Firefox mobile password insert requires 15 actions

2 points by wunderlust 2 years ago | 1 comment

[I'm running Firefox Mobile 116.3 and iOS 15.7.7 on an iPhone 7, so perhaps there's a shorter flow on iOS 16 or 17.]

When I arrive at a login screen on Firefox mobile, this is the list of actions I have to take to populate the password field with a password saved in Firefox (when (i) "keep me logged in" hasn't been activated and (ii) the login fields aren't automatically populated, which seems to be the general case for me):

1) Tap "done" to hide keyboard (this is perhaps not always necessary but is if the login fields are automatically brought to focus)

2) Open Firefox main menu

3) Select "passwords"

4) Authenticate with touch ID

5) Tap to activate search field

6) Type first n characters of site URL

7) Tap to select saved login

8) Tap "password" to reveal "copy" modal

9) Tap "copy" to add password to clipboard

10) Tap "Passwords" to step back to list of saved passwords matching typed URL partial

11) Tap "Cancel" to step back from URL search results

12) Tap "Done" to leave Firefox passwords database

13) Select password field to activate cursor

14) Tap password field (again) to reveal "paste" modal

15) Tap "paste" to insert password

As mentioned, mine is not the newest iPhone model and is not running the newest version of iOS, so I don't know whether or not this process is more streamlined on newer devices. I assume so, because this sequence is absurdly long, in my opinion.

The first several steps - getting to the password database - are acceptable. From there, however, it seems like nearly every other step is extraneous. Why do I need to search for the website? Can't Firefox read the current URL and - like iOS - show matching entries at the top of the UI? Beyond that, after I've searched for the website and found the login entry I need, why isn't there an option to "use password" and return directly back to the login page without the additional steps outlined above?

I've always thought Mozilla makes great products, but this UI/UX is almost unimaginably bad. Do people experience this on newer devices/versions? Am I missing something or using it the wrong way?

sp332 2 years ago |

Firefox uses iOS's password manager integration, and exposes a password manager that any program on iOS can use. The part you missed is linking them together. On your phone, go to Settings -> Passwords -> Autofill Passwords and select Firefox. Then your Firefox password manager will show up to autofill passwords in all apps, including Firefox.