iPhone 3.0 Safari AutoFill - Does it work?

Hi there,

I have experienced exactly what you described, and have struggled to find any "instructions" as to using this feature online.

Sorry I couldn't help - I just wanted to add a tally to this thread.

Nick

Settings - >Safari-> Autofill - >On

Seems to work ok for me now that I've done that.

Did you go into Settings>Safari>Autofill and check the settings there?

This seems to work for some sites and not others. My gmail account works just fine, but other sites where I am asked for a login don't result in the offer to remember my username or password. Odd.

I build a few sites and I think I know why some sites, as mentioned above, do not save your password. In most cases a site has to be built with a tagged Auto-Fill in its code, otherwise the browser will not know what field is what. If you are viewing a iPhone mobile log-in site, many sites have not been built with this tagged Auto-Fill feature because before 3.0 there was no point too. Over the next month or two you should see some sites updating to allow the Auto-Fill feature to work.

Wouldn't AutoFill cause security issues since phone can be lost or stolen
easily? I think AutoFill should allow user to add a website list where
AutoFill can be performed. I wouldn't want AutoFill operation for bank
accounts or security sensitive websites.

I have a website with autofill name and password on and it works great on my Macbook Pro, but it does not work on iPhone. Anyone can explain why? And can anything be done to get the iPhone to prompt the autofill question?

There is no 'autofill' tag that people put into their website code.

The browser knows which field is what by its type. A password field is of type 'password'.

Maybe they should implement a master password, which you need to enter to bypass all login forms. Could just be a 4-digital pin. It could even be your phone's normal pin.

This question is actually not answered. The problem seems to be that AutoFill looks for items in one's Addressbook, and 'username' and 'password' aren't in there? There should be a button 'Remember this form information?' or some such, and there is not. At least, I don't see an option popping up. Very frustrating.

Yup, the way Autofill currently works isn't very well through-out. I prefer the way iCab Mobile implemented all this. The dedicated section from my Web browser roundup showing / explaining this (the link is an image URL - click it to see the screenshot):

I’ve been asked for more info on how form autofill differs in the built-in OS3 Safari and iCab Mobile, the most recommended third-party browser, mostly because Safari’s approach seems to be less awkward (fewer taps needed to save the contents of a form and to retrieve them). The difference is the following: while Safari doesn’t allow saving the contents of arbitrary forms, not even some with passwords, iCab does allow this. Give a try to for example http://www.winmobiletech.com/form.html or xda-developers - Powered by vBulletin. Try entering anything in the fields and, then, press Submit. No “Save password” will be displayed; that is, you simply can’t save the contents of these forms.

Do the same with iCab Mobile: save the form content and, after reloading it / returning to the page, make it fill out the contents. It’ll be restored in both cases:

http://winmobiletech.com/062009iPhoneWebBrowsers/IMG_0204.PNG.jpg

All in all, iCab Mobile is much better at restoring the contents of any form, not just a few select ones.

Let me also add a screenshot of the "+" menu:

http://winmobiletech.com/kuvat/iCab-PlusMenuWithSaveRestoreForms.PNG

In iCab, when you fill out a form completely, before submitting it, you can tap the “+” icon and select “Save Forms”. Then, later, when you return to the page and want it to be auto-filled, just bring up the same menu and select “Fill out Forms”. Also note that, unlike with Safari where you can do a full delete of saved form information, in the iCab settings you can individually delete each saved form information.

Note that, with OS3’s and iCab’s autofill capabilities I don’t see much point in using the famous 1Password (or 1Password Pro) for helping remembering and entering these kinds of info: it, apart from the synchronization capabilities with the desktop Safari running under Mac OS X, offers little. Furthermore, its built-in Web browser (as of version 2.1) is quite a bit weaker than Safari or iCab.

(Forgot to add the usual disclaimer: I recommend iCab in this thread because

1. I consider it the best all-in-one third-party browser
2. it does form filling much better than Safari.

I in no way receive any kind of compensation / money from the iCab devs for mentioning their stuff here.)