Need to Improve Handling of Two-Factor Account Log In

barjohn
barjohn Member ✭✭
edited February 2023 in Adding and Updating Accounts
When you have multiple accounts that require two-factor authentication, it does not wait to complete an account before it brings up the next account.  What happens is the first account has sent its authentication code and before it can be used by the first account, the second account sends its authentication code and now it feeds the second code to the first account and so on with multiple accounts that require two-factor authentication.  It either needs to allow the first to complete before starting the second or keep the returned codes in sequence or assign the code to the correct account based on the information in the authentication message.

What I have to do now is cancel subsequent account authentications and complete the first and then co back and tell it to manually re-try the other accounts.  This is very inconvenient.

Comments

  • Coach Natalie
    Coach Natalie Administrator, Moderator admin
    Hello @barjohn,

    Thanks for providing your feedback regarding this process to the Community!

    I'm not aware of any known issues with this type of behavior occurring with bank MFA requests in Simplifi, and I do know that there are a lot of Users who are able to complete multiple MFA's without a hitch.

    With that being said, would you mind providing me with a video of what you're seeing when your accounts update in Simplifi so I can share it with my Team and we can get a better idea of what's going on? If so, please let me know once you have it ready and I will email you a link to our Secure File Exchange. :smile:

    -Coach Natalie
  • AlexB
    AlexB Member ✭✭✭
    I have exactly the same issue. It asks for different two-factors simultaneously. For example, it asks me to enter PayPal code and while I'm looking for it another screen takes place asking for Amex code...
  • Coach Natalie
    Coach Natalie Administrator, Moderator admin
    Hello @AlexB,

    Thanks for posting, although I'm sorry to hear that you're seeing the same issue.

    Would you mind providing a video of what you're seeing in Simplifi so we can get a better idea of what's going on?

    Much appreciated! :smile:

    -Coach Natalie
  • AlexB
    AlexB Member ✭✭✭
    I think I can but it can't be posted here as it contains private data. How to send it to you?
  • Coach Natalie
    Coach Natalie Administrator, Moderator admin
    No problem @AlexB!

    Let me know once you have the video ready and I'll email you a link to our Secure File Exchange. :smile:

    -Coach Natalie
  • AlexB
    AlexB Member ✭✭✭
    No problem @AlexB!

    Let me know once you have the video ready and I'll email you a link to our Secure File Exchange. :smile:

    -Coach Natalie
    Hi Natalie, yes I have the video now. The video shows the following:

    1) I log in
    2) the system asks for my Amex 2 factor code, I agree to request it as a text message
    3) moment later it asks for my PayPal 2 factor code, please note this request is weird as there are no options here on HOW to request PayPal code so instead the system might just askfor this code upfront but it just tells I need a code and I need to press a button just to go to the next scree (no value of this additional clicking, just let me enter the code)
    4) another wierd thing is that the system asked me for Amex code previously but doesn't allow to ented it, instead it goes directly to point 3 asking my PayPal code (imagine we are talking with you, you ask me for something, I start looking at my records and you demonstrate that you are not interested and ask another question. it will be treated as being rude between real people)
    5) after I agree to request PayPal code (again, that window is useless)... the next screen asks me to input not PayPal but Amex code (yes, you still need it I know, but how you structure workflow is crazy).

    Please use this description as my comments to the video when you get it. I will upload video as soon as get a link from you.

    Thanks!
  • Coach Natalie
    Coach Natalie Administrator, Moderator admin
    Hello @AlexB,

    Thanks for recording a video and for providing the details!

    I have gone ahead and emailed you the link -- please let me know once the video is uploaded! :smile:

    -Coach Natalie
  • AlexB
    AlexB Member ✭✭✭
    Hello @AlexB,

    Thanks for recording a video and for providing the details!

    I have gone ahead and emailed you the link -- please let me know once the video is uploaded! :smile:

    -Coach Natalie
    Thanks Natalie, just uploaded "Screen Recording 1.mov"
  • Coach Natalie
    Coach Natalie Administrator, Moderator admin
    Hello @AlexB,

    Thank you for the video!

    I have gone ahead and gotten this behavior reported and will be sure to post back as soon as I receive an update. :smile:

    -Coach Natalie

    SIMPL-11473
  • barjohn
    barjohn Member ✭✭
    Sorry, I would have sent you a video but did not get any notice that you had responded.  I waited a long time to report this as I am sure others have done, which is probably why it hadn't been reported.  My work around is to cancel the second & sometimes third request until I receive my code for the first request and I am able to enter it and it completes the account update.  Then I go to the next account that now has exclamation marks next to it and click on the exclamation mark to get the retry message and do the next account and so on until all accounts that need 2FA are done.
  • Coach Natalie
    Coach Natalie Administrator, Moderator admin
    No worries @barjohn!

    If you'd like to upload a video, I'd be happy to add your information to the Ticket -- just let me know once it's ready and I'll email you a link to our Secure File Exchange. :smile:

    -Coach Natalie
  • Coach Natalie
    Coach Natalie Administrator, Moderator admin
    Hello @AlexB,

    Thank you for your continued patience as this issue is being worked on!

    Since some time has passed and some connection upgrades have been made in Simplifi, I wanted to reach back out to see if this issue is still occurring. If so, would you mind providing us with a fresh timeline of how/when you're presented with the MFA prompts from your various banks when updating your accounts in Simplifi, please? 

