Can't enable browser extension biometrics

I’ve checked. The extension has all permissions enabled, including “Exchange messages with programs other than Firefox”.

Firefox on my other (Windows 10) PC is working just fine with biometric unlock enabled.

I don’t know then - there haven’t been many reports of Firefox not working. Windows is so finicky with biometrics devices, so hard to know if it is a Firefox-Windows issue or a Bitwarden-Firefox issue. Hopefully others will chime in here if they are having problems, also.

Either way it’s clearly a bug that Bitwarden needs to fix if biometrics don’t work on a clean Windows 11 install.

If you can confirm that everything is supported under Firefox, I’ll believe you. Otherwise, I am always skeptical of Firefox not supporting current standards, like WebAuthn on Mac (wait - did I mention that already??). :smiley:

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=windows+biometrics+not+working+in+firefox

I’m running the same version of Firefox (99.0.1) on my Windows 10 system and biometric unlock works fine. I’ve had it enabled on that system since biometric unlock support was officially added to Firefox.

So you are saying Bitwarden and biometrics on Firefox works on Windows 10? Sounds like Windows 11 is the issue, my friend.

Again, a bug that Bitwarden will need to resolve.

Windows 11 is a supported OS and biometric unlock isn’t working on a clean install (but works just fine in Chrome and Brave).

Let’s agree to disagree - you say it must be a Bitwarden bug, and I say it is much more complicated than that to blame Bitwarden. Cheers.

For anyone who encounters this problem, please make sure you follow the step-by-step guidance provided in the Bitwarden help here:

and especially here, including the part about installing the Microsoft C++ Redistributable libaries:

Also, make sure your device drivers are up to date:

All followed. Still not working in Firefox on a clean Windows 11 install.

Hi @uMAnicIo, I don’t have a USB biometrics device to test on, but you can contact our support team here, or create a Github issue with specific device information.

I have done a little testing.

I have biometric unlock working with the Chrome extension.

When I want to use the same feature with Firefox, I get the message “browser integration is not enabled”

I tested in the developer build of firefox to check if older releases have the problem.

It does not matter if “Require verification for browser integration” is enabled in the desktop client or not.

Also enabling or disabling the extension for incognito tabs does not make a difference.

I noticed however, that when trying to enable biometric unlock within the firefox extension for the first time, additional permission to acces apps is asked, the vault is locked and the sidebar view is shown.

After unlocking the vault again, the biometric unlock option in the extension is unchecked again and trying to check it results in the known message “browser integration is not enabled”.

For Windows I found the following behaviour:

Apperently the Bitwarden Desktop client checks which browsers are installed when the browser integration is enabled for the first time.

If Firefox is installed the a reg key is created and the following values are set:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Mozilla\NativeMessagingHosts\com.8bit.bitwarden]
@="C:\\Users\\<USER>\\AppData\\Roaming\\Bitwarden\\browsers\\firefox.json"

The behaviour for Chrome is similar:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Google\Chrome\NativeMessagingHosts\com.8bit.bitwarden]
@="C:\\Users\\<USER>\\AppData\\Roaming\\Bitwarden\\browsers\\chrome.json"

This check is only done when initially enabling the browser integration. To run it again you need to disable the browser integration in the client, exit the client completely (not just dismiss it to the tray icon). After that you can start the client again and re-enable the browser integration.

My portable version of Firefox was not listed as an installed app in Windows. Because of that the Bitwarden desktop client did not detect it and therefore did not create a native-messaging channel for Firefox to communicate with the app.

After installing Firefox as well as dis- and enabling the browser integration as described above I can now use biometric unlock in the Firefox extension. Also the feature now works in the portable version of Firefox as well.

As a sidenote: There is a script in “C:\Program Files\Bitwarden\resources” named “native-messaging.bat” that looks like it is involved in providing the endpoint for the browser extensions under Windows.

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This worked for me on Brave (Version 1.38.109 Chromium: 101.0.4951.41) with mac os Monterey (12.3.1)

so i have run into the exact same problem with my new surface running win11.
i have checked the registry and bitwarden did not even create the folder which should contain the entry.
i have tried multiple installs and uninstalls of both the extension and the client but that does not seem to do anything. I have also tried to disable the browser extension in the client and restart the client afterwards as you suggested but that did not created the required reg entry either.
i have noticed though that bitwarden runs within the AppData folder (or atleast thats where the shortcut from the start menu points to) and has no folder present in “C:\Program Files”
so this clearly seems to be a bug on bitwarden side, as this reg entry should be created.

Do you have the browsers installed or are you using portable versions of the browsers.

The entries in the registry are created only for browsers that are installed on the system prior to activating the browser integration in the Bitwarden client.

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i have it installed.

You’re my saver! It worked on Windows 11 and Chrome!! Thank you! :wink:

I’m on Windows 11 and setting up the biometric option in Firefox “just worked” whereas setting it up in Chrome doesn’t. I’ve tried every fix on this page and none worked. Bitwarden clearly has an issue to resolve with the Chrome extension. Luckily Firefox is my daily driver.

Hey @Cibachrome, can you try disable/enable and/or remove and reinstall? I’ve been using the browser extension for Chrome and Firefox and haven’t bumped into that issue.