Vanadium and Google password manager

ACuriousFellow

Hi.
I'm new to graphene os and want to slowly transition over to the non Google world.

Therefore I wish to continue with using Google password manager for my auto fill and password management for now as it current stores everything for me.

My question is how to get this to work.

I've got Google play services installed and changed vanadium settings > auto fill serives to "autofill with google" and followed the link from that screen to "android settings" and also set "preferred service for passwords, pass keys and autofill " to "Google".

However with this set, I can't see a list of my passwords already saved to Google ( not saved from my new device).

Id appreciate any help from anyone who has got this working, thank you.

I'm not interested in using a different services for now if it's possible

splattergames

ACuriousFellow have you signed in with the same Google account already?

fid02

ACuriousFellow I could reproduce the problem that passwords would not appear in Google Password Manager on GrapheneOS when they were added from stock PixelOS, but when I went to Settings > Apps > Sandboxed Google Play > Google services > Password Manager and swiped from the top down the passwords were instantly synced.

ACuriousFellow

fid02

Thanks so much for getting back to me. I've found that screen via

Apps > sandboxed Google play > Google settings > password manager.

I've swiped down but the passwords don't populate. Maybe I have the permissions too strict for them to download?

Could you tell me what permissions you have allowed / denied for GPS?

Thank you so much for your time.

fid02

ACuriousFellow You don't need any extra permissions other than the default permissions that are granted when you install Sandboxed Google Play. Are you sure you're using the same Google account where you saved your passwords? If you sign in to accounts.google.com in a web browser, go to Security > scroll down to the passwords entry and select it, do you see your passwords there? I think that should tell you whether or not your passwords have actually been synced from your previous device to the cloud.

ACuriousFellow

fid02 hi. Yes I've checked in a browser on a pc that the passwords are stored in my Google account

ACuriousFellow

fid02

What versions do you have?
I have
Vanadium version 131.0.6778.135.0
App.vanadium.config version 55
Google play services 24.44.33

ACuriousFellow

I've checked contact sync and that has worked, which would suggest my account is being synced but not the passwords.
I'm signed into Google as an account.

On "Autofill with Google" I have my account listed, and Google Password Manager is set for passwords and passkeys.

Any ideas what I could check next to help diagnose it? I'm glad to hear it works for you so know to keep going as it 'is' possible.

Cheers

fid02

ACuriousFellow

Vanadium 131.0.6778.135
Vanadium config 55
Don't think you've tried Google Password Manager in Vanadium, and the Google Play settings for Password Manager don't rely on the default web browser as far as I know.
Play services 24.47.31

You could go to https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.gms and see if Play Store has an update for Play services. In case there's a bug with the version you're on. Only thing I can think of right now.

ACuriousFellow

fid02 updating the play services has moved me forward. The Google Password Manager has now populated with all my passwords, which is was not before so there is may be a bug in the version of play services I had (which was installed by the Grapheneos app store).

Do you see your passwords in vanadium when you click: _settings > Password manager _. Mine is still blank .

fid02

ACuriousFellow Do you see your passwords in vanadium when you click: _settings > Password manager _. Mine is still blank .

Pretty sure that those are passwords that are saved only in Vanadium's built-in password manager. If you have saved some passwords there, those can be exported from Vanadium as a CSV file and, I assume, imported into Google Password Manager.

If you in Vanadium visit one of the sites you have saved passwords for in Google Password Manager, does it prompt you to autofill the login info?

Regarding passkeys, if you have used passkeys on a different Android device in the past, with the same Google account, you have a limited time to enable it for your current GrapheneOS profile. By going to a website that you have previously saved a passkey for, Google Password Manager will prompt you for your fingerprint/PIN, then ask you to enter the PIN that you had set on one of your previous devices.
That latter PIN is stored in secure elements on Google servers, and will be cleared after some weeks (can't recall the exact number). Hopefully, your GrapheneOS device unlock credential will then be stored in those secure elements as well, meaning that you might be able to use it to enable passkeys again if you sign out of the Google account or factory reset the device.

ACuriousFellow

fid02 so on your device, the passwords in password manager Vs accessing through vanadium are different ? Could you confirm if that's my correct assumption?
On my Samsung with chrome the list of passwords inside chrome matches the password managers list, which is why I thought I hadn't set something up correctly.

ACuriousFellow

ACuriousFellow it's just occured to me on the UI for chrome, the link is "Google password manager" and in vanadium, it is "password manager", is it possible for GPM to populate this or any other app? Thanks and I'm still very grateful for your time and attention

ACuriousFellow

ACuriousFellow aha! Got it working!

So the UI for "password manager" is still empty. However the webpages are now populating. What I had to do was set auto fill to other providers and set Google in the "android settings" and it started working.

fid02

ACuriousFellow Oh nice! I can confirm that this combination of settings makes Google Password Manager able to autofill in Vanadium. I did not expect that setting Autofill services in Vanadium to "Autofill using another service" would make Google Password Manager work, since the other option explicitly mentions it. I searched the forum and chat rooms and asked around for a potential solution, and was a bit surprised that no one seemed to have mentioned this issue in the past (except for passkey autofill issues). It seems that the community rather prefers Bitwarden and Proton Pass.

I recall that Chromium upstream made changes to the autofill settings a few months ago, which might explain why the Google option in Vanadium autofill services no longer work for Google Password Manager (I quite recall that that option was needed in the past).

If you would like to use passkeys as well, I recommend signing in / registering a passkey with Google Password Manager on GrapheneOS as soon as you can, for the reasons I previously mentioned. It should work with your current autofill settings. Even if you currently don't want to use passkeys, it might be beneficial in case you have a need for them in the future.

ACuriousFellow

fid02 I'll see of I have any passkeys saved and go refresh them. I suspect no one else has mentioned is as I'm likely in the minority of still wanting to Google haha .

Thanks so much for your help