Rather than edit the previous post, let me try to explain what my client was doing, and how the system can be changed to improve the user experience.
To be clear, I’m specifically talking about a scenario where the Bitwarden browser extension will create duplicate entries. I don’t care about the Bitwarden browser extension asking to save the password when the Bitwarden browser vault is locked. I’m not going to suggest the user change the Bitwarden browser extension option to not remember passwords. I want the Bitwarden browser extension to remember the password and update the credentials if they change.
I also want to stress that I understand what you are saying, but an elderly person who does not understand computers will not! As a member of the IT community, Bitwarden should do whatever they can to encourage further adoption of password managers, especially for those who are not computer literate.
Here are the actions someone who is not computer literate took that resulted in 20+ entries for the same site in Bitwarden.
The user signed up with Bitwarden and since the user is using macOS, adding the Bitwarden browser extension to Safari is a necessary in case the user’s browser preference is changed after an upgrade. After opening the Safari browser, the user navigated to the Safari menu > Safari Extensions… This brought up the Apple App Store. We searched for “Bitwarden” and installed the Bitwarden app which includes the Bitwarden desktop app and Bitwarden browser extension for Safari.
Note: I install the Bitwarden browser extension in Safari, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. That way, no matter which browser is set as the default browser, Bitwarden is available. The Bitwarden desktop app is a side effect of installing the Bitwarden browser extension for Safari.
The user learns how to use Bitwarden and slowly adds passwords to the vault. The Bitwarden browser extension options “Ask to add login” and “Ask to update existing login” are checked and help the user adopt Bitwarden as their password manager.
Some time passes and the novice computer user boots their Mac and opens Launchpad. The Bitwarden icon is there and they click on it, thus opening the Bitwarden desktop app. After unlocking the Bitwarden desktop app, the user clicks on their bank icon and clicks Launch. This opens the browser of choice. It doesn’t matter which browser is opened as long as it has the Bitwarden browser extension installed. The user copies the username and password from the Bitwarden desktop app into their banking site and clicks the login button. The Bitwarden browser extension notices that the user entered their credentials and since the Bitwarden browser extension vault is locked and the “Ask to add login” option is checked, the Bitwarden browser extension prompts the user for their Bitwarden credentials. The user enters their Bitwarden credentials into the Bitwarden browser extension and the Bitwarden browser extension vault is now unlocked. The Bitwarden browser extension proceeds to save the user’s username and password for their banking site in the Bitwarden vault as a new entry! The user thinks all is good and proceeds to go about their business.
Some more time passes and the novice computer user boots their Mac and opens Launchpad. The Bitwarden icon is there and they click on it, thus opening the Bitwarden desktop app. After unlocking the Bitwarden desktop app, the user clicks on their bank icon and clicks Launch. This opens the browser of choice. It doesn’t matter which browser is opened as long as it has the Bitwarden browser extension installed. The user copies the username and password from the Bitwarden desktop app into their banking site and clicks the login button. The Bitwarden browser extension notices that the user entered their credentials and since the Bitwarden browser extension vault is locked and the “Ask to add login” option is checked, the Bitwarden browser extension prompts the user for their Bitwarden credentials. The user enters their Bitwarden credentials into the Bitwarden browser extension and the Bitwarden browser extension vault is now unlocked. The Bitwarden browser extension proceeds to save the user’s username and password for their banking site in the Bitwarden vault as a third entry! The user thinks all is good and proceeds to go about their business.
Some more time passes and the novice computer user boots their Mac and opens Launchpad. The Bitwarden icon is there and they click on it, thus opening the Bitwarden desktop app. After unlocking the Bitwarden desktop app, the user clicks on their bank icon and clicks Launch. This opens the browser of choice. It doesn’t matter which browser is opened as long as it has the Bitwarden browser extension installed. The user copies the username and password from the Bitwarden desktop app into their banking site and clicks the login button. The Bitwarden browser extension notices that the user entered their credentials and since the Bitwarden browser extension vault is locked and the “Ask to add login” option is checked, the Bitwarden browser extension prompts the user for their Bitwarden credentials. The user enters their Bitwarden credentials into the Bitwarden browser extension and the Bitwarden browser extension vault is now unlocked. The Bitwarden browser extension proceeds to save the user’s username and password for their banking site in the Bitwarden vault as a fourth entry! The user thinks all is good and proceeds to go about their business.
In case you can’t tell, the process above create a new entry in the Bitwarden vault for that site. This is the reason for the feature request.
Is there a way to prevent new entries from being added to the Bitwarden vault without changing the default options? Keep in mind the user is not computer literate and even if the Bitwarden browser extension options are changed from their default value to not prompt to save the login information, the user may check the Bitwarden browser extension options to change it back while trying to solve any number of other problems they have.
To reiterate:
- I don’t care if the option to save the password is checked or not. Unchecking the option to save the login credentials is a temporary fix and causes confusion when the novice computer user clicks on something without knowing the impact of what they clicked on. If you don’t understand this concept, please state Bitwarden does not support people who have trouble using computers, whether that’s the elderly, the disabled, or whomever.
- I only care about the Bitwarden browser extension creating duplicate entries due to this very specific sequence of actions.