome\ Dev/`,
            "Chrome Canary": `${this.homedir()}/Library/Application\ Support/Google/Chrome\ Canary/`,
            Chromium: `${this.homedir()}/Library/Application\ Support/Chromium/`,
            "Microsoft Edge": `${this.homedir()}/Library/Application\ Support/Microsoft\ Edge/`,
            "Microsoft Edge Beta": `${this.homedir()}/Library/Application\ Support/Microsoft\ Edge\ Beta/`,
            "Microsoft Edge Dev": `${this.homedir()}/Library/Application\ Support/Microsoft\ Edge\ Dev/`,
            "Microsoft Edge Canary": `${this.homedir()}/Library/Application\ Support/Microsoft\ Edge\ Canary/`,
            Vivaldi: `${this.homedir()}/Library/Application\ Support/Vivaldi/`,
          };

github.com/bitwarden/clients

apps/desktop/resources/entitlements.mas.plist

14584c8ab


      
          	<key>com.apple.security.files.user-selected.read-write</key>
          	<true/>
          	<key>com.apple.security.device.usb</key>
          	<true/>
          	<!--
          	<key>com.apple.developer.authentication-services.autofill-credential-provider</key>
          	<true/>
          	-->
          	<key>com.apple.security.temporary-exception.files.home-relative-path.read-write</key>
          	<array>
          		<string>/Library/Application Support/Mozilla/NativeMessagingHosts/</string>
          		<string>/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/NativeMessagingHosts/</string>
          		<string>/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome Beta/NativeMessagingHosts/</string>
          		<string>/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome Dev/NativeMessagingHosts/</string>
          		<string>/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome Canary/NativeMessagingHosts/</string>
          		<string>/Library/Application Support/Chromium/NativeMessagingHosts/</string>
          		<string>/Library/Application Support/Microsoft Edge/NativeMessagingHosts/</string>
          		<string>/Library/Application Support/Microsoft Edge Beta/NativeMessagingHosts/</string>
          		<string>/Library/Application Support/Microsoft Edge Dev/NativeMessagingHosts/</string>
          		<string>/Library/Application Support/Microsoft Edge Canary/NativeMessagingHosts/</string>
                  <string>/Library/Application Support/Vivaldi/NativeMessagingHosts/</string>

It should only matter if the Bitwarden-desktop installation is installed from the Mac Store, the browser can be sideloaded.

I’ve renamed this issue, since it is directly tied to not supporting “Gener8”.