With encryption, everytime I open TF on iOS I have to enter my DB password

[Frank Tikket]

Is that normal? If so, what’s the purpose of the “regular” pass code lock?

[Brendan]

Hello Frank,

Yes, that’s normal.

The regular passcode lock is just a simple way to prevent unauthorized access to your Tap Forms data. But it does not encrypt your data. Tap Forms asks for the encryption key every time because it needs it in order to access the database.

Thanks,

Brendan

[Frank Tikket]

So basically if you have an encryption set you don’t need the passlock?

I have a fingerprint/passcode to get into my iPhone 5s as it is, now having to put the encryption password everytime I open TF is going to be a hassle. If there is no other way around this, then I will have to decrypt my database unfortunately.

I use TF back to back with another app, so everytime I switch back between apps entering a password slows down productivity tremendously. I hope there’s a workaround soon, I wish I could only enter it only once to authorize the database and that’s it.

[Brendan]

Hi Frank,

Well, that’s technically possible. I have actually been thinking of using the same auto-lock setting as the Passcode lock function to only ask for the encryption key every X number of minutes. That would make switching between Tap Forms and other apps way less painful.

Thanks,

Brendan

[Frank Tikket]

Thats an idea, even better would be to have the option to put the frequency to “never” or after you actually close the app instead of just getting out. Like on my Mac, I never have to enter the password as long as I leave the app open (and it stays open for weeks).

I just don’t think the iPhone needs it to be entered every single time (because there is so much security on the iPhone, from fingerprint/password access to the ability to wipe data remotely), I really really enjoy the security feature but in terms of convince the way it was before the update was perfect haha!

[Brendan]

Hi Frank,

So last night I worked on adding the ability for Tap Forms to use the Auto-Lock timeout function for encryption as well as the basic Passcode lock. So you can have Tap Forms not ask you for the encryption key after X number of minutes.

You are certainly able to disable the encryption of your database and Tap Forms will never ask you for the key then. The new iCloud sync behaviour that requires all encryption keys to be the same doesn’t mean you have to actually tap on the Encrypt Database function. You can leave your local database un-encrypted, but still have Tap Forms use the encryption key to encrypt all the sync files it generates when syncing with iCloud.

Thanks!

Brendan

[Author]

Posts