iPhone Safari doesn’t remember passwords, yep I know
I first realized the awful fact when I tried to access my Google Reader. After closing Safari, and opening back again for newly coming feeds, Safari asked me for the username and password again. I have checked the “remember” option once again, but the same thing happened once more.
It was totally an intolerable situation besides the perfect web surfing experience from a mobile device that iPhone providing.
So I directly went Google through as you can predict, however I could only find complaints but not a solution. So I started to think about possible causes for me to experience iPhone even worse than my previous device, Treo 680.
It had to be because of cookies, since it behaves like I didn’t check “remember login information” field of Google or any other login page.
Anyway, the idea came after when I was in bathroom (this was the lightening point), there was a problem in creating cookies. So I checked for cookie’s folder permissions, bingo!
Here is a 9 step easy to follow solution for your iPhone Safari to save your passwords (remember login info) as it should be:
1. First, go to Installer on your iPhone, list all packages, find “BSD Subsystem” and install it.
2. After restart, go to Installer again, now find “Mobile Finder” and install it.
3. When these are OK, start Mobile Finder, click on the “~” button from upper left.
4. You will see “Library” folder there, click twice and open it.
5. There you will see “Cookies” folder, click once, and when it is selected, click “Modify” button from the center of the bottom menu.
6. You will see a screen LIKE THIS (not exactly this one, this is just another screen shot from Mobile Finder):
Here you should click on all “Read, Write, Exec” buttons until all 9 be blue.
7. Click “Done” and return back the previous screen. Now click on Cookies again to see inside of the folder.
8. In Cookies folder, modify all the files (normally there should be only one named “Cookies.plist”) like step 6, however only making all “Read, Write” blue. It means that there will be 6 blues, not “Exec” buttons.
9. Click “Done” and after restarting Safari, it is now remembering your passwords.
Enjoy your iPhone with the best mobile user experience of all the time!
P.S.: If you are an expert user and using ssh to connect to your iPhone, CHMOD 777 /var/mobile/Library/Cookies and CHMOD 666 -R /var/mobile/Library/Cookies/*.
Ahmet responds:
Posted: April 29th, 2008 at 9:59 am →
it works!
Thank you.
Jasper responds:
Posted: May 1st, 2008 at 6:12 am →
Great blog - thank you; i fixed my iPhone password problem!
Pablo responds:
Posted: May 2nd, 2008 at 3:13 pm →
Thank you so much, it was really helpful your post.
Nikita responds:
Posted: May 9th, 2008 at 3:30 pm →
THAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX ALOTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
Bob Silver responds:
Posted: May 14th, 2008 at 1:57 am →
I have tried this but when I go to the Finder and make the changes to the cookies nothing sticks. I always end up with with just the owner row being blued out. The group and everyone rows turn blue when I select them but after I hit done and then reopen the cookies folder only the Owner is blued out. Any ideas why????
Gorkem Turgut OZER responds:
Posted: May 14th, 2008 at 10:06 am →
It sounds interesting Bob, which of the firmware are you using?
Bob Silver responds:
Posted: May 15th, 2008 at 8:08 pm →
I am using Firmware 1.14. Used Ziphone 3.0 to jailbreak the phone.
gnkieffer responds:
Posted: June 4th, 2008 at 3:43 pm →
Excellent solution! Thanks!
But to match the iPhone’s original settings you should not modify the attributes but instead change the owner of these files to “mobile”. Then Safari will again be able to save the password cookies in there. Here’s my solution: http://www.voicentral.net/?p=3
Alex responds:
Posted: June 10th, 2008 at 2:58 pm →
Ummm you lost me at item 1!
What is ‘go to installer on your iPhone’? I’ve never seen this screen. How do I get there?
Gorkem Turgut OZER responds:
Posted: June 10th, 2008 at 4:31 pm →
It is just a standard application of iPhone firmware. There is an icon for it on the screen called “Installer.”
Pasha responds:
Posted: July 1st, 2008 at 5:20 am →
I had a little problem in step 6 & 7, after i modified them and click done, next thing happen was the same appearance of the “read, write, exec” which like i didn’t thick it into blue. And i still back to login page when i used safari to browse yahoo, gmail, etc. I nid help, what is the problem?
Jordan responds:
Posted: July 12th, 2008 at 7:32 pm →
I have the new 3G and there is no “Installer” button on the screen. Can’t find the two programs to install…any suggestions?
Mark responds:
Posted: September 27th, 2008 at 8:17 am →
Thank God! I’ve been trying to find the answer to this for a while. It’s all working now. I love this freaking phone!!!
Mark responds:
Posted: September 27th, 2008 at 8:19 am →
Oh I for got to mention that I used SSH for this because I already have been doing it. It’s just easier for me.
Thanks a lot!!!
Gorkem Turgut OZER responds:
Posted: October 3rd, 2008 at 1:03 am →
Mark,
Happy to hear that it works!
boklorenzo - philippines responds:
Posted: November 16th, 2008 at 4:41 pm →
wooop! its works! tnx alot!!
Munther Qubain responds:
Posted: December 23rd, 2008 at 5:14 am →
Hello, I have an iPhone 3G with v2.2 sw. I want it to remember my usernames and passwords when surfing. I have no “Install” app. Is there somthing else I have to do or install before I can follow your instructions on this? Thanks
users responds:
Posted: February 12th, 2009 at 11:22 am →
great instruction, thank you very much
for those who don’t have Installer, you can install “Mobilefinder” via Cydia.
Brice responds:
Posted: March 12th, 2009 at 8:22 pm →
I’ve tried this but safari still doesn’t remember passwords
JasonW responds:
Posted: September 21st, 2009 at 8:22 pm →
A quick FYI for anyone reading this article and wondering what/where Installer is, or Mobile Finder, Cydia, etc… you have to have jailbroken your phone for any of this article to be relevent. If you haven’t jailbroken your phone, nothing in this article applies to you.