Apple Introduces Standalone 'Passwords' App

[fivenotrump]

What does this mean for Keychain users?

If you mean the Keychain Access.app then you may wish to create an alias to /System/Library/CoreServices/Applications/Keychain Access.app

 

[elasticmedia]

We have had 1Password for years, and it is has been fantastic. We bought it stand alone, so there is no annual fee. It's not buggy, it's not maddening - just a great resource. We haven't had the bad experiences some of you report. The Apple software does look very similar to 1 Password, that's for sure.

 

[ianfieldhouse]

Also store the credit card CVS code which Apple doesn’t do with their credit card autofill.

 

[ADrunkenMarcus]

I posted how this was bad. My daughter was locked out of her Apple ID and couldn’t access anything. We have 1Password and good thing too, she was able to access her passwords still on a different device.

Yes, agree with PlasmStudios that it's not a good idea to have ALL security eggs in one basket. I use passwords and MFA codes stored on iCloud's keychain for the vast majority of my logins, but I also maintain a 1Password subscription for the most sensitive / important accounts. The subscription is not a cost, but an investment in my security!

I also use 1Password to store some things like recovery/backup codes for accounts whose login is saved in keychain. This provides an extra backup option to recover access.

Best wishes


Mark.

 

[MuppetGate]

My concern is that Apple Sherlocking this one will cause subscriptions to go down, and 1P will have no choice but to raise the price on the rest of us.

… thereby causing subscriptions to fall even further. 🤔

 

[MuppetGate]

The transition to Electron was a hard pill to swallow…
That is when I jumped ship on 1Password.

(I still like/support them. I just no longer use them/am willing to pay for them.)

Yeah, that was a big slap in the face, IMO

 

[MuppetGate]

Easier and faster development (and platform design consistency) when you have the elements already in your library for a common use case. How you you visually represent interactive categories of data, where each category has interactive but structured (repeating) data elements?

Reminders > Types of Reminders > Individual Reminders with structured data (date/time, content)
Passwords > Types of Credentials > Individual Credentials with structured data (username, password, URL)

User adoption is more successful when the user can intuitively use the feature with familiar design elements (I can categorize, color code, label, etc. my passwords just the same as I already can for my reminders!)

Software development 101 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

 

[lazyjj1]

Bummed you can't store driving licenses, cards, copies of wills, important docs, etc all in one place.

This app is no different to me as I had a shortcut in my dock to load the passwords section in settings.

is that confirmed?

 

[urtules]

Hopefully it works in other browsers (I used Firefox) - I'm hoping the roll out of Apple Pay to 3rd party browsers in a good sign...

There’s official iCloud Keychain Chrome extension, I use it rarely when I have to do something in Chrome. You can check, it might be available for Mozilla as well.

 

[Magrathea]

I am a long time 1Pw user but for some reason the new family version always gets me confused and I mainly use iCloud keychain as I use safari - will be glad to cancel 1PW as the design sucks.

 

[lordydord]

Does anyone know if this will work with 3rd party browsers such as Chrome and Firefox (on a mac)?

Or are we at the mercy of Apple creating extensions for such browsers?

 

[Mr. Heckles]

I am a long time 1Pw user but for some reason the new family version always gets me confused and I mainly use iCloud keychain as I use safari - will be glad to cancel 1PW as the design sucks.

How is it confusing?

 

[iameric]

Hey guys, quick question: Do any of you know if importing passwords (CSV) into the new Passwords app on a Windows PC is possible?

I have always wanted to switch from my current password manager to Keychain, but there's been no way to import it on Windows, and I have many passwords!

I figured maybe they put a way to do this with the new iOS 18 Dev; I can't seem to find any options.

Thanks, everybody!

 

[whitedragon101]

I hope they let you add multiple url variations to the same login so it doesn’t log them As a reused password.

e.g
auth.mywebsite.com
mywebiste.com
a_different_url_that_is_part_of_mywebsite.com

 

[Cinimod1000]

I hope they let you add multiple url variations to the same login so it doesn’t log them As a reused password.

e.g
auth.mywebsite.com
mywebiste.com
a_different_url_that_is_part_of_mywebsite.com

Yup, you can add multiple url variations.....

 

[BLtheP]

Yup, you can add multiple url variations.....

That might win me over from 1Password then…finally. That was the whole reason I left keychain to begin with, got tired of the lack of multiple domains.

 

[dave070]

I see a lot of people talking about 1Password, for better or worse, but what about Bitwarden? I was a 1Password customer for years until they switched to the subscription model. Now I've been using BW for maybe 2 years and like it a lot. It isn't as polished as 1Password, but it has all the basics, the free version has all the features you'd want, and it's open source.

As others have pointed out, it's dangerous to put all your eggs in one basket so to speak. Convenient for sure, but if you ever get locked out of your account--even when it isn't your fault--you're going to have a big problem on your hands.

$36 a year for something as useful as 1Password is worth it to me at least. And given that basically everything is a subscription now, it's hardly unique. It also provides a more consistent revenue stream to a company so they don't have to wait until next major version comes out to collect as much revenue.

