iPhone Password Manager

Since before the iPhone was released, passionate 1Password users have been begging us to support it. As Canadians we couldn't even get one, so Roustem and I travelled to Chicago to purchase a few for development.

After several grueling weeks, we are proud to announce that 1Password 2.5 sports a new icon on its toolbar!

Sync to iPhone will export all your 1Password data to an encrypted Safari Bookmarklet, which can then be used on the iPhone (or iPod Touch) to access all your information. Of course everything is encrypted with some seriously strong cryptography, namely 448-bit Blowfish with Cipher Block Chaning (CBC) and randomized salt.

Without further ado, let's see how this works!

Clicking Sync to iPhone will bring up a new window:

The password you provide will be used to encrypt all your information using 448 bit Blowfish encryption. The information can only be viewed if the correct password is given, otherwise it is completely unreadable.

You can optionally store your iPhone password into the default login keychain; only do this if you have properly secured your login keychain (i.e. lock on sleep and use a strong password).

Your encrypted 1Password data is then stored into a Safari Bookmarklet, which is a standard bookmark, but instead of containing just an address, it contains the entire web page. By default we name the bookmarklet 1Password and put it as a root element:

Note the previous screenshot was of Safari 2. In Safari 3, bookmarks are organized differently. Use CMD-Option-B to Show All Bookmarks, and you will see 1Password under the Bookmarks section:

If you want, you can rename the bookmarklet or move it to another folder. The next time you export we will find the bookmarklet and update it.

Once the 1Password bookmarklet is created, you can launch iTunes perform a sync.

Once synced, you can find 1Password in your iPhone bookmarks:

Clicking the bookmark will open a page asking for your Access Code. Enter the same Access Code you used during the export:

If the password was correct, you will be shown your standard 1Password sections:

Tapping each section will show a list of all the entries, and tapping an individual entry will show its details.

With 1Password for iPhone, you can now sync all your information and take it with you, safely and securely.

To grab your copy of 1Password 2.5 Beta, visit the 1Password 2.5 Beta forum. In a few days you can get an automatic update to 2.5 from within the 1Passwd application; be sure to enable Automatic Updates and allow Betas from the 1Passwd Update Preferences.

Please stop by the forum and tell us what you think! And, enjoy your iPhone!

Comments

[tray]

FINALLY!!! *does the happy dance*

[Kiran]

How I wish Apple implemented password storage capabilities on mobile Safari (iPhone) :( Wait, does your app do this?? Does it automatically fill the username/password fields??

[dave]

uh, if you can do it via bookmarklet for the iphone, would it be possible to do so for blackberries or other phones - or perhaps for the opera mini browser which runs across phones? that would be awesome...

[Klaus]

Thanks guys - you truly rock - this must be the first "real app" for iPhone that requires no hack of the phone and depending on online access (well unless you want to visit a site that is)

Kudos to you!

[Klaus]

Thanks guys - you truly rock - this must be the first "real app" for iPhone that requires no hack of the phone and depending on online access (well unless you want to visit a site that is)

Kudos to you!

[Erik J. Barzeski]

The problem here is that there's absolutely no way to use the information to log in to the site. Instead, you have to write down or remember your username and password, then go to the site, and type it in correctly.

If you've used 1Passwd/1Password to generate a password for you, the odds of you typing it in properly or remembering it without writing it down are slim to none.

This is nothing more than a list of passwords on your iPhone. It doesn't "tie in" to iPhone Safari at all.

[David A Teare]

Thanks for all the comments guys. They help keep us motivated to keep pushing this forward :)

@Kiran and @Erik: In the current version of 1Password for iPhone, the goal was to allow you to access your information from your iPhone. We are now working on solutions to allow you to autofill this information. Rome was not built in a day; it will take some time but we have some great solutions in mind.

[Allen Kelson]

Thanks a bazillion, you guys. And next time--if there be a next time--you needn't journey to Chicago (unless you want to); just ask me. As a long-time, very contented user, I owe you that much. (Of course, I'll want to be reimbursed!)

