I use the desktop app and browser extension only. I don’t own a mobile phone. so the iOS and Android options are not an option. I’ve spent the whole day trying to figure out how to use 2FA authentication in Bitwarden, and the best method I’ve come up with so far is:
Open Bitwarden
Export my Vault to a JSON file
Import the JSON file into KeePassXC
Use KeePassXC for all accounts requiring TOTP authentication
But if I’m going to do that, what do I need Bitwarden for? KeePassXC will manage all the rest of my passwords too. 2FA is everywhere now, and more and more websites are recommending or requiring it. If Bitwarden can’t provide more seamless functionality, another password manager will. I switched to Bitwarden from LastPass when they no longer met my needs. I can switch again if Bitwarden doesn’t get their act together on this. The only thing stopping me now is laziness to learn a new app, but that won’t stop me forever.
@grb: I hope this provides more clarity about why this feature is “necessary”.
I appreciate the information that you added to the thread, but for me, your use-case description actually raises a lot of questions, and does not clarify why you need the requested feature.
I am super-confused about why you are not using one of the many methods already available in Bitwarden to view, copy. and/or autofill the TOTP codes.
Perhaps you do not have a Premium subscription — that would explain the point of confusion. The integrated TOTP authenticator functionality in Bitwarden’s Password Manager (including its browser extensions and Desktop app) is a Premium feature. So the feature you are looking for already exists, but you need a paid subscription to access it.
Alternatively, you may want to support the following feature request:
Exactly. That and the lack of information on how to use this feature resulted in me wasting a lot of time trying to get it to work when there was no possibility of that ever happening. Fortunately, after saying I was too lazy to switch just yet, I decided to follow my own advice and try to get TOTP working with KeePassXC. Turned out it was super easy, and switching wasn’t the nightmare I’d imagined, so I’m now migrating all my password management to it - for free.
Since it’s not really my problem anymore, I’m not going to vote on making this a free Bitwarden feature. But I imagine others will abandon ship as well over this - which is another way of voting - so the developers should probably consider these unseen votes when evaluating this feature request.
The docs make it clear that a premium subscription is needed, which costs only $10 per year. Alternatively, one can use Bitwarden Authenticator, which is free, but not integrated with the password manager, meaning you need to update credentials in two places instead of one.
Just to be clear, I did eventually find that page - but after finding a bunch of other pages that teased this feature without being so clear about the requirements. As usual, your mileage can vary pretty drastically when relying on Google search for information. In any event, the solution I found did not cost me yet another paid subscription for a service - no matter how small - and did not require using two different apps for passwords and TOTP authentication. Plus the browser add-on makes using TOTP a breeze - which going by some of the comments I’ve seen here and elsewhere can’t always be said for the Bitwarden implementation.
I do have to thank all the participants in this thread for helping me realize that Bitwarden was no longer right for me, so good job everyone.
Oh, I agree with @grb - KeePassXC is another good solution.
The integrated authenticator with Bitwarden, however, doesn’t require two different apps for passwords and TOTP as well. That’s why it’s called “integrated authenticator”.
But it does require a subscription. The solution I found didn’t force me to choose between an integrated solution and a free solution. Maybe that’s no big deal for some here, but I’m tired of being nickel and dimed by subscriptions to more and more services. These might not be a lot individually, but they add up, and $0 per year will always beat $10 per year, or whatever they jack it up to next year. If this isn’t an issue for you, or you’re fine using your phone or another app for TOTP, carry on. I’m only saying what worked for me. Everyone else needs to find their own solution.
Just doing some thread clean-up. The above discussion was not relevant to the feature request topic in which it was originally posted, so I have moved it into its own topic under Ask the Community, and marked it as solved.
