"Show Identities as Autofill Suggestions on Vault View" Almost Never Works

[bwbug]

Steps To Reproduce

1. Create one or more Identity items in the Bitwarden vault.
2. Enable the option "Show Identities as Autofill Suggestions on Vault View"
3. Launch almost any web form with identity input fields (e.g., any of the examples listed below).
4. Open browser extension pop-up window.
5. Look for Identity items to appear as autofill suggestions in the "Autofill Suggestions" section near the top of the browser extension's Vault view.
6. To check whether any Bitwarden-detectable identity data input fields are present, right-click in the web form, and autofill an Identity item by going to Bitwarden > Autofill Identity in the context menu.

---

Examples of Identity Forms Where Issue is Observed:

• https://ourladyofhopeparish.org/parish-festival-signup-form
• https://www.kirksvilledailyexpress.com/newsletter-signup/index.html
• https://justplaysportscolorado.com/newsletter-signup
• https://www.depts.ttu.edu/ga/signup.php
• https://www.postregister.com/site/forms/postregister/pr_letter/
• https://www.durangoschools.org/apps/form/form.DURSDNR.t05anex.27V
• https://jobs.talhealthcare.com/index.smpl?arg=jb_user_signup
• https://www.onewaupun.com/grow/discipleshipsignup.cfm
• https://stcroixrods.com/pages/2023-shows-newsletter-signup-form
• https://mnfreemasons.org/wayfaring-man-signup/
• https://www.ftc.edu/non-matriculated-program-signup-form/
• https://www.daduniversity.com/email-newsletter
• https://parklandflag.com/newsletter-signup
• https://hmrmud.org/signup-for-email-notices
• https://bu219.activehosted.com/f/202
• https://www.svcc.edu/community/adult-education/vital/tutor-signup.html
• https://marana.seamlessdocs.com/f/5qp60caent77
• https://cowg.cap.gov/aem-sign-up-form
• https://www5.homecu.net/fi/lirfcu/membership-form.html
• https://lostcreekld.org/signup-for-email-notices
• https://www.maine.gov/dep/maps-data/egad/mail.html
• https://brownsshoefitcompany.com/EmailSignupFF/
• https://signup.ncsa.org/
• https://njcleanenergy.com/commercial-industrial/programs/benchmarking/energy-benchmarking-signup/
• https://zeal-to-heal.com/Home/CorporateSignup
• https://www.applyweb.com/cgi-bin/register?s=25lclass
• https://www.twinenviro.com/canon-city/canon-city-signup-form/
• https://www.jcprd.com/FormCenter/Volunteer-Forms-29/Volunteer-Signup-Form-211
• https://apacheriagravel.com/volunteer-signup-form/

Expected Result

According to this statement by @micahblut, it is expected that Identity items should appear in the browser extension's "Autofill Suggestions" section "when the user is on a page with a form that we detect as a valid place to fill that data."

The presence of a web form that is a "valid place to fill that data" is confirmed by performing Step 6 in the above instructions for reproducing the issue. All of the example websites listed above satisfy this criterion, so it is expected that Identity items should appear in the browser extension's "Autofill Suggestions" section when any of the above web pages has been loaded.

Actual Result

Despite the presence of valid input fields for Identity data, no Identity items are displayed in the "Autofill Suggestions" section.

Screenshots or Videos

No response

Additional Context

The above list of websites was selected at random from a Google search for "address signup form". Out of 36 web forms tested, Identities were successfully displayed as autofill suggestions in only 4 cases (a failure rate approaching 90%). For the record (and to assist with debugging), these are the four sites where the new feature works as intended:

• https://tortugarumcakes.com/winter-fancy-food-wholesale-signup/
• https://www.tgh.org/healthcare-professionals/caremesh-preenrollment-signup
• https://www.bobbakermarionettetheater.com/schoolhouse-signup-form
• https://verobowl.com/youth-signup-form/

---

Even prior to release of this buggy feature (in 2024.12.0), autofilling using any method will not work when the form fields are not visible (e.g., hidden, or below the scroll). However, in the old UI (2024.11.2 and earlier), it was possible to autofill Identities (and other data) after making the form fields visible (e.g., by scrolling the web page). Therefore, it is important to note that for all of the example URLs listed in the above instructions for reproducing the issue, at least some of the form input fields were visible in the web browser on page load (and could be successfully autofilled using the right-click context menu, as verified in Step 6 above).

For the record (and for testing purposes), here are 3 examples of web forms where Identity information cannot be autofilled by the right-click context menu until after the forms fields have been made visible (by scrolling, or by selecting a form option):

• https://clearlakesymphony.org/newsletter-signup/
• https://oldfortwayne.org/get-involved/reenactor-registration/
• https://www.cancercarepoint.org/newsletter-signup/

For the above three examples, the browser extension also does not display Identity items as autofill suggestions.

