Password history icon needed to make feature more visible

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Feature name

Password history icon

Feature function

There are many times that I have to check that a new password has been stored in BW. Some web pages seem to make BW detection of a new password difficult. And so I have to enter the laborious process of resetting the password and waiting for reset emails to be delivered etc.

But I’ve only discovered recently that BW has a password history function. Other forum posts have also noted the lack of awareness. I had to read the FAQ to find out that the info was buried at the bottom of a vault entry, with the only visual clue to more info being available being that a scroll bar was present. Also I had to click on the number to bring up the password history, which was also not immediately obvious.

The Password field should add a clock icon to indicate that the field has historical entries. There are other password icons present for other password functions e.g. exposure checks, visibility toggle and copy, so the context sensitive functionality is already established.

Related topics + references

https://community.bitwarden.com/t/how-do-i-track-password-history-for-each-login-separately/26472

5 Likes

The clock icon is being used for TOTP codes, but in general agree that it would be helpful to add some visual affordance to the password history link.

That would be very helpful!!

1 Like

I knew it was a thing and still had to google where it was.

2 Likes

Make the “Password History” button look like a button and not just text.

See this screen recording. When I first wanted to access the password history of a login from the extension, I thought it was not possible because the “button”:

  • is the same color as the text around it
  • doesn’t have a different background color
  • it’s just a few pixels large
  • is surrounded by things that look like it but aren’t clickable

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It was SO hidden that I opened the web vault and viewed the password history from there, thinking it couldn’t be accessed using the extension. Only later I went back to the extension and realized that it was a clickable button.

imageㅤChallenge: Find the clickable button in the web vault

The problem not only occurs on the extension, but also on the web vault. The button should not look like text and put in such a hidden spot. Can you consider adding it to the other buttons, like the “Delete item” button on the web vault and the “Move to organization” button on the extension.

Password History is an amazing feature, so I don’t think it should be more hidden than other buttons that I’ve never even used once such as “Move to organization”.

7 Likes

A post was merged into an existing topic: Make the “Password History” button look like a button

OMG! I had no clue it was even clickable until today! Longtime Bitwarden user and I’ve literally told people: “the only problem with Bitwarden is that you can’t actually see old passwords”

Now that I know, I don’t care too much about this issue, but the Bitwarden team should care. It would certainly make the product much better!

2 Likes

this should be better whether the community votes for it or not

Just to be clear: Only the last five passwords are recorded (which is more than enough for me).
Source: Password Manager FAQs | Bitwarden Help Center

1 Like

I also had to use google

1 Like

I just came here to request this feature because I’ve used BW for at least 4 years and only just discovered that it did this.

A tiny, clickable text number without even a font colour change is just bad UI design. It’s what you’d do if you were trying to hide the feature. The app has a standard for buttons, this feature should be consistent with that.

And password history should be placed with the password itself, not with a bunch of timestamps. If I’m looking for an (old) password, I’m going to look around the password field, not at the timestamps down the very bottom.

Likewise, View (menu) > Password history should be shown in the main interface. Either listed below All items and Favourites in the left subwindow on the desktop app, or as a third tab alongside My vault and Send at the bottom of that subwindow.

Lastly, calling the menu item and the button within an individual entry both “Password history” when they provide different things is confusing. I’d suggest the item in the View menu be called something like ‘Recently generated passwords’.

2 Likes

Adding in my vote. Having the visibility to the historical passwords is super helpful for my enterprise use case as we document local hardware passwords which could cache on some devices.

This really needs to be clearer in some way - also when password start with nueric digit it’s difficult to select in webapp to be able to copy-paste it

having a password history is crucial - having 90% of people using the tool not knowing this exists and not finding it when looking as it’s so hiden is not great

I only found it by googling for a solution and by some forum showing the exact place where I needed to click …

I had used Bitwarden in the past for some testing in my homelab but have avoided moving my main password vault as I didn’t think this feature existed.

1 Like

I created a forum account just so I could vote for this feature. Please make it more clear that you can view historical passwords for a specific entry for both the app and all the browser plugins.