Products · Pattern or everyday thing
Password managers
Raised as a usability problem by 102 people on Hacker News over 17 years (2010–2026), in 90 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Autofill fails on some sites, forcing manual copy-paste of passwordsUnreviewed
20102026- Autofill enters extra characters into an eight-character password field, so login fails until the user types it manually2026-06-26
- Autofill often fails on legitimate sites, training users to ignore missing autofill2025-09-09
- Legitimate password fields on different domains fail to autofill, mobile app versus browser2025-09-08
Creating a separate site login takes many manual stepsUnreviewed
20102026- No standard integration with page login elements, so changing passwords is hard to automate2021-06-05
- Creating a separate site login requires many manual steps across password manager and sign-up form2020-01-28
- Must check site password rules, configure generator, manually convert password to login2014-10-12
Differing site password requirements make passwords hard to rememberUnreviewed
20102026- Adds too much friction, and sites' differing password requirements make passwords hard to remember2019-02-15
- Users who tick remember-password end up forgetting their password2018-09-26
- Sites don't show password requirements, so users must remember each site's rules2015-06-15
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- Locked out of password manager because recovery email required a password stored inside it2026-10-12
- Autofill enters extra characters into an eight-character password field, so login fails until the user types it manually2026-06-26
- Password managers have UX bugs and need much more work to feel seamless2026-06-25
- Has to manually re-login to many sites every time the browser restarts2026-03-03
- Password managers are still clunky for non-tech people to use and generate passwords2026-01-11
- Re-logging in across many accounts requires many repeated phone unlocks and approvals, causing chore and neck strain2025-12-17
- Autofill often fails on legitimate sites, training users to ignore missing autofill2025-09-09
- Legitimate password fields on different domains fail to autofill, mobile app versus browser2025-09-08
- Password manager fails to recognise the domain, forcing manual search and copy-paste2025-09-08
- Split login screens stop password manager from autofilling credentials2025-06-13
- Must unlock on own device then copy long passwords to each new device2025-03-20
- Forced logout every two minutes makes re-login with 2FA take a full minute each time2024-12-06
- Retrieving and typing a password takes about five steps instead of one2024-09-26
- Disabled copy-paste on login forms forces manual typing, and logging in takes two tries on other computers2024-09-23
- Menu expands to fill the whole screen, making it feel designed only for phones2024-02-28
- Password managers unsupported on some devices force manual typing of long random passwords2024-02-11
- Regular people cannot use most password managers; even 1Password is not user-friendly2023-10-06
- Keeping a manual carbon copy of passwords is cumbersome, easy to forget, and error prone2023-09-16
- Must unlock password manager twice, once for username and again for password2023-08-30
- Password manager fails to find saved password for a new airline site2023-07-25
- Password managers break, requiring manual copy-paste and workarounds to save or autofill correct passwords2023-06-08
- Password managers are laggy or fail to trigger autofill in about a third of apps2023-05-08
- Autofill fails on some sites, forcing manual copy-paste of passwords2023-05-03
- Autofill fails on sites with separate username and password pages, requiring double filling2023-02-11
- Password managers are too confusing and a chore for the general public to use2023-01-25
- Mother finds auto fill hard to learn and keeps writing passwords down2023-01-03
- Migrating between managers leaves junk fields to manually delete, sometimes incorrect ones2022-12-29
- Auto-generated nonsense passwords make switching managers hard and risk lockout2022-12-23
- Clicking Generate Password returns the same password instead of a new one, which is confusing2022-12-20
- Generator won't produce a new password within the same session, and it lacks requirement options2022-12-20
- Logging in requires looking up passwords and copy-pasting them, with differing interfaces across managers2022-05-11
- Setup gets complicated, input is not detected, and people revert to simple passwords2022-03-28
- Forgetting the password manager's master password means permanent lockout; backups are hard to manage2022-02-25
- Typing long random passwords on a phone is tedious, with no reveal toggle on some sites2022-02-22
- Icons are a hassle and the app loads slowly2022-01-21
- Login forms split across screens or with unrecognised field names break password manager autofill2022-01-19
- Has to fake keyboard input to get past sites blocking autofill, and password rules and OS logins still need manual handling2022-01-19
- Autofill works on only about 10% of sites, forcing manual copy and paste2022-01-18
- Employees still write passwords on paper or in text files despite the easy-to-use tool2022-01-05
- Syncing the password files between devices was a huge pain2021-12-28
- Can't figure out how to use it without leaving the app2021-09-07
- No standard integration with page login elements, so changing passwords is hard to automate2021-06-05
- Autofill fills the wrong field, such as a chatbox or amount input, with the username2021-03-23
- Password managers fill hidden card expiry and CVV inputs, which breaks form UX unpredictably2021-03-23
- Computer freezes for about 10 seconds whenever a password field appears2021-03-18
- Dark text on dark background makes the site hard to read, depending on system theme2021-03-05
- Share section text renders as unreadable hieroglyphics in iOS Firefox2021-03-05
- Poor UX, though the comment gives no specific problem2020-10-18
- Must manually force-fill passwords from the manager on some sites2020-06-24
- Small icons are hard to see and elderly users may not understand them2020-05-18