Operating System

Windows

Operating System Version

Windows 11 (23H2)

Web Browser

Chrome

Browser Version

No response

Build Version

Version: 2024.12.3; SDK: 'main (edee180)'

Issue Tracking Info

• I understand that work is tracked outside of Github. A PR will be linked to this issue should one be opened to address it, but Bitwarden doesn't use fields like "assigned", "milestone", or "project" to track progress.

[bitwarden-bot]

Thank you for reporting this issue! We've added this to our internal tracking system.
ID: PM-16354

[Greenderella]

Hi there!

We appreciate you letting us know of this issue. Due to the nature of autofill issues, we track them internally using different Forms depending on the platform:

• mobile: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScMopHyN7KGJs8hW562VTzbIGL4KcFnx0wJcsW0GYE1BnPiGA/viewform
• browser extension: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfkxh1w6vK8fLYwAbAAEVhvhMAJwfFNDtYtPUVk1y5WTHvJmQ/viewform

In this case, we will go ahead and file an autofill report for you with the information you added here.

In the future, if you encounter any other page or app that doesn't autofill as expected, please avoid opening a new GitHub issue and go directly to the corresponding form.

This issue will now be closed.

Thanks!

[bwbug]

@Greenderella @micahblut This issue is not an autofill issue. It is a bug in rendering of the "Autofill Suggestions" area on the Vault page of the new browser extension. As I confirmed in Step 6 of the "Steps to Reproduce", the auto-filling functionality does actually work on all 30 URLs listed as examples. The problem is that the UI fails to display the Fill button.

Please re-open.

[dpantel]

I can confirm that this is an issue for me as well.
Firefox extension version: 2024.12.3 (SDK: 'main (edee180)')

As you can see no identities or cards are shown in the "Autofill Suggestions" Section.

[bwbug]

@dpantel What URL do you have open in the browser? It needs to contain input fields for identity or payment info for this functionality to even have a chance of working. However, this bug report shows that the expected functionality does not work, except in very rare cases (10% of sites).

[dpantel]

It was an online order site that contained both address and payment fields.

I would argue that BW should not try to detect or match those types of fields to determine if Identities or Cards should be displayed.

I would argue that if I enable those settings, I expect to always see Identities/Cards towards the top of the extension window, after suggested logins. They can be in their own sections, if that's what the designers like, such as

Autofill [login] Suggestions" 
...

Identities
... 

Cards
... 

(and only then "All Items", if those will still be displayed in the future.)

The main reason is that historically, BW is terrible at filling out identity/card information, likely due to the high variability in form field ids. So, it is not unusual to have to manually copy and paste some of this info. Therefore, I want those at the top of the extension window, for easy repeated access on the same form.

[bwbug]

It was an online order site that contained both address and payment fields.

Thanks for clarifying. Seeing your GitHub login item as an autofill suggestion in the screenshot threw me off.

 

I would argue that if I enable those settings, I expect to always see Identities/Cards towards the top of the extension window, after suggested logins.

I do agree with you, but what you're proposing would be a new feature (actually, resurrection of an old feature), and not a bug fix. Here is the applicable Feature Request thread:

https://community.bitwarden.com/t/restore-show-cards-and-show-identities-options-in-browser-extension/77717

 

In the meantime, I'm trying to get somebody at Bitwarden to understand that the issue reported in this thread is not just an autofill issue, it is a bug in the construction of the browser extension's Vault page contents. I may have to refile the issue with a different title and better explanations.

[dpantel]

You reported a bug.
I am confirming that I am experiencing the same bug.
Since to fix this bug, they will need to work in that general area of the UI/UX, I am also providing (unsolicited) opinions of how I would like the bug fixed (i.e. restore prior behavior).
Whether you think restoring prior behavior is a feature request or not is... semantics.

To summarize: definitely a bug; needs fixing.

[bwbug]

You reported a bug.
I am confirming that I am experiencing the same bug.

Thank you.

Whether you think restoring prior behavior is a feature request or not is... semantics.

What I think doesn't matter, but in my experience, Bitwarden reps will promptly close GitHub issues that are deemed to involve intended behavior that may be undesired (i.e., a feature request).

Here, @Greenderella has already closed this issue because they mistakenly got the impression that I was reporting an autofill failure. I am trying to campaign to have the issue re-opened as a bug report ticket, so giving them any additional ammunition that could justify keeping the issue closed (e.g., posting of feature requests in the thread) is something that I would prefer to avoid.

[dpantel]

We'll just agree to disagree. In any case, this issue was (improperly) closed before I even got here.

@Greenderella Please reopen this issue or I will create a new one.

[bwbug]

Already posted a new issue, with hopefully a better title and description:

#12610