iOS app - why do I need to search for credentials?

[tomwaitforitmy]

Hi everyone,

I am new to bitwarden. I tried to find my issue online, but most users report issues on Android and not on iOS.

My apps on iOS allow to choose bitwarden and most of them are recognized automatically. Some however, always bring me to screen “There are no items in your vault for this website/app. Tap to add one.”. If I search for the credentials, I am able to login. But why do I need to search for the credentials?

AI suggested me to try the following things:

1. Re-adding the credential
2. Use the bundle identifier of the app in “match detection”
3. Change “match detection” to “Starts with”
4. Change “match detection” to “Exact”
5. Add “iosapp://” before the URI/bundle id.

I tried combinations of those above, but I always have to search for the credential.

I am especially curious about this, because I am developing an iOS app that has exactly this issue. However, a couple of apps on my device have the issue, not only my own. Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance!

iOS version: 18.6.2 and 18.7

bitwarden app: 2025.9.0

[marlin]

After selecting the item from the search results, is there an option like “Autofill and save”? This would add the correct entries to your credentials so that a search is not needed in the future.

[Nail1684]

@marlin

After selecting the item from the search results, is there an option like “Autofill and save”?

Please don’t mention that in front of iOS users… Bring 'Auto fill and save' to iOS

[marlin]

@Nail1684

Please don’t mention that in front of iOS users…

Oh, I am very sorry, I was not aware that the apps were that different in features. Since I only own Android devices, I am very used to that option.

[tomwaitforitmy]

As far as I understand that feature request, I should be able to edit my logins and insert the correct URL. So far I have been unable to achieve this.

[Nail1684]

@tomwaitforitmy

So far I have been unable to achieve this.

• Edit items on iOS/mobile: Vault Items | Bitwarden
• URIs on iOS: Forming URIs for Autofill | Bitwarden

In any login item, if you enter “Edit”, there is a section called “Autofill options”, where you can edit URIs, add URIs and change their individual match detection option. This is from the browser extension, but it should like similar on iOS:

[tomwaitforitmy]

I don’t see any URL when I add the new item like mentioned in the docs:

I do the following:

1. open the respective app
2. Click on the password edit field
3. Click on passwords
4. Choose Bitwarden
5. Click either on + or + New item

[tomwaitforitmy]

I did find this in docs

The URI that has been included in the new vault item (if permitted by the app), can be copied and pasted into any existing login items.

What does „if permitted by the app“ mean? As mentioned before, I am developing one of these apps myself. If possible, I would like to allow Bitwarden to access my bundle ID.

However, I repeat:

I did try to insert my bundle ID manually into Bitwarden. No auto detection.

Apple passwords has no issue in any of these apps. Passwords are found automatically.

[Nail1684]

@tomwaitforitmy

I did find this in docs

The URI that has been included in the new vault item (if permitted by the app), can be copied and pasted into any existing login items.

What does „if permitted by the app“ mean?

Ah, that is from this Help Site…

It seems that means, the URI will only then be transmitted to the Bitwarden app, when the other app permits that transfer. – But I’m not an iOS user and can only speculate.

@tomwaitforitmy

I did try to insert my bundle ID manually into Bitwarden. No auto detection.

In what form did you add the bundle ID? – Based on this older comment it should work with https://... on iOS.

If I understand you correctly, sometimes autofill does work for you? However, I would recommend having a look into the general guide for autofill on iOS as well (again?): Autofill From iOS App | Bitwarden

[tomwaitforitmy]

These are my attempts. The two with .* are Regex. All others are base Domain. Nothing works. It works for Apple passwords, hence I think it’s a bug in Bitwarden.

[Nail1684]

@tomwaitforitmy

hence I think it’s a bug in Bitwarden.

I think I don’t have any further ideas – and I don’t have an iOS device myself to test it. If you think it is a bug, then you probably should file a bug report on GitHub (“New issue”).

[DenBesten]

@tomwaitforitmy

What does „if permitted by the app“ mean?

Found the answer in another topic…

@Ayitaka

Unfortunately, if the app creator did not add their associated domains (see also Supporting Associated Domains) to the app and their website there is no way to get Bitwarden (on iOS) to recognize it within a password manager using auto-fill.

Best you can do is contact the app maker and send them those links and ask them to help password managers recognize their app by correctly implementing associated domains.

[tomwaitforitmy]

Thanks that sounds exactly like my issue . I still don’t understand how Apple Passwords does it, but at least for the app I am coding myself I can develop a fix.

[DenBesten]

Thanks for confirming; I marked the topic “solved”.

@tomwaitforitmy

I still don’t understand how Apple Passwords does it

My guess is that OS vendors don’t always restrict themselves to their own published APIs.

[tomwaitforitmy]

Either that or there is a fallback option if the uri cannot be extracted not being known/used in bitwarden. Anyway, I will add the associated domain to my own app. Thanks a lot for the help! Now I know what it is :).