iOS and iPadOS 15.4 make a small but welcome change to the way in which Safari saves login information. As of the third beta release, which rolled out to developers on Tuesday, passwords without user names won’t be saved.
The change, which also applies to macOS 12.3 Monterey, means users will be prompted to add a user name before they can save a new password. It helps prevent a buildup of passwords you can’t remember the user names for.
Safari won’t save passwords without user names in iOS 15.4
Safari currently has no problem saving passwords without user names on iPhone, iPad and Mac. And while that can be useful at times, it can also lead to problems later when you forget the user names you originally created.
In the latest iOS, iPadOS and macOS betas, that’s no longer possible. Safari will prompt you to add a user name to a password — if it cannot detect one automatically as intended — before saving it to your iCloud Keychain.
“To save the password, enter the user name for your [website] account,” reads the new popup. Apple developer Ricky Mondello said that “sometimes Safari will prefill its best guess here,” but that can be edited.
The save button is disabled until a user name is entered, so you cannot save a password by itself anymore. Mondello confirmed on Twitter that this is an intentional change to address a “pain point” in iCloud Keychain.
iOS and iPadOS 15.4 on the way
This is just one of a whole bunch of improvements coming in iOS and iPadOS 15.4. The updates also adds the ability to use Face ID with a mask, and fixes a bug that prevents third-party apps from using ProMotion on iPhone 13 Pro.
On iPad, the new update finally brings Universal Control, allowing you to control your iPad and Mac — or multiple Macs — using the same keyboard and mouse. We expect the updates to roll out to everyone sometime next month.