[Rick]

this is very cool, but limited in utility as it doesn’t populate the webform with the username and password. So, for example, I'm still not going to be able to use my iPhone to access my online bank or brokerage accounts. I have long passwords with randomized characters/capitalization. Manually typing that in on a keyboard ain’t gonna happen, much less on a mobile device.

one suggestion: when we bring up the item’s detail, it lists the url for the page it supports. Would it be possible to use that link to access the webpage and then have the data fields auto populated?

Until some form of population is provided (or the iPhone supports copy and paste), there’s really not much here for me.

[Jim]

Will this also work with Ipod touch?

[franko]

@eric: one step at a time!

i think this is fantastic. thanks, everyone!

[Digital Dude]

I didn't jump on the bandwagon with the iPhone although I see that this latest update (beta) is quite impressive. I can certainly wait for the hard release of 2.5 and I really look forward to the invite for 1P website!
Regards,

[Julius Mapalad]

This rocks. I'm so excited to be able to use 1Password on my iPhone.

[Joyce Denn]

this is a must have.. i still think that my old htc has a lot more features than the iPhone :(

[Craig Pugsley]

Been a 1Password user for a while now. Its a great application, and its integration with my web browser on the mac is second to none.
One of the biggest problems with MobileSafari is its complete lack of credential remembering for web forms. This is a major shortfall for any web browser, mobile or otherwise.
1Password have tried to do their best, with a complete lack of support for integration with MobileSafari from Apple. I, for one, thank the 1Password people for the work they've done coming up with a creative solution to this problem.
At least we now have a way to keep our passwords on our iPhones. Well done!

[Nigel]

Brilliant! Once again, not much worry about my passwords.

Thank you - keep on your good works

[John Kendrick]

Is this two-way synching, or will I initially put all my password on the mac and then only synch one way from mac to iphone. Thanks for all your work on this. I am looking forward to using it on my iphone.

[emad]

I've been waiting for this one. I've got tons of passwords so itt has been one of the bigger issues I have been having with my iphone.

[Eli Tabak]

Am I missisng anything. I have been using 1pswrd since I switched to Mac. Not being able to use roboform was the biggest compromize I took in this step. I love the 1pswrd interface and I have been using it on and off. Why the off's? because it never really worked for me, namely the form and credit card filling capabilities. I can't recall one form or credit card info that was filled out right. Everytime there is a new version I am giving it a shot and often dissapointed. Lately, I loose all of my 1pswrd data when I sync with .mac so I no longer do it.
Everyone is talking so highly about 1pswrd and I honestly would love to like it and use it, but to this point there seem to be no real Mac equivalent to roboform. iPhone sync will be a great and welcome addition. But I used to do that with roboform and my Palm 5 years ago.
An I missing anything or is 1pswrd is only trying to catch up?

[David A Teare]

@Eli: Please contact us at the support email and we'll try to help you out with your .Mac syncing. .Mac can be fickle.

The Credit Card filling in 2.4 was ok, but it was highly dependent on how the web site was designed, and on average it's success was about 60%. In version 2.5, Roustem has made incredible progress improving the CC filling algorithm. Contact us with any sites that fail in 2.5 and we'll fix them asap.

[David A Teare]

@John: The data on the iPhone is readonly, so there is really no need for two-way sync. In theory we could allow you to use your iPhone as a "sync conduit" between your Macs, but it is not something we are actively pursuing.

If you want a feature like this, please lobby for it in the forum :)

[Tom Robinson]

Very cool, I was wondering whether or not it was possible to store entire JavaScript applications as bookmarklets... this answers my question.

It shouldn't be too hard to write an autofill bookmarklet...

[Robert]

I was so excited I bought it almost instantly (having been a SplashID user for years) BUT it continually crashes without adding the bookmarklet to Safari (I fear this is a Safari 3.0 beta issue - is this true)?

:-(

[David A Teare]

@Robert: Safari 3.0 should be perfectly fine. Roustem is running Safari 3 on Leopard and we also have many users reporting success in Safari 3 on Tiger. Personally, I use Safari 2 on Tiger, mainly for testing purposes and because that is where the majority of the user base is.

