289816 - Saved Passwords should be accessible from Account Settings

Status: RESOLVED EXPIRED

(Thunderbird :: Account Manager, enhancement)

Description

[James Crompton]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win 9x 4.90; en-US; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050317 Firefox/1.0.2
Build Identifier: Thunderbird 1.0

Thunderbird provides no access to passwords via the account settings. This means
the following is likely to happen:

1. User changes POP3 password on the server.

2. (Optional) User tries to access mail for the account. After the 3rd 'wrong
password' message (s)he clicks on 'Stop.'

3. User goes to the account settings to change the password.

4. User finds no sign of the password, or indicator of where it is hidden.

5. User gets frustrated.

6. In the end, user finds an answer to an FAQ about a different problem with
another kind of password, and works out for him/herself that he has to go
somewhere completely different and delete (not change) the password stored for
the account.


Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Go the account settings in Thunderbird
2. Look for an option to change an account password
Actual Results:  
Frustration

Expected Results:  
Give me an option to change/delete the password for the account in question, or
tell me that passwords are managed somewhere else (and give me an option to go
there).

I'm classifying this as a bug, not a feature request, because I see the problem
as a failure of logic in the user interface. It cost me a quarter of an hour.

Comment 1

[Jo Hermans]

When you see the dialog box asking for your password (the old one just failed),
just type in the new one. There's no need to delete or reset the password itself. 

But if you want to do that, go Tools->Options->Privacy (or Advanced) ->Saved
Passwords.

My password changes everytime I log on (I carry a token device to generate a new
one), and I must have typed in a new one about a thousand times. No problem. If
I would have to 'reset' my account every time, it would have been a disaster.

Comment 2

[James Crompton]

1. There was no dialog box. Thunderbird sent the wrong password three times 
before I told it to shut up. (Presumably this is a bug. I'll see if I can 
reproduce it if I have time some time soon.)

2. I know (now) that I can go to Tools->Options->Advanced ->Saved
Passwords and mess around there. The point is that that is a stupid place to 
have to go:
a. Users should not be required to memorise the entire interface in order to 
carry out simple routine tasks.
b. After changing the password on the server the logical next step is not to 
try to access mail with the wrong (old) password, but to change the password in 
the client.

Comment 3

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

(In reply to comment #2)
> 1. There was no dialog box. Thunderbird sent the wrong password three times 
> before I told it to shut up. (Presumably this is a bug. I'll see if I can 
> reproduce it if I have time some time soon.)

See bug 249240 and the ones it refers to in turn.

> 2. I know (now) that I can go to Tools->Options->Advanced ->Saved
> Passwords and mess around there. The point is that that is a stupid place to 
> have to go:

I agree with this part (but the two followup points don't support it very well).

However, given the current UI for Saved Passwords, I'm not entirely clear how 
this should look.

Comment 4

[hank]

Help - is no help - finding out how to change a mis-typed e-mail password. It
points to the profile file.  If the password is in it, I could not open.  Java
replies with "an illegal word length" message.  Removing, and recreating the
account does not work, as the old password is remembered, and no prompt for the
new.  The only message received is "Login Failed"

The solution was found in this bug report.  One has to click tools, etc.

Comment 5

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

This is an automated message, with ID "auto-resolve01".

This bug has had no comments for a long time. Statistically, we have found that
bug reports that have not been confirmed by a second user after three months are
highly unlikely to be the source of a fix to the code.

While your input is very important to us, our resources are limited and so we
are asking for your help in focussing our efforts. If you can still reproduce
this problem in the latest version of the product (see below for how to obtain a
copy) or, for feature requests, if it's not present in the latest version and
you still believe we should implement it, please visit the URL of this bug
(given at the top of this mail) and add a comment to that effect, giving more
reproduction information if you have it.

If it is not a problem any longer, you need take no action. If this bug is not
changed in any way in the next two weeks, it will be automatically resolved.
Thank you for your help in this matter.

The latest beta releases can be obtained from:
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Comment 6

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

This bug has been automatically resolved after a period of inactivity (see above
comment). If anyone thinks this is incorrect, they should feel free to reopen it.