I’m trying to find a convenient workaround to the recent change that makes it cumbersome to use biometrics to login to the Firefox extension. I decided to try “login with device”. I’m finding that option even more cumbersome. Here is what I have to go through to make login with device work:
Click on the Firefox extension icon in Firefox
Click logout, then yes to log out
Enter email id for my account (system will not remember this for me)
Click “login with device”
Pick up phone and unlock Bitwarden (with biometrics)
Receive notification and security phrase from Firefox extension
Approve login request
Evidently the “login with device” functionality requires that Bitwarden is unlocked on the approving device, which renders using it no less cumbersome that unlocking the desktop device and then unlocking the Firefox extension with biometrics.
When biometrics was working, the process was as follows:
Click on the Firefox extension icon
Click login with biometrics
Acknowledge Windows “Hello”
I think I’ll just start entering my master password when I want to unlock the Firefox extension unless there is a better way. If so, please advise.
Thanks for any help.
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Hello Ed,
I use:
- Login with Device, but now using the desktop to approve instead. The desktop would have to be configured to be an approval device, but you can use Biometrics on the desktop.
- PIN lock for extension, although this needs to be reset every time you login.
- Don’t shut down the browser.
Another possibility is to store the master password in Bitwarden itself, and drag-and-drop that from the desktop into the browser.
I am not arguing at all that this is as convenient, but these are all getting by methods until something better comes along.
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I’ll try using the desktop as the approval device, but something tells me it needs to be unlocked, and if so, it’s the same amount of work as using my laptop or desktop with biometrics – to unlock the extension requires either the desktop app or the mobile app to be unlocked. For me, unlocking either of those can be done biometrically.
I’m hoping to get the attention of someone at bitwarden. I had gotten the impression that the approving device needed to be logged on but didn’t need to be unlocked in order to approve a logon request. Either that functionality is not working as intended or I’m misunderstanding something.
Thanks for the suggestions
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I configured my account security options to make the browser extension/biometrics workaround less cumbersome (at least for me).
On the phone, I set the session timeout time to “never”. That works for me because my phone locks quickly by default and unlocks easily with my fingerprint. I set timeout action on the browser extension to “log out”. You need to be logged out of the browser extension to log with a device anyway, and logging out will save the email address for when you log in with your device.
Thus, when I start Firefox in the morning, I click the Bitwarden icon, then click continue, then click log in with device. Bitwarden on my phone receives the request because it’s unlocked and notifies me, I unlock my phone with my fingerprint, tap the BW notification, then tap “confirm”.
Unlocking the extension with biometrics is still much simpler, and I’m looking forward for the team to finish their work to re-enable that functionality.
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