How can I ensure my iPhone uses saved passwords?

Does this happen only on this site? Or others as well? Asking because sometimes a site will have a checkbox for "Never remember passwords for this site". While you may not have intentionally clicked on it, you may have accidentally at one time.

Try clearing out your browser history and cache first. Open the password app and see if the login and password are correct. From there, go to your browser's password setting, find the website, and choose to save the password next time you go to the site, which will erase the "Never remember" setting.

Also, some sites are just coded (or miscoded) such that insertion of user credentials from any password utility isn't possible. If this is just one site that's doing this, that's a strongly possibility.

Dannymac22 wrote:

Thank you. That's very interesting to know. Though after I log in on the login page, I don't have to exist any browser. I guess it does all that automatically.

So to summarize:

• Do something to access a Wi-Fi network with a captive portal, and trigger the network's captive portal.

• Get tossed into what amounts to a web browser to view the captive portal page from what amounts to a web server.

• Get a login prompt from from the captive portal, where the login prompt prevents auto-fill.

There are other ways to implement Wi-Fi access restrictions, including via RADIUS services.

As users we can’t answer a “why” question authoritatively. However, it’s likely that the captive login screen has a different URL each time, probably each day.

The site must “cooperate” by labeling the username and password fields (the labels aren’t visible to you, but they are in the page source).

The other possibility is the login page does not have the same URL as the home page for the site or the one in your Passwords app (which may be the home page). When the password isn’t offered tap on the passwords icon on your screen, search for the site in Passwords and select it.

Next, while the login page is showing copy the full URL by tapping on it, then tap Copy, and then paste it into the field in Passwords.

Dannymac22 wrote:

Um, browser history and cache? What does a browser have to do with this? I'm trying to log into a wifi account.

My apologies... I simply misread part of your post when you said "Site". I think a few others here did as well. (Feel free to report me if necessary.) Let me see if I can find something more helpful for you. I'll try to respond shortly.

So this is an unsecured captive site, not a WPA2 or higher secure Wi-Fi site (which would only require a password, not a username), and it displays a login screen. That means the site does not want you to use stored credentials.

Dannymac22 wrote:

So on my iPhone (SE, 18.2.1) I go to a site that has wifi, and log in with the supplied username and password. But EVERY TIME I go to that site, I have to log in with the username and password. If I look in Settings/Apps/Passwords, the username and password for that site is there. Why do I have to type it in every time? My iPhone has remembered the password, but seems reluctant to actually use it. Is there some setting that tells it to use the remembered password?

Yes, and though it is what I’d consider an outdated and unwise security practice for many if not most website implementations in this era, some websites can and do block password managers from filling in user and password fields.

You will want to discuss this site-specific security policy with the website maintainers.

The website maintainers might well have a reason here, and I’m not familiar with their particular requirements and expectations.

In local preferences, blocking password managers is just a bad choice for aggregate security particularly given the ever-increasing use of generated passwords and password managers, of widespread multi-factor authentication, and the advent of passkeys. Many of us now have more passwords than we could ever remember, and have ever-longer and more random passwords, and this while re-using fewer and more memorable passwords everywhere is an exceedingly hazardous practice.

Again, check with the website maintainers.

Related, related

Dannymac22 wrote:

OK, but I'm not sure what websites have to do with this. This was about selecting "wifi" on my phone, seeing a local network, and asking to connect to it. A page comes up asking for username and password. I give those, they get stored, but when I want to reconnect to that wifi, those stored credentials aren't used to do so.

That webpage is a login portal website (probably hosted on a Wi-Fi authentication server) blocking auto-fill.

Check with the Wi-Fi network maintainers.

Dannymac22 wrote:

But this doesn't involve a browser. Do login portals actually use websites that aren't accessed with a browser?

Many things embed and use the web now, and the web servers are routinely embedded in apps, in dedicated network boxes, embedded in printers, and elsewhere. The reverse is also true: some common apps are themselves basically web browsers.

A captive portal is a common mechanism for authenticating access into a Wi-Fi network (though there are other mechanisms for this), and those usually work by intercepting the first web access.

Again, contact the Wi-Fi network maintainers.

Dannymac22 wrote:

But this doesn't involve a browser. Do login portals actually use websites that aren't accessed with a browser?

Actually it does. The login page is displayed in browser window. Just about all internet access goes through WebKit, which is the kernel of all browsers in iOS. Even 3rd party browsers like Chrome or Firefox use it.