How to copy/paste a password into the mail app password changed prompt

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Level 1

6 points

How to copy/paste a password into the mail app password changed prompt

I use the Mail app to access my email from my Xfinity (comcast.net) account. Xfinity forced me to change my password. I use 1Password as my password manager, not iOS password mgr. I used a long random password generated by 1Password for my account.

Of course, Mail is now prompting me to enter my very long password. I am unable to copy and paste from the 1Password to the Mail prompt. It is extremely difficult to type the password each time I'm forced to change my password.

How do I paste or how else can I get the password entered into the Mail app?

iPad Air 10th Gen, iOS 26.6

iPad, iPadOS 26

Posted on Aug 25, 2026 5:59 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Owl-53

Level 10

114,041 points

Aug 26, 2026 4:13 AM in response to DoctorBashir

On your iPad, you can continue using 1Password; you do not need to transfer your passwords to Apple’s Passwords app.

When Mail asks for your new Comcast password, open 1Password, locate your Comcast account, and use 1Password’s Copy Password command.

Return to Mail, tap the password field, then tap and hold in the field and choose Paste, if that option is available.

You can also try Password AutoFill. iPadOS supports third-party password managers for AutoFill.

Go to Settings >> General >> AutoFill & Passwords and make sure 1Password is enabled.

Apple says iPadOS can use up to three password apps for AutoFill. (Apple Support)

Apple’s documentation on password AutoFill is here: Automatically fill in strong passwords on iPad

Apple also explains how password AutoFill works with apps: Password AutoFill security

If Paste and AutoFill are both unavailable in the particular Mail password prompt,

I would not recommend manually typing a long randomly generated password.

The next step would be to identify exactly which Mail prompt you are seeing, because the solution depends on the prompt itself.

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Answer 2

Owl-53

Level 10

114,041 points

Aug 27, 2026 4:53 AM in response to DoctorBashir

You are very welcome and that additional context makes the situation much clearer.

Given your experience with 1Password, I would not send you through the usual basic troubleshooting again. The interesting issue here is specifically the iOS Mail account-password-change prompt, rather than 1Password's normal AutoFill behaviour.

Your description also explains why the usual workaround failed:

if that particular credential field exposes neither AutoFill nor Paste, then iOS is effectively giving you no way to transfer the generated password into it.

That is an Apple/Mail UI limitation rather than something you are overlooking in 1Password.

For the next occurrence, there are a couple of things I would want to investigate specifically:

whether the prompt is a native iOS Mail authentication dialog or a web/authentication view presented by the mail provider;
whether iOS's AutoFill & Passwords integration is actually offered in that particular credential field (your discovery of that setting is useful here);
whether the account can be removed/re-added or its credentials updated through Mail's account settings instead of through the sync-error prompt; and
importantly, whether there is a way to get the password into that prompt through the iOS share/keyboard/1Password mechanisms even when the usual Paste command is suppressed.

If this happens again, a screenshot of the exact prompt would be enormously useful (with your email address and any other identifying information obscured).

That should let us distinguish the different kinds of Mail authentication dialogs without requiring you to deliberately change your Comcast password just to reproduce it.

And yes—given that you have been using 1Password across Mac, Windows, iOS and Android for a decade, “just use Apple Passwords” is very much not the answer here. 😄

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Answer 3

DoctorBashir Author

Level 1

6 points

Aug 26, 2026 9:44 AM in response to Owl-53

Hello Owl-53,

I very much appreciate this thorough list of possible solutions. Thank you. However, I see now that I could have saved you much time by including more detail of my current knowledge of 1Password and what I had tried. I have been using 1Password on all my devices (MacOS, iOS, Windows, Android) for at least 10 years, so I am very familiar with many of the idiosyncrasies of the app.

On your iPad, you can continue using 1Password; you do not need to transfer your passwords to Apple’s Passwords app.

I work across many devices, I never use Apple's app because passwords would not be portable to non-Apple devices.

When Mail asks for your new Comcast password, open 1Password, locate your Comcast account, and use 1Password’s Copy Password command. Return to Mail, tap the password field, then tap and hold in the field and choose Paste, if that option is available.

Yes, on those that 1P can't recognize, I use this very method. In this case the Mail prompt in question does not display the Paste or Autofill option.

Go to Settings >> General >> AutoFill & Passwords and make sure 1Password is enabled.

This is a feature I didn't know about, thanks.

Apple also explains how password AutoFill works with apps: Password AutoFill security

I'll look into this to see what else I might find.

If Paste and AutoFill are both unavailable in the particular Mail password prompt, I would not recommend manually typing a long randomly generated password.

I agree, but in this case I had no choice, hence posting here to see if I was missing something for the next time I'm forced to change my password.

The next step would be to identify exactly which Mail prompt you are seeing, because the solution depends on the prompt itself.

I am unable to induce the app to display this prompt again until I change the password on my email account. But it occurs if the email account password has changed and the Mail app attempts to sync the account.

Again, thank you for your help.

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