Please make sure you are using the latest beta of 1Password 2.5. Contact us at our support email address if needed and we'll help you right away. You can select Troubleshooting from the 1Password Help menu.

[Luke]

The one feature I was *really* going to miss when I retire my Treo for an iPhone was that the iPhone didn't have a password manager. This apps looks to have solved that issue. Great work.

I's also like to see two-way syncing though, so that password information can also be updated on the iPhone (Oh, and for Apple to hurry up and release the iPhone in Australia!).

[jon]

I am also having trouble with the iPhone syncing running the latest Safari 3 beta on Tiger. I just downloaded 1Password 2.5b3 and was about to do the happy dance, but I just can't seem to make the bookmark appear. Let me know if there is anything detailed I can do to help debug this amazing new feature!!!

[David A Teare]

@jon: If the issue is you can't see the bookmark in Safari 3 like my screenshot shows, please note that my screenshot is of Safari 2. Safari 3 organizes its bookmarks differently; see this thread for more details:

http://forum.agilewebsolutions.com/viewtopic.php?t=1762

[jon]

@David: Thank you! you were right, it was 'hiding'. I personally have a top-level iPhone folder for my bookmarks... perhaps you could offer an option of where to place the 1P bookmarklet so it wouldn't have to get moved around everytime i resync?

Thanks so much. This is one of the best applications ever!

[David A Teare]

Thanks for the update Jon! I'm glad it is working for you now.

Re: the placement of the 1P bookmarklet, we first look to see if the bookmark exists and then update it if we find it. This means you can move it anywhere, and even rename it, and 1Password will preserve your new settings.

[Donald Coleman]

I just took an iPhone back after the trial period. It is a great phone. But until iPhone supports an ap like Roboform I will not waste any more of my time with one. Having to type in user ids and passwords on a micro sized keyboard is ridiculous and is simply unacceptable. I have better things to do with my time. Its back to Windows on my laptop for now. It works.

[David A Teare]

@Donald: While I agree with you that autofilling passwords is a very important feature, but looking at the big picture I think the iPhone is an amazing phone and has done a great job pushing the boundaries of traditional phones.

I'm sure Apple wanted to add a password manager, and I'm sure it is one their todo list. As a developer I understand that you can't always deliver everything you want to at once. Look at 1Password 1.0, for instance, we had a ton of ideas that could have kept us busy for years, but we released 1.0 anyway because we needed a base to grow from, and because we needed feedback from real users to help drive the feature set.

We will be adding autofill to 1Password for iPhone in a future release. Therefore the need to type your passwords will be a thing of the past, "soon".

[Dave Lindberg]

I am a PC user. I know that 1password and iPhone bookmarklet are built for the Mac OS.

Any plans to create a PC version. I'm feeling left out. :(

P.S. Hats off to 1password! A real solution not dependent on the EDGE network. KUDOS.

[SK]

Is this project moot since Apple has now announced 3rd party development for the iPhone? Will you switch over to the SDK model when it becomes available?

SK

[David A Teare]

@SK: No, I don't think this project is moot. Apple did indeed announce 3rd party apps of some kind would be allowed, but details are scarce at the moment.

I doubt Apple will be opening up Safari or allowing Input Managers or other plugins, so this project could be required simply to make Go&Fill work inside MobileSafari.

Time will tell :)

Just trying this for the first time. I'm very happy that I can get to my passwords on the iPhone now. We are about to take an extended vacation an I need to pay some bills during our absence.

One problem I've seen (after 2 minutes playing with it) is that long fields do not display properly they "bleed over" into the next field and then obscure text. For instance, a very long URL will overwrite some of the text of the password field making it nearly impossible to read it. This severely limits it usefulness (obviously). I'm sure it will be addressed in a later version.

Just thought I'd add my .02

[Mathew Rice]

Additional comments about overwriting of text.

It seems I was mistaken earlier the display problems are these:

1. long URL's do not seem to word wrap appropriately. The additional line(s) of text appear "behind" the following fields.

2. long field names (from web sites) will overwrite part of the password. It seems that any field name (i.e. "login_password") that is longer than 13 characters will overwrite the first part of the password due to the static location of the beginning of the password text.

