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How to deal with Mom who CANNOT learn how to use a password manager, but demands I "fix it" (lemmy.world)

submitted 3 days ago by weeeeum@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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I've become the tech guy, and family are extremely entitled to my services. My mom especially. BTW I can't cut her out, because I still live with her and she EXPECTS me to fix anything computer related. She won't take no for an answer.

I've tried to keep track of her passwords with a password manager, I've spent literally 8 hours in a single day filling out captchas and replacing passwords, and I've spent even more time trying to teach my mom how to use the manager.

She CAN'T learn it, and always makes a new password, which she doesnt keep track of and expects me to fix it. What the hell do it do? She uses firefox, with auto refill on, but it doesn't autofill on her iphone.

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[–] AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

This isn’t great, but it’s what I ended up resorting to for my mom who refused to use any service, browser setting, or saved file:

Make a “master” password with upper-case characters and digits (e.g., M45T3R). Memorize it or write it down.
Interleave the characters with those of the domain the password is for (e.g., for google.com: gMo4o5gTl3eR). She can type the master password first, then put the cursor at the start and type each letter of the domain name hitting the right arrow after each letter.

As long as she remembered the master password, she could reconstruct the others on the fly. A human could still look at the result and figure out the pattern, but at least it protected her from automated tools.

[–] weeeeum@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

She can get past the master password, but she can't comprehend finding the password for the correct service, copying it, and pasting it. I don't really know why she can't scroll down the list to find "CVS" and copy the password, but she can't.

I'm looking for a system that a baby could use.

[–] bandwidthcrisis@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago

This scheme does not need a list, and if necessary could be simplified enough, some common part with first three letters of the site:

For Instagram: my-memorable-password-Ins
For Facebook: my-memorable-password-Fac

The memorable part could be the initials of a favorite song lyric, or something: nggyunglydIns, nggyunglydFac etc.

But the suggestion of using the Chrome password manager sounds like it will be seamless. I don't know if it would work on IOS, but on Android it fills passwords in for many apps, not just web pages.