Problem with transposing/using password on both laptop and iPhone

AyJaydee

This is a really odd problem and I think that I'm going to struggle trying to describe it.
I access lots of websites from either my iPhone or my laptop, each login has a unique password, for which I use password vaults. When needed, I generate a random password on the laptop, then manually copy it across to the phone.  To ensure that I do not transpose characters incorrectly, I first paste into a text editor and selecting a large point size, read it back.  To avoid misreading similar looking characters, e.g. 1 and l, 0 and O etc, I compare by entering them through the keyboard on a new line.

Now the issue that has stumped me is that one site requires a password with 'special characters' i.e. "£$%^&*@? etc.  I generate password on my laptop and use it to enter the target website. So far so good.
But then I transpose that password onto my iPhone and save it on the phones password vault.  But when I go to use it, the website says that my login credentials are incorrect.

From a previous employment, I learned that word processors are not reliable because they may misinterpret the users intentions and add/mistranslate keystrokes e.g. 'newline'. So they preferred to use text editors for their applications. This is an issue that I think I have avoided.

I have also discovered that one character generated by the laptop, which looks a bit like the double-quotation symbol but has straight lines instead of curly ones, does not appear on the keyboard.
I now suspect that my iPhone is misinterpreting combinations of keystrokes as something else and I keep locking myself out as I play with different combinations of special characters.

Can any IT - Apple savvy person shed light on this please?
Thank you

Neil_Jones

Password managers do exist that work across multiple devices - something like Bitwarden, though I think on iOS has to run as a browser extension on Safari rather than an app but I don't use either (Bitwarden or Apple devices) so I can't be sure.

So in other words you could pick a password on any device and it should become usable on the other device saving you the need to copy/paste.

MikeJXE

Never had a problem with my iPhone, iPad or MacBook 

Generate a password on one and it is identical on the others 

Then again my passwords are not that complicated 

PRAISETHESUN

I always generate my password first and then save it to the password manager. Then I directly copy it (using Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V (copy/paste function)), rather than manually transcribing it into the password field of the website I am signing up to/changing the password for. That way the version of the password that is saved in my PWM is the one that is used for the website concerned.

On the rare occasion I need to copy it elsewhere first, I use notepad rather than word, sidestepping the formatting issues you describe.

DullGreyGuy

AyJaydee said:

This is a really odd problem and I think that I'm going to struggle trying to describe it.
I access lots of websites from either my iPhone or my laptop, each login has a unique password, for which I use password vaults. When needed, I generate a random password on the laptop, then manually copy it across to the phone.  To ensure that I do not transpose characters incorrectly, I first paste into a text editor and selecting a large point size, read it back.  To avoid misreading similar looking characters, e.g. 1 and l, 0 and O etc, I compare by entering them through the keyboard on a new line.

Now the issue that has stumped me is that one site requires a password with 'special characters' i.e. "£$%^&*@? etc.  I generate password on my laptop and use it to enter the target website. So far so good.
But then I transpose that password onto my iPhone and save it on the phones password vault.  But when I go to use it, the website says that my login credentials are incorrect.

From a previous employment, I learned that word processors are not reliable because they may misinterpret the users intentions and add/mistranslate keystrokes e.g. 'newline'. So they preferred to use text editors for their applications. This is an issue that I think I have avoided.

I have also discovered that one character generated by the laptop, which looks a bit like the double-quotation symbol but has straight lines instead of curly ones, does not appear on the keyboard.
I now suspect that my iPhone is misinterpreting combinations of keystrokes as something else and I keep locking myself out as I play with different combinations of special characters.

Can any IT - Apple savvy person shed light on this please?
Thank you

What Password Manager are you using? What OS are you running on your laptop?

If you're using a Mac then you can just use Apple's own "Password" app on both laptop and iPhone; previously it was part of the Settings/iCloud services but in latest versions of the OSs they've spun it out into its own app. If you use a Windows machine with Edge or Chrome then you can have a plug in to use iCloud password manager. 

Alternatively Chrome can be used on all platforms and there are plenty of third party apps that will run on both. 