 

[Henry S]

I used iCloud keychain since it's inception, up until 2019 when I switched to 1Password because I had enough with the lack of multiple domain options on one entry. I'm well aware of the pros and cons of each. 1Password is okay, I just hate having subscriptions. The functions of 1Password or Keychain/Passwords could 100% be a free app provided by Apple. And it looks like they are trying to do that, but are not quite there.

1Password will have them beat on cross platform, yes. That was the other reason I switched. Windows laptops at work and I was tired of my stuff not syncing between the two. All that said, I have had plenty of 1P growing pains too. Back then it barely integrated with browsers, making for an overall pretty painful experience.

I like the Apple version better on the phones, it is better integrated there. Overall there is no perfect solution, I'm just tired of subscriptions. But if the functionality is not there, I will continue on with 1P as I have for 5 years now.

I need it to work with Windows as well. My only complaint with 1P (and Last Pass too) is it doesn't always play well with Macs. I went back and forth with their support for days to get autofill to work with multiple browsers on my Air.

 

[vjl323]

There's a zero chance that I'll ever switch to Android or Windows, but nobody should be comfortable relying on a closed and proprietary password manager. What are the export options offered by Apple? Is it a friendly format that preserves all your data, or some user-hostile XML file?

The current Passwords app in macOS 14 [located in the System Settings app] allows you to export to one format only - CSV. I think that's a good standard to stick with, so I would assume the macOS 15 version will allow the same export format.

 

[vjl323]

I would like to cancel my 1Password subscription….however, will this new Passwords app allow multiple domains in one entry? That was always the biggest issue with iCloud Keychain for me. Without that being fixed, I’m still stuck.

This is definitely an issue with the current Passwords app in macOS 14 [located in System Settings]. One password per domain. Thankfully copy/paste work well as a workaround when prompted for the password on a related URL. I know AAA [automobile club of America], and many credit unions and smaller banks will have 2 or 3 domains hosting their secure content [the bill pay section, the bank front end login, but then the online banking is a different URL, etc - I've seen all kinds of confusing setups in banks that outsource their online banking to multiple vendors]. 1Passwd handles this fine since you can assign different URLs to a single login entry. Apple Passwords, as of macOS 14, does not allow that, but you can basically duplicate an entry and have a different URL.

I would advise to play around with the Passwords app in the existing macOS, as for the most part the heart of the app that is coming in macOS 15 is found in the current version [located in System Settings]. It's more powerful than most people on this forum seem to realize. I think most folks here didn't even realize it existed, which means less tech minded folks probably didn't either, so Apple decided to remove it from the System Settings and make it its own app.

 

[vjl323]

I posted how this was bad. My daughter was locked out of her Apple ID and couldn’t access anything. We have 1Password and good thing too, she was able to access her passwords still on a different device.

If you have a Mac, access the current [and macOS 15] version of the Passwords app only requires the local Mac user password. And you're easily able to export the passwords to CSV. There's no AppleID involved in the local storage of the passwords, or accessing them. Now, if an AppleID is locked out, then syncing to iCloud would most likely not work/be delayed until the account is unlocked. But as long as you have the login password for your Mac, you can unlock and use/export/import/etc the Passwords app.

 

[Mr. Heckles]

If you have a Mac, access the current [and macOS 15] version of the Passwords app only requires the local Mac user password. And you're easily able to export the passwords to CSV. There's no AppleID involved in the local storage of the passwords, or accessing them. Now, if an AppleID is locked out, then syncing to iCloud would most likely not work/be delayed until the account is unlocked. But as long as you have the login password for your Mac, you can unlock and use/export/import/etc the Passwords app.

She, like most people in the world, uses a Windows computer.

 

[vjl323]

She, like most people in the world, uses a Windows computer.

And she was unable to unlock her iPhone and open the Settings app and the Passwords app from there? Opening Passwords, for me, requires FaceID. Was that disabled when her AppleID was hacked?

 

[abromber]

Yes, agree with PlasmStudios that it's not a good idea to have ALL security eggs in one basket. I use passwords and MFA codes stored on iCloud's keychain for the vast majority of my logins, but I also maintain a 1Password subscription for the most sensitive / important accounts. The subscription is not a cost, but an investment in my security!

I also use 1Password to store some things like recovery/backup codes for accounts whose login is saved in keychain. This provides an extra backup option to recover access.

Best wishes


Mark.

I also use both. iCloud Keychain is free and convenient and it works well in most situations, especially on Apple devices, but as others here have noted, it lacks the features, cross-platform versatility, and security of 1Password, so not a replacement. I find using both gives me more options, without locking me into one or the other, which would probably make me nervous. My Apple ID is stored in 1Password and vice versa. Both support fingerprint and Face ID, so it is close to foolproof. Plus I get Watchtower. I imagine you could do the same with BitWarden or whichever good third-party password manager you prefer.

Looking forward to the day when my phone or watch will biometrically verify my identity and I won't need passwords.

abromber

 

[Mr. Heckles]

And she was unable to unlock her iPhone and open the Settings app and the Passwords app from there? Opening Passwords, for me, requires FaceID. Was that disabled when her AppleID was hacked?

When she opened her phone, she got a pop up asking for her Apple ID password. She hit cancel, and it would pop up again. She couldn’t do anything because of that pop up.