Use a password manager, they said

01 September 2025

Updated: 01 September 2025

I just had to boot up my computer to download Microsoft Edge because half way through the day I found out that the Passwords tab has been removed from the Microsoft Authenticator app

A few months ago the app notified me that Autofill would stop working - I was okay with this, I just started copying and pasting passwords. Next, the ability to add passwords was removed altogether - well okay, I haven’t added a new password in a while so that’s also fine. But then today I see that the passwords tab has been straight up removed

Turns out that Autofill doesn’t just refer to Autofill. But the entirety of password management

This announcement outlines the details but I absolutely love the solution

Basically, you have to download Edge in order to get passwords to autofill at the OS level. But what if you don’t want to use that but just want your passwords? Well you can still use Edge since that’s now where passwords live

Okay. So I downloaded Edge on my phone (where I was using Authenticator) with the hope that I’d be able to export my passwords. Nope.

Get this - since the Android app does not support password exporting you’re going to have to do this on desktop

So then I downloaded the desktop app, and after installing the malware that is Microsoft Edge on my computer, I can now export my passwords.

Okay. Got the passwords. All good.

Technically, yes. But my issue here isn’t just technical.

Let’s first address my reason for using Authenticator. So when 2FA was becoming a thing, companies wanted you to have it. At some point, I had to install it so that corporate 2FA would work. And, well, I wasn’t going to use multiple 2FA apps - and to be completely honest, I was just a lot less critical of the companies making some of these tools at the time

So anyways, that’s how everything got in there to begin with

Well, my browser is where I’m drawing the line. It’s one thing to copy and paste passwords out of an app, it’s something else for most of my online interactions to go through the giant data collection service that is Edge

The concern I share is broader though. I’m technical enough to find the documentation and get my data migrated over. But what if you don’t know how do do all that export/import jazz, or you don’t even have a desktop. What if you don’t really understand the implications of having a single organization tracking you across all your interactions

It’s as simple as pushing you towards a specific web browser, or search engine, or forcing you to log into Windows with your Microsoft Account - because that’s the only way to use the computer that you own

Let’s also not forget about Copilot that was recording every action users did along with literal screenshots

Passwords are pretty important these days. It kind of sucks that big organizations are continuously pulling us into these closed systems that become harder to escape at every step. I struggle to suggest a good solution at this point other that just finding another password manager that’s not controlled by a big corp - or well, write all your passwords on a piece of paper I guess

There are also some other solutions like Yubikeys or WebAuthn or other FIDO stuff but they’re going to be hit or miss depending on what services or devices you’re accessing and I don’t really know what support for these kinds of technologies is like so I don’t think a 100% migration is even really possible