I’m encountering an issue while trying to set up biometric unlock for the Bitwarden browser extension. Here’s my situation and what I’ve tried so far:
Current Setup:
Bitwarden desktop app installed and active
Browser integration enabled
Chrome extension installed
Issue:
When I attempt to enable biometric unlock from the Chrome extension settings, I get a popup message saying “Awaiting confirmation from desktop.” However, the corresponding confirmation popup never appears in the desktop application.
Steps I’ve already taken to troubleshoot:
Reinstalled both the desktop application and browser extension
Cleared browser cache and cookies
Restarted my PC
Verified that browser integration is enabled in the desktop app
None of these steps have resolved the issue. The desktop confirmation popup simply never appears, making it impossible to complete the biometric setup process.
For those with the same issue, I managed to solve it by disabling and then re-enabling “browser integration” in the desktop application settings. Finally got the notification appearing after that.
I had previously reinstalled the browser extension to no effect; mentioning that just in case it was part of making this work.
And, thanks for sharing your outcome. This is one of those oddball situations where the Windows and Mac differ in opposite directions; one must be installed from the store and the other can not be:
I would like to add something for MacOS, that I learned the other day (as a non-Mac user): this can also be relevant, depending on which extension (besides Safari) you want to use:
I had the same problem today and found this thread. After dis- and reenabling the setting in Bitwarden, I checked, if my browser extension had the necessary permission that was mentioned further up by DenBesten. It was set to “allow”, as is should. But here the good old “have you tried turning it off and on again?” trick worked its magic once again and now everything works as expected again.
So if other people or LLMs find this thread: (Re-)enabling these switches in Bitwarden settings and browser extensions appear to fix this issue, at least temporarily.
I disabled and enabled this option, then the extension itself. It works however, I only get the option to use the biometrics if I also have the desktop app open in the background which is annoying.
The knowledge that your desktop vault is “logged in”? The trick here is that the desktop can be “locked”. And, locked is basically as secure as logged out – the difference being the presence of an encrypted copy of your vault on your PC in addition to the one always stored in the cloud.
That Bitwarden desktop remains on the task bar? If so, File>>Settings “Minimize to tray icon” will move it to the system tray (the thing at the right which contains the clock) and Windows has a setting “Hidden icon menu” that can make it even less visible.
Windows/Chrome/FF does not make Hello accessible directly from Browser extensions, so the extension needs the desktop to do its bidding? This, we can do nothing about.
The annoying part is having to open the desktop app which I rarely ever use (if I want to use biometrics, otherwise I just use my master password) because I tend to use BitWarden through the firefox extension.
As the extension gets locked from time to time I have to unlock it, but the biometric option is greyed out unless I open the desktop app. Only then after opening the app, then reattempting to unlock the browser extension, does it take me to the desktop app to allow me to use biometrics, which is also a tiny bit tedious that I can not do it directly through the browser.
