IOS 14.5 and iPassword app developer update

HHG424 wrote:

Have you heard from the developer of ipassword. The email address we found was kicked back

I would never store my passwords in an app like that. The sad truth is that the App Store is filled with scams, abandoned apps, and junk apps.

I only replied to this question because it was in the "Developer" forum in Apple Support Communities. This forum is meant as a place to discuss Apple developer tools like Xcode. Unfortunately, people sometimes think this "Developer" forum is a venue to contact a "developer".

I could give you all kinds of tips on how to spot these kinds of scam/junk/abandoned apps, but that isn't going to help you if you are already stuck with such an app. I'm afraid your passwords are gone forever. If you did have some knowledge of Xcode and were able to pull data from your phone, you might be able to recover your passwords. They probably aren't even encrypted or anything.

There is a story that has been circulating for a few weeks of one particular developer who has developed a bit of an obsession with exposing scam apps. People seem to have the reaction, "OMG!! How can this be true???" But any legitimate developer would have the reaction, "OMG!! People are just now finding out about this???"

For the future, here are some things to look out for:

1) Look for the existence of the developer outside the App Store. Is there a web site? No? Better not download!

2) Who is the developer - specifically? Is it a company name or a business name. Ignore the "Copyright" field. That's fake. Look at the "Seller" field. A company name will have been verified by Apple to actually exist as a company. It may be a company that makes worthless, junk, or scam apps, but it is a real company. But if it is just a person's name, then literally anything goes. Do not even assume that person actually exists. Malicious apps are always registered under these personal accounts - always.

3) Look for an "App Support" link on the App Store web site. You will only find this on the Apple web site: https://apps.apple.com. Do a google search for the app and click on the app.apple.com hit. You won't find the App Support link in the actual app on your iPhone or iPad.

4) Do the same with the "Privacy Policy" link. At least this one is in the App Store app.

5) If either of the "App Support" or "Privacy Policy" links are fake or dead, don't download!

6) Double-check those "App Support" or "Privacy Policy" link even if they work or don't appear to be fake. Are they just templates or are they real? Does the privacy policy even mention the app or the developer? Compare it to any real privacy policy you find on the web.

7) App rating - always fake. Well, not always. If the app rating is junk, then it is probably real. Don't download. If the app rating is 5 stars, it is always fake. Any real, legitimate app will have a good number of 1-star reviews from clueless people. My apps reviews were virtually perfect and I only had 4.6 or 4.7.

8) App reviews - again, fake. Again, not always. If the recent reviews are all trashing the app, they are probably real. If the app reviews openly discuss scams or illegal practices from the developer, don't download!

9) Look for the new Apple Privacy Dashboard. Is that real and trustworthy? Of course not! But if the developer as actually entered something, it means that the app has recently been updated and will probably run on iOS 14. It means the developer actually cares, which is a good thing. Maybe the developer only cares about scamming people, but that's still caring!

10) Look at the developer's other apps. Do they look like scams? If so, they are. Are there more than 3? From a single person? Impossible! That's fake and/or a scam. Are there 50! Total scam!

I realize all of this will not help anyone who has already downloaded a bunch of scam apps and handed over their passwords. But please review these steps for any future downloads - yes, every single one.

If your passwords are all gone now, or if you have given all of your passwords to some other app that fails any of the criteria I listed above, you should start now and go through your accounts and do a "forgot my password" on each and change them.

Apple provides a password manager built into the operating system. That's what I use. Another legitimate password manager is 1Password: https://1password.com

Don't mourn over what has been lost. Learn a lesson and move forward with more knowledge and more cynicism.

If anyone is still looking for a solution, I was able to recover the ipasswords account by using the iMazing application on my computer. On another forum (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252712219?answerId=255370489022#255370489022) the user @ning256 wrote instructions to transfer the updated phone's info of the ipasswords app to a device that has yet to be updated. Their post is on page 28. It seems like it will only work if you have an iphone or ipad that has not installed the new software update. Try asking family, friends, or neighbors if you can use their phone! I am so relieved to have my 6yr log of passwords. Good luck to everyone's password recovery and hopefully that developer can update the app for those who can't.

Also, I thought restarting a non-updated phone would bring back the apps data while logged into my apple account. I would not recomend doing that since it just made me install the update anyway, making the phone useless. Once it asked to install the update, I stoped trying that method and instead used iMazing.

All,

I was able to restore my my password! Here is what I did. You will need itune, and old ipad and you current device.

1. Backup you current device on itunes app.
2. Verify that your sharing via icloud
3. connect the old ipad to itunes
4. add the old version of ipassword to the old ipad.
5. open itunes, select the device, File Sharing -> ipassword
6. create a backup of your password from the old ipassword via the old app with itunes running.
7. save the file.
8. Install password manager version 7.0.6
9. follow the restore procedure in the app.

;-)

Many threads on this. Please let me know when/if you get an answer. FWIW, I have an old copy of iPassword on an old phone without 14.5. I was only able to backup the data using the DropBox option (couldn't get Wi-Fi work and iTunes no longer allows you access to apps). However, when I tried to update the new version of iPassword using the DropBox, I got the same message, i.e., the new version did not recognize the backup on DropBox. Since the App Ids are different on the two apps, old and new, I don't see how we can get around this. I think the only answer is for them to allow us to access the old version and at least download the data to a .txt file so we have a paper copy, then have to reenter all the data by hand into the new one. Or, what I'm going to do... put them into a new app.

I have an old backup on my Mac and a iphone 12 without 14.5 on it. I am trying to restore it now and going to see if that will work. I will keep you posted. No help from tech support, not sure why they they don't allow you to revert back to old software so you can recover you info if needed.

