View attachments without downloading

+1 also for iOS quick view would be nice

Searched for this feature and came across this. I just transitioned from LP today and bough the premium expecting it to offer a file vault type of experience. Ok so we have to add these files as attachments… fine but now I cannot view them?? essentially a useless feature until this is implemented properly

1 Like

This is definitely needed!! It keeps me from moving my last KeePass wallet to Bitwarden.
This applies to all platform clients (including Browser plugin handling to overwrite the cached file after displaying it).

1 Like

Also voting for this feature as it’s annoying to have to download the attachment on macOS/iOS especially since 1Password also allows the functionality to view attachments without downloading/saving.

Please bring this functionality to Bitwarden. Comparing feature parity with other password managers, the ability to view secure attachments on the device is a basic requirement. I’m trying to stay on the bitwarden bandwagon, but downloading viewing, deleting and then emptying my trash to clear sensitive files is frustrating and worth paying extra for alternative provide like LastPass of OnePassword. Please make this happen!

Indeed, I was just exploring 1password as I find the enduser-experience a bit lacking for my non-technical family-members and this is a much needed feature. Just extract the file to an encrypted directory on the host-system (for the native apps), make sure they don’t exit them and wipe clean afterwards. I like bitwarden’s simplicity and it works quite well, but not smooth enough for non-technical usage. It needs more “end-user-use-case-explorations” like this. I wish you the best though!

1 Like

This is important functionality for me and the ability to save/view photos of important documents is the main reason I upgraded to Premium (also to support the developers). I’d like to echo everyone else’s concerns about the need to download the attachment before viewing. Having the ability to view pictures and other common file types within the app would be incredibly helpful and ensure better security of our data.

While I still ultimately want this built in, I’ve come up with a workaround for iOS that I’m happy to share:
Using the Shortcuts app, create a new shortcut using the Quick Look action. Set the shortcut to accept “anything” and the action to “Show (input) in Quick Look”. Finally Configure the shortcut to “show in share sheet”. Now after you select to download an attachment from Bitwarden, select the new Quick Look shortcut from the share sheet. The file will show on the screen without needing to first save the download. Hopefully the Bitwarden developers can easily implement something similar.

7 Likes

As the guy above, signed up to premium to support the devs and leverage the file storage. Found out after that attachments can’t easily be viewed without downloading and negating their secure status.

How do we upvote this beast?

3 Likes

+1 vote for me.

Actually I have some PDF files in the vault and had to install a PDF app. Now I have to download files first and then be able to open them with the external PDF app. Don’t know where my files are saved before I’m able to see them. :frowning:

I am a late arrival to this discussion, nonetheless, being a past LP user, I have been sorely missing this feature in Bitwarden since I started using it. I am not going to list all the reasons why, they have already been well articulated. Just a bit surprised this has not yet been addressed or showing up on any product roadmap. Hopefully soon🤞@tgreer

Thank you very much! It works like a charm. :slight_smile:

3 Likes

Feature request created back in Mar 2018. In 2 months time, it will be 3 years old and still not implemented… As a paying customer, I would expect at least some sort of roadmap for this… C’mon developers, step up your game :slight_smile: Keeweb has this option and it is so useful.

Hi Tadas, Welcome to the Bitwarden community forums! Similar comment to our response on the tweet :wink: balancing the roadmap is an ongoing effort. We will be discuss this item on our next Vault Hours Bitwarden Vault Hours 8 - Crowdcast

1 Like

Downloading attached images is painful just to have a look at them. Other PwApps show them directly below notes.

1 Like

I suggested this (by email) back in December 2018 and was told: “We have this feature on our backlog of good ideas to implement.”

I assume this isn’t getting enough votes to get noticed and that’s the reason why nothing has happened in that regard. I’m really missing this functionality though. I’ve got an image of one of these matrix code cards stored and having to download the image locally to view it and then having to remember to delete it afterwards is just a disaster waiting to happen.

Actually, I assume most pictures that people attach to items in Bitwarden aren’t supposed to be lying around just anywhere. I’m actually kinda surprised that “download” made it in before “view”. I would expect it the other way around, and IMO it should probably even display a warning on download saying that the attachment will be stored unencrypted on the device.

3 Likes

Actually I have this issue with PDF files too. I scanned some cards e.g. driving license, personal id, credit cards and put them into Bitwarden. Now I have to download them every time I need them. And afterwards I have to remember deleting them all.
Yes, I should use them as image files but here I also have to download and delete them afterwards. :thinking:

This seems to be a long time coming for something that I would think a lot of users would really like. Sure, we can download the image, but then we have to remember to delete that image afterwards. It would be so much easier to be able to view the image, then lockup the DB again. Is there an ETA for this?

@steves Welcome! We have this captured on our backlog but don’t have a development schedule for it just yet.

1 Like

Moving from Enpass, where I had images of driver license, insurance cards, SS card: all those cards that I may or may not have with me, but that are needed at unexpected times. The ability to securely VIEW the image would be wonderful. Downloading seems dangerous, especially on a phone - who knows where the file ends up?

2 Likes

Downloading with sensitive attachments needs to be avoided. Storing them is the primary goal but retrieving that data without compromising it via downloading is really the end result users need from this function. Most Apple users on iOS/iPadOS have iCloud storage/photo syncing enabled and so do most users who use Google Photos app or other image syncing services. So automatically that image would be immediately propagated across cloud services! Until viewing without downloading is supported, I am very hesitant to use this feature. How would Organizations deal with this security risk? For them a view only default option would be a nice addition as well so users don’t accidentally download sensitive data and have it lying around on their devices.

I hope this gets added to the roadmap as I have a lot of documents I’d want to store in my Vault. Plus the incremental additional storage purchase is so ripe for users to get more of their sensitive data into their vault.

3 Likes