PHK

Neil_Jones said:

Password managers do exist that work across multiple devices - something like Bitwarden, though I think on iOS has to run as a browser extension on Safari rather than an app but I don't use either (Bitwarden or Apple devices) so I can't be sure.

So in other words you could pick a password on any device and it should become usable on the other device saving you the need to copy/paste.

Bitwarden is an app on iOS, it’s NOT a safari extension. It’s works systemwide 

PHK

AyJaydee said:

This is a really odd problem and I think that I'm going to struggle trying to describe it.
I access lots of websites from either my iPhone or my laptop, each login has a unique password, for which I use password vaults. When needed, I generate a random password on the laptop, then manually copy it across to the phone.  To ensure that I do not transpose characters incorrectly, I first paste into a text editor and selecting a large point size, read it back.  To avoid misreading similar looking characters, e.g. 1 and l, 0 and O etc, I compare by entering them through the keyboard on a new line.

Now the issue that has stumped me is that one site requires a password with 'special characters' i.e. "£$%^&*@? etc.  I generate password on my laptop and use it to enter the target website. So far so good.
But then I transpose that password onto my iPhone and save it on the phones password vault.  But when I go to use it, the website says that my login credentials are incorrect.

From a previous employment, I learned that word processors are not reliable because they may misinterpret the users intentions and add/mistranslate keystrokes e.g. 'newline'. So they preferred to use text editors for their applications. This is an issue that I think I have avoided.

I have also discovered that one character generated by the laptop, which looks a bit like the double-quotation symbol but has straight lines instead of curly ones, does not appear on the keyboard.
I now suspect that my iPhone is misinterpreting combinations of keystrokes as something else and I keep locking myself out as I play with different combinations of special characters.

Can any IT - Apple savvy person shed light on this please?
Thank you

The method you are using is probably the least reliable. For a start it’s unnecessarily complicated. You just need to use a password manager that works cross platform. I use Bitwarden which works across PCs, iOS, Android, Linux etc etc 

The method you are using will only work where the code page / character set is the same across  the platforms. You’ll be okay with letters and numbers but some other characters will come across as something else. A password manager can specify the characters exactly. 

(transpose means to exchange two things - so I think you meant copy or copying) 

400ixl

As mentioned, Bitwarden is a cross platform password manager that does what you need.

AyJaydee

Thank you for your comments all.
The two password managers are different. For the iPhone I am using what comes ready-provided by Apple.  The laptop is not an Apple device and on that I am using KeePass, chosen for no other reason than that it was the tool used in my previous employment.

I do access quite a few sites/accounts via both the app on my phone and their website from my laptop and this is the first instance of anything odd happening.
After a fairly lengthy telephone call today with someone at the company (a financial institution), the problem persisted. Whereas before the call I could access from laptop but not phone, now I can access from phone but not laptop.
So I submitted to them a fairly lengthy e-mail describing the complete history of this problem, what I did, how it behaved and what I was told. So now I wait, they were quite quick in getting back to me before.

If anyone reading this represents a company or organisation that requires the services of an experienced Test/Requirements Engineer, now retired but open to lucrative offers, then my CV is available on request.

mrochester

AyJaydee said:

Thank you for your comments all.
The two password managers are different. For the iPhone I am using what comes ready-provided by Apple.  The laptop is not an Apple device and on that I am using KeePass, chosen for no other reason than that it was the tool used in my previous employment.

I do access quite a few sites/accounts via both the app on my phone and their website from my laptop and this is the first instance of anything odd happening.
After a fairly lengthy telephone call today with someone at the company (a financial institution), the problem persisted. Whereas before the call I could access from laptop but not phone, now I can access from phone but not laptop.
So I submitted to them a fairly lengthy e-mail describing the complete history of this problem, what I did, how it behaved and what I was told. So now I wait, they were quite quick in getting back to me before.

If anyone reading this represents a company or organisation that requires the services of an experienced Test/Requirements Engineer, now retired but open to lucrative offers, then my CV is available on request.

Apple Passwords is available on Windows if that's the OS you are using on your laptop.  

DullGreyGuy

Likewise KeePass is available on iOS