Problem is developer and Apple. No one will help. I don’t care any longer I found a solution. Never relay one on Apple or developer. Oh ya btw Apple takes a cut off developer app.

But cries when you complain to them saying it’s not our issue. It’s like wait it worked prior to ur upgrade but now it now longer works? Hmm wait one sec do you have a few extra million $ kicking around because this one will cost you. As of Tuesday morning my company will be filing against Apple and it’s “Developer” . This way beyond just the app. Apple has refused to deal with the issue. Now I’m sure this get there attention.

i will post on my webpage the ongoing dispute with Apple.

Apple great product but has lost touch.

I hope this may wake them up.

If you backed up your phone on your Mac / PC prior to the upgrade this will work. If you didn’t well good luck.

if did your in luck.

Ask a friend or family member if you can use their phone to restore your backup from your Mac / PC. The phone needs to be the same like iPhone 12 or 11 or you get what I’m saying. It will work believe it or not.

This is just a work around if you had a backup and a older phone to restore it on. Apple refuses to help. They will only give you the BOX answers no help whatsoever.

Hope this helps for a few of you lucky ones that backed up on your computer. Don’t trust the cloud or Apple you will just be disappointed.

Thank you for doing it. , can't believe Apple won't take responsibility on App that we purchased. I almost lost 9 years of iPassword. Thank god I recovered from an old 5S,, but not perfect. FRUSTRATED.

This is beyond frustrating. I am a Nurse! I have ALL my passwords for work/hospital saved in this app!! Literally 1000's of passwords saved in this app (ipassword) for close to 10 years!!!

APPLE needs to get on this and force developer to upgrade! Not acceptable!!

If a developer isn't going to keep up on upgrading their app, they should NOT be allowed to have it in App Store! Some of us are not tech savvy and count on reputable apps only being in App Store!!

A VERY UNHAPPY NURSE!!!

SunshineRunnergirl wrote:

APPLE needs to get on this and force developer to upgrade!

How would this be possible? For most App Store developers, the problem isn't Apple forcing them to upgrade, it is Apple preventing them from providing an upgrade.

If a developer isn't going to keep up on upgrading their app, they should NOT be allowed to have it in App Store!

How would Apple know, when a developer first submits an app, that the developer is going to stop updating it a few years later? And even if Apple does automatically pull apps from the store, that wouldn't stop you from having added all your passwords to it years before.

Some of us are not tech savvy and count on reputable apps only being in App Store!!

I've got some really bad news for you...

What I've learn from Apple is "You are on your own" I lost 11 years of passwords thank you I got an old iPhone with iPassword, not perfect, but better losing it all. I don't trust any Passwords App from now on. Not Apple or any!

I was very fortunate to have an iPad that is on a older version. I downloaded the app successfully and it required a new password so at first I thought it wouldn't synch to my existing app information backed up in iCloud. So to make it synch to my iCloud I eventually used the backup & restore via iCloud and was able to retrieve all my information.

The app on my iPad will not take any new information and will prompt me to upgrade to "Pro" edition but at least I have a record of all my password info as I now contemplate a new replacement app. Since everyone in my family took the update I was originally planning to call a repair shop to see if they had an old iPhone that is not compliant with taking latest IOS that I could do this with but fortunately I never go that far as I had an old iPad of my own that worked just fine for this tactic. Mercy!

Thanx a lot for the idea, I’m stuck in the :

“So to make it synch to my iCloud I eventually used the backup & restore via iCloud and was able to retrieve all my information. “

could you please describe , how exactly did u do it? How did you used the backup and restore via iCloud? Through pc backup? or did you do it through the iPad? I would be grateful if you guide me step by step if you can. I’ve already downloaded the app to my 14.2 iPadOS. It’s blank

thanks in advance

Please advise of any companies that might specialize in Xcode and may be contacted to attempt recovery. This would be very useful info.

And, to clarify, I think your knee jerk assessment may be off here. This app was the Apple recommended password keeper on the Marketplace when i downloaded it almost 10 years ago. The name and icon for it switched suddenly a few years ago and I saw that the developer had a new app and this version was no longer on the Marketplace, but that doesn't mean the original app wasn't legit.

That said, the change made me nervous, but it kept working as intended, so I didn't take any action. I suppose, in hindsight, the change and removal of the app from the store should have been a sign that the developer wasn't going to support the app in the long haul... but I don't think this was a scam app or a BS company... just very, very poorly managed transition to a new platform and the users that didn't manually record their data from the old iPassword app and transfer it to a new app or the Apple password keeper, got royally F-ed on Monday.

I appricaite your insights to ID'ing scam apps, but that isn't as helpful as you may think. Telling me to give up and assume my 10 years of data is unrecoverable is not an option. I need this data and won't stop until I find a way to recover it. I literally don't know the full breadth of what I have lost, but I know I will never be able to access some things, and can't recover or reset some passwords or pins... and foolishly, this is the only place that data was ever stored, so I have to give it my all to find a work around solution or leverage the community and Apple to apply pressure for the company to write a patch that would allow us to at least view our lost data one last time before we all delete the app and move on with our lives. This developer has a new password app they launched when they stopped support this version 3 years ago... still top hit, just next to 1Password that you recommended, and appears to be a valid app and company, and I think they pass the sniff test for the criteria you outlined. So I am holding out hope... and 1-star rating with a plea to the developer to solve the issue on their old platform. I encourage others to do the same.

me too! I downloaded the original app to my iPad and it was unable to recover my data through the iCloud option to "restore purchases". It made me enter a new password to start the app, vs asking me to log in with my prior credentials that worked on my iphone up until Monday... so it seems the iPad cloud downloaded version didn't have a way to sync to the data i had stored in the app when used on my iPhone.

If someone was able to do this successfully, please share step by step of how you did it.