Password managers are great—indispensable, even—but also, they're kind of annoying. They try to autofill any field on any website, whether it needs it or not. And I don't need 1Password trying to fill in a password for the random login box on the online magazine I'm browsing.
There are two ways you can manage this in 1Password, especially for sites you visit regularly or semi-regularly. And they work no matter what browser or device you're using. Let's take a look.
Managing autofill options in 1Password
1Password assumes you want to log in to every site you visit, whether you have an account on it or not. But that's not always the case—especially for sites you visit only once or occasionally.
It's a little easier to handle on mobile devices than on a desktop because you can turn off autofill completely for all mobile apps and websites. On your computer, though, 1Password gives you three options to manage login items saved in your vault:
Fill anywhere on this website: Passwords are suggested on any field on this website and subdomains for the same organization. For example, if the field is zapier.com, you'll see suggestions for:
https://learn.zapier.com
https://developer.zapier.com
https://zapier.com/login
And so on
Only fill on this exact domain: Passwords are suggested only if the domain is an exact match to the saved login information. Using the previous example, it would autofill only on https://zapier.com and nothing else.
Never fill on this website: 1Password ignores fields on the saved website and offers no suggestions. This one is perfect for sites I visit often but don't want to save login and password information for, like my online banking site (or for sites I visit infrequently but still don't want to see the password prompts on).
But what about sites I'll only ever land on once while researching topics for my freelance writing clients, or for items I only buy once every five years, like new tennis shoes? Unfortunately, you can't turn autofill off everywhere on your computer.
But you do have options.
Setting the "Never fill on this website" option
I never save any financial information online, so I've added all my online banking websites to 1Password and set it to never show a prompt on those sites.
There are several ways to access 1Password on your computer: the extension in your browser, the desktop app, or the website. Open it how you like, and then follow these steps.
Click New Item > Login.
Add the website URL you don't want login prompts for in the Website field. This field is automatically filled in if you've opened 1Password from your browser.
Click the filter icon next to the Website field. The autofill options are displayed:
Choose the Never fill on this website option.
Click Save.
Next time you navigate to that site, you'll see the 1Password icon in the field, but no password prompts will appear. Even clicking the icon in the field won't do anything (normally, it would open any suggestions you'd saved for that website and subdomains).
Clearing the password prompts manually
If you just want to make a password prompt go away right now, you can clear it manually. When you're on a website in your browser:
Click inside a field. The 1Password icon appears in the field, and the message "No items to show" is displayed.
Click the 1Password icon to clear the message.
Proceed on your way! The message will be gone.
Remember, clearing the prompts manually like this isn't saved permanently, so you'll need to do it every time you land on the site, even if you've already visited it before and cleared the prompts. The only way to prevent the message from appearing when you arrive on a site you visit regularly is to add it to your password vault and then choose Never fill on this website.
Managing 1Password prompts on mobile devices
1Password handles autofill and password prompts a little differently on mobile devices. It has two main settings on mobile (and they apply to all apps on the device and any websites you navigate to in the browser app): Autofill and Show filling suggestions.
Here's how that looks on both iOS and Android mobile devices (images care of 1Password, with my annotations):
How to turn off autofill and password prompts on mobile devices
In my opinion, turning off suggestions everywhere all the time defeats the purpose of using a password manager, but you might have a specific reason for it, so here's how to make it happen:
For iOS and Android devices:
Open and unlock the 1Password app.
Tap the icon for your account at the top-left (for iOS) or top-right (for Android) and tap Settings > AutoFill.
Choose one of the following options:
AutoFill (iOS) / Autofill (Android): Turn autofill off everywhere.
Show filling suggestions: Turn suggestions off everywhere.
Even if you choose these options, you'll always be able to use stored logins and passwords from 1Password, as long as you keep the app installed on the device. Turning off these two settings simply means the app won't autofill any logins for you nor make any suggestions. Instead, you'd need to manually retrieve the information from the 1Password app first.
Make your password manager less intrusive
Changing the autofill option on 1Password has been a piece of digital housekeeping that's reduced my frustration while keeping my information secure. 1Password gives you a few options to manage your experience, so you can browse the way you want—safely.
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