this post was submitted on 06 Jan 2025
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I've become the tech guy, and family are extremely entitled to my services. My mom especially. BTW I can't cut her out, because I still live with her and she EXPECTS me to fix anything computer related. She won't take no for an answer.

I've tried to keep track of her passwords with a password manager, I've spent literally 8 hours in a single day filling out captchas and replacing passwords, and I've spent even more time trying to teach my mom how to use the manager.

She CAN'T learn it, and always makes a new password, which she doesnt keep track of and expects me to fix it. What the hell do it do? She uses firefox, with auto refill on, but it doesn't autofill on her iphone.

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[–] HappyTimeHarry@lemm.ee 3 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Can't you setup whatever manager to autofill the password?

[–] Bronzebeard@lemm.ee 1 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Not every website is set up properly to allow that to work seamlessly.

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[–] Brkdncr@lemmy.world 3 points 4 weeks ago

Take the phone and β€œwork” on it for a few hours, hand it back still not working.

β€œI don’t know, we tried this before and just can’t get it to work again.”

[–] caveman8000@lemmy.world 2 points 4 weeks ago

Power of Attorney

[–] dnick@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 weeks ago

Only option really is to show her how to reset her password. Sounds like she's already doing it, just tell her that's how you log in, you let it autofill, and if it doesn't work you click forgot password and check your email and that's how passwords work now

[–] letsgo@lemm.ee 2 points 4 weeks ago

Instead of dropping a system on her that she can't/won't use, try asking her what she wants to do. You can explain why passwords need to be different, but you can simplify it by sharing passwords across sites that don't matter. So someone gets her BBC password and finds they can also use it on the Daily Fail, whoop-de-doo. Different pw for the bank.

Simplify your own life. You have to do free tech support for your Mum, and to be fair she changed your nappies for years, but everyone else is expected to trade, especially if they expect you to pay for their services when you need them.

Of course tinkering with something makes it your fault any time anything goes wrong, and the lesson we learn from that is .....?

[–] jqubed@lemmy.world 2 points 4 weeks ago

Maybe try a different password manager and see if its interface is easier for her to use? There are lots of options, not all of them FOSS but this might be a time to accept a well-regarded commercial solution. Or, since she has the iPhone, try using their password solution. They integrate that pretty thoroughly in their apps and OS, and I think with this year’s OS releases across the board they have turned it into more of a fully-fledged password manager with its own apps. I know very little about it, but there might be a way to integrate it with Firefox on desktop now.

[–] Stomata@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 weeks ago

Give her a notebook

[–] Thcdenton@lemmy.world 2 points 4 weeks ago

Fuckin hell im thankful my parents are cool. I need to do something nice for them

[–] r0ertel@lemmy.world 2 points 4 weeks ago

Have a conversation and listen to her. I'm guessing that her behaviors are driven by an emotion. Maybe she's overwhelmed by the complexity. Most people who say that they don't care about security actually prioritize ease of use over security. Unfortunately good security can be hard.

If/when you speak to her, don't try to solve her problems during that conversation. Meet her where she's at and empathize with her. When she's done, you get to express your concerns and see her reacting. I'm guessing that you're concerned that she is putting her finances at risk. Explain your concern to her.

Once you both come to a shared understanding, then you can come with some ideas for her to react to. Again, dig deep into her concerns, talking through them. You're going to need to let some things go. It's her life and her money and you'll be there to help in a nonjudgemental way if anything bad happens and then you can have another conversation after the dust has settled.

I ended up with my parents having 3 passwords. One for their bank, one for their health stuff and one for everything else. The bank and health ones are long and difficult to guess, the other one is easy to remember and "good enough".

[–] HurlingDurling@lemmy.world 1 points 4 weeks ago

Show her it works, set boundaries, and enforce them. She cannot use you as a crutch for her inability.

If all else fails, fix it one last time, and tell her she needs to go to best buy (or whatever tech store offers tech support) for the next time and when she asks for you to fix it, just stand your ground and make her pay for someone else to deal with her shit.

[–] moonburster@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

I had a stepbrother who killed the internet for 2 weeks to make sure that it help came only outside of our family.

Tip I can give, give her multiple options and say this is the best you can do. Even though you might know better options, letting someone pick it themselves gives them some ownership of it at least

[–] HelixDab2@lemm.ee 1 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

What about using OneKey so that she mostly needs to worry about remembering a PIN? It looks like you can set it up to automatically open your password manager. Might also need to synch her browsers.

As an added bonus, she would have to hold on to the key without losing it, because if she lost it, she's effectively locked out of accounts forever.

[–] AstridWipenaugh@lemmy.world 1 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

I set up LastPass for my parents but they refuse to use it. My mom got locked out of her Facebook account and can't regain access because she doesn't know the password, doesn't know the email it was registered with, and her phone died so she can't prove any prior access. Too bad so sad. Still won't use LastPass.

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[–] retrieval4558@mander.xyz 1 points 4 weeks ago

Apologies if it's been mentioned already, but since most sites require access to the account email to reset the password, could you set up a filter in the email that forwards to you then deletes any email that has like "password reset" "account recovery" or other common variations in the subject?

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