Hope this is more clear.

-Mat

[David A Teare]

@Anonymous: It's tough to get everything to fit on that small screen :)

Roustem took a stab at fixing this in Beta 7. Give it a go and see if it fixes your issue.

[MacMarc]

I'm so happy that you're working on this!

It's part of the reason that I went out and bought an iPod touch yesterday!!! That and the announcement that it will open to 3rd party developers.

Yay!

[James]

You guys rock! I have only been a user of your software for about a week now and I can't see myself without it. I have already saved hours navigating my sites. Now with the added bonus of having your PW info on the iPhone... Fantastic! Keep up the great work.

[tina]

I'm new to this forum and with 1password. So far I' m just trying to get use to it. Is there or will there be anyway to customize the fields as to add other pertinant information like social security numbers....and thngs of the like?

[David A Teare]

@tina: We are working on greatly expanding the Wallet section of 1Password to include Wallet Items like Social Security Numbers and other similar items.

[Hallie]

Still nothing for PC users? I also was a Palm user for many years and lived by SplashID. I would like something similar for my iPhone!

[JJ]

Speaking of SplashID... That's the app I've been - and still am - using on my Mac. I used to sync the Data on my Palm, but now that I've got myself an iPhone, this is the #1 app that I'm missing. Hence my search for a replacement. 1password seems to be the way to go but with the following reserve:
- can it import a SplashID database? I've got TONS of data in it, from bank accounts, to credit card pins, to web site logins, to identification data (passport numbers, soc sec numbers for my whole family, root passwords of my numerous computers, even some iChat conversations saved... I cannot imagine having to type everything again into 1password
- I understand that the iPhone side is "read-only". An editor would be nice. Is this on your todo list (taking advantage of the future SDK I suppose)?

Keep up the great work, and you should soon count me among your customer base.

[Gary Ingersoll]

I just sync'd or the first time with my iPod Touch and it worked flawlessly. I have finally found a replacement for using eWallet in Windows. After switching to Apple a few months ago eWallet was the only reason my Dell desktop and PDA were still taking space in my office - now they are out of here! Thanks for a great program.

Gary

[Dan]

I was tied to windows, outlook, Roboform and Palm for a long time. 1password with iPhone sync has helped me break that bond. Being able to fill forms from SAFARI on the iPhone would be the icing on the cake.

[Luis]

This looks quite promising - does the bookmarklet work without a web connection? (without wifi on an ipod touch, for example) - or is it making a call back to your servers?

I ask this, because I'd like to use this as a portable password carrier on the iPod touch, but don't want to rely on Wifi to look up passwords.

Thank you in advance for your answers.

[Blair]

Is there any way to sync the 1password info on my Mac to my iPhone OTHER than the 'sync via bookmark' method? Maybe via an iToner drag n drop way without hacking everything up?

I use completely different bookmark sets between my Mac(s) and my iPhone and iTunes doesn't sync this data very well. All it does is completely over write the bookmarks on the iPhone, not 'sync' the two sets of data between the iPhone and Safari.

Just to get the 1password info on my iPhone, I sync'd as per the instructions, and then had to go and recreate my iPhone specific bookmarks...and delete all the Mac specific ones. After that...you can't even delete all the Mac specific folders/history areas it creates....very Messy.

Am I missing something?

BTW, love the software so far, using/bought about 6 months ago.

Thanks!

[David A Teare]

@Luis: No internet connection is required. All the data is kept in a local bookmark.

@Blair: Currently the bookmark can only be synced via iTunes. Using a different method like iToner's is an interesting idea; I'll give that some more thought.

[blair]

Even an iToner type sync could be messy to maintain for AWS. Seeing how Apple so frequently changes the rules on the iPhone. But, say there was a feature update for iPhone cut n paste type support or autofill and the iToner sync method...I'd be willing to pay (others maybe too) for an major update/upgrade fee.

[joe]

tx.. guys.. this is a great step.... I've been very impressed with your company and the continuing updates.... This is a good step and very valuable... it would be infinitely more valuable with autofill, but what you have now is still of great value to me... tx for the implementation!