Someone please help here. I have tried everything under the sun to fix this bug, but to no avail. I am also on Chrome and seemingly at a dead end.
@abtolley Welcome to the forum!
I moved your post into a separate topic, as the other topic was a bit older and BW has a new biometric function “under-the-hood” since then.
Could you please describe your issue? Like:
- configuration (OS?, BW desktop app and browser extension versions?, …)
- what exactly doesn’t work – and do you get an error message?
- what did you already do / where does it “stop”?
- did it work before for you (and stopped working now) – or do you try to set it up the first time?
Also, did you already check your steps with the Help Sites: Unlock With Biometrics | Bitwarden ?
I have followed all of the basic instructions that are included within the bitwarden website. I believe that the browser extension is unable to communicate with the desktop app. When i click “Unlock with biometrics” a message pops up that says “Awaiting Confirmation from Desktop.” When i go onto my desktop app, I never get a message to approve the browser extension. I have no problem opening my desktop app with windows hello, but I cannot authorize my browser extension to allow me to do the same thing even though I clicked “Allow” on the prompt that asked me if I would allow chrome to communicate with native apps.
I just got my fingerprint sensor yesterday, and this is my first time attempting this. From what I can see, this is a pretty common problem that usually has a bunch of different fixes based on which OS/Version someone is using. Any help would be much appreciated.
OS: Windows 11
Bitwarden Chrome Version: 2025 11.1
Things I have tried:
- Uninstalling the browser extension and then reinstalling
- Unchecking “Unlock with Windows Hello” and “allow browser integration” in the desktop app, then rebooting and reallowing it.
@abtolley Hey, that sounds like you indeed did very much (or “everything”?) already!
What version is your BW desktop app, though?
Well, it seems to be like that in your case right now - but I can assure you, it works on my end. (also Win 11)
Hm. Could you try the following (well, ideally only after you first checked/made sure that your desktop app is on the current version 2025.11.2 – if not, update it before):
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PS: Addition: First, disable “Unlock with biometrics” in your browser extension, if it would be enabled (but not functional) at the moment.
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lock the extension and close that browser (Chrome)
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open the desktop app and make sure you’re logged in with your BW account
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make sure that “Allow browser integration” is still enabled on the desktop app
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and that the desktop app still has “Windows Hello unlock” activated (and working, i.e. you can unlock the desktop app successfully with Windows Hello)
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then open the browser (Chrome in your case)
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make sure you also enabled Allow access to file URLs (chrome://extensions) for the BW extension on your Chrome browser
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log in to or unlock your extension
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deactivate PIN unlock on the extension (for now / temporarily – there is a current bug with it in combination with biometrics – the fix is already merged)
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click “Unlock with biometrics” in the Settings of the browser extension and wait (for a few moments / seconds)… (reminder: the desktop app must be up and running for this and you must be logged in there)
- Optional: enable “Ask for biometrics on launch” if you want the extension to “offer” you biometric unlock “directly”.
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… you should get asked now to confirm the connection between the desktop app and browser extension…
If that should work: I think last time I tried it, then “Unlock with biometrics” had to be activated a second time in the settings of the extension.
Overall, I found it helpful (for it to work) to do everthing:
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step by step
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and wait here and there (e.g. for the confirmation popup to appear)
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and if something doesn’t “happen”/work: lock the desktop app and browser extension, close at least the browser – then unlock the desktop app again, start the browser again, unlock the extension (now with the master password when PIN unlock is deactivated and biometrics not yet set up), and then continue where you left off…
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if it still doesn’t work, toggle (disable/enable) some or all used options/settings and repeat or continue the setup process
PS: When you want to be able to unlock the desktop app and the browser extension directly with biometrics, then you have to uncheck “Require master password or PIN on app restart” in the desktop app settings.
On the other hand, when have “Require master password or PIN on app restart” in the desktop app settings checked, then you always have to unlock the desktop app first before you can use biometric unlock with the browser extension. (and because you checked “Require master password or PIN on app restart” in the desktop app, you can only unlock the desktop app with your master password or PIN)
And for all circumstances: e.g. when you start your computer, the desktop app has always to be opened before you even start the browser that “has” the BW extension – if you start the browser first and then the desktop app, it will not work. – For that, it is useful to enabled at least “Start automatically on login” in the desktop app settings… but it probably is useful to enabled all five settings above “Allow browser integration”:
Furthermore, the vault timeout action of the desktop app must be set to “Lock”. (as you can’t unlock the browser extension with biometrics, when you would get logged out in the desktop app)
Last PS: You aren’t self-hosting, are you? (as far as I know, the next server version 2025.12.0 will enable the new biometrics for those who are self-hosting their Bitwarden server)
So, I ran through every single step in the exact order in which you outlined here (Thank you for such a detailed, intuitive response). Unfortunately, I am still running into the exact same problem. The only difference I found was that my chrome version is 2025.11.1, and chrome is telling me that is it the most recent version. I also googled what the most recent version and it told me that it was 2025.11.1. I am not self-hosted; I use Bitwarden.com. Otherwise, I am stuck again.
Ah, I think you mean when I referenced a 2025.11.2 version, right? – I didn’t mean the Chrome extension version there, but the version of your BW desktop app.
As far as I remember, you didn’t write what version of the BW desktop app you are using… (and here, the latest version would be 2025.11.2, while the latest browser extension version indeed is 2025.11.1 on Chrome…)
Ah, I see. Yes, the version of my desktop app is 2025.11.2.
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Good. But then, I’m running out of ideas…
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I probably would try the following next: trying to set it up on another browser (like Vivaldi, Brave, Edge or Firefox…) and see if it works the extension there. – If it doesn’t, it may not be an issue of the extension/browser, but something else (namely the desktop app, Windows Hello?, …). If it does work on another browser, the question would be what went wrong on Chrome…
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Another option would be to (again?) deinstall the Chrome BW extension and desktop app and try setting it up from scratch again. (but the, e.g., fourth repetition of that wouldn’t make much sense, I agree…)
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You always also can contact BW support and see if they can find the issue.
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If it would look more and more like a bug to you, you could also report it as a bug on GitHub (“New issue”).
Thank you so much for being so diligent. I am going to contact support and see what they have to say. I am starting to think that this is just a bug that will get resolved with the next update hopefully.
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If support can help you, it would be nice to get the news what it was…
(personally I would think it can’t be a wide and general bug, as it seems to work in many cases… but there’s always a possibility for “edge-cases”… BTW, your Windows 11 and Chrome are up-to-date?)
PS: As I had set it up only on Vivaldi and Firefox for testing until now myself, I now also tried it with Chrome itself… I could set it up almost instantly there as well. – So if you would ask me, I would tend to think that something is still not configured as it should be in your case.