    Please also submit your logs via the 'Send Feedback' option by following these steps:
    1. Log into the Simplifi Web App.
    2. Select Profile from the left-hand navigation bar.
    3. With the Profile menu open, hold down the Option key for Mac or the Alt key for Windows, and then click Send Feedback
    4. Leave all boxes checked, add a brief description of the issue, and then click Send

    Thanks in advance!

    -Coach Natalie
  • AlexB
    AlexB Member ✭✭✭
    Hi Natalie, sorry little bit confused. So to check Amex you also need prompts from other banks recorded too?

    As before I sent logs directly to you through this community website.
  • Coach Natalie
    Coach Natalie Administrator, Moderator admin
    Hello @AlexB,

    I apologize for the confusion!

    If you review the discussion above, you'll see that this is for an entirely separate issue that was escalated almost a year ago. The issue is that MFA prompts are overlapping in Simplifi.

    I'm wondering if this issue is still occurring, and, if so, I wanted to obtain a fresh timeline of MFA prompts from you, as well as your logs, so I can bump the ticket. :smile:

    -Coach Natalie
  • AlexB
    AlexB Member ✭✭✭
    Oh I see sorry. Ok, I will pay attention to that next time. Not sure if they occur now, may be I'm simply get used to that. Let me check soon and get back to you here.
  • Coach Natalie
    Coach Natalie Administrator, Moderator admin
    Thank you, @AlexB!

    -Coach Natalie
  • Coach Natalie
    Coach Natalie Administrator, Moderator admin
    Hello @AlexB,

    I just wanted to check back in to see if this issue is indeed resolved. If not, please let us know so we can obtain new data from you. Otherwise, I am looking to close out the escalation. 

    Thank you!

    -Coach Natalie
  • AlexB
    AlexB Member ✭✭✭
    Hi Natalie, ye ye I do remember, I am a nerd you remember :) I was just NOT able to do that. Few days ago I logged in to Simplifi and was quite busy so it timed out waiting for MFAa and crashed. Today I tried again and your website was slow and crashed again :) Another thing is the only two accounts that ask my MFA constantly are Amex and Fidelity but today Simplifi can not connect to Fidelity so I can not check how those pop-ups appear. I mean I am not delaying feedback but I do not login to Simplifi every day and when I got your message today I tried and just wasted time due to crashes and Fidelity not being available.
  • Coach Natalie
    Coach Natalie Administrator, Moderator admin
    Hello @AlexB,

    Thanks for getting back to me!

    Since it sounds like the behavior with the MFA flow may have improved for you, would you say that we're good to close out the escalation? When reviewing the ticket, it's possible that our Product Team may not be able to do anything to improve the flow, as some banks may take longer to process the request, and Simplifi is designed to return the flows to you in the order they're received.

    Please let us know, thank you!

    -Coach Natalie
  • AlexB
    AlexB Member ✭✭✭
    Hi Natalie, I mean to be honest I can not say it improved for me or not :) I was not able to test it at the moment. The thing is I reviewed my accounts recently as I had some "unused" accounts with some companies so I simply removed them from Simplifi. And now I'm guessing I have less apps that require MFA. Today I logged in again and the only company to ask me was Amex. I expected Fidelity to ask me but seems that account synced without any prompts. So as you see at the current stage if only one company requires MFA every time I sign it there is no way to test. Of course I can recreate previous environment but if you say the Product Team is not able to change something than why should we spend time testing this?

    I'd say my initial request was to process such requests one after one waiting for the first bank to be fully processed before starting with bank two etc. etc. If Simplifi prefers to throw all requests simultaneously it will be same mess because we will get pop ups in some random sequence.

    You might be need to focus more on the web engine itself because today when I logged in with Safari (and not just today) I noticed it really slows down your website when this pop up appears. For a few seconds webpage becomes unresponsive and that's a real issue if you throw more than one pop up and webpage itself is not responsive. User might mess with it supplying banks with wrong OTPs just because they are fighting with the slow interface.

    Let me focus on the key issue with the interface. When Simplifi asks to input OTPs for few banks simultanesously here's what happened before and probably happening now:

    - you get few prompts to request OTPs, you initiate few of them simultaneously
    - you get pop ups to enter OTPs and you should enter OTP for that company Simplifi is asking you and it might be any company. If you do not have this OTP now there is no way to switch to other pop up and return to previous pop up later. you need to type something and click Ok or Cancel. That's a problem.

    If you just allow users to enter OTPs in any sequence it will be a solution. If webpage becomes more fast and responsive with those pop ups less possibility to click something wrong etc.

    And ideally there should be less prompts. When I log in to Amex directly it may be asks for OTP once a month. If you improve this side problem will lose its significance.
  • Coach Natalie
    Coach Natalie Administrator, Moderator admin
    Hello @AlexB,

    Thanks for posting back!

    We can allow a couple more weeks to see if the issues you were experiencing last year re-present themselves if you'd like, however, in order for our Team to continue working on this, we will need to get a fresh MFA flow from you (with hopefully another video of the flow), as well as have you submit your logs to us. Otherwise, we can close the escalation out for now, and then reopen it in the future if the issues pop back up. Totally up to you!

    When it comes to allowing users to enter MFA codes in any order and navigate between the prompts from each bank, I'd suggest creating an Idea post for this so other users can vote on it and our Product Team can review it. 

    https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/998/creating-and-voting-for-ideas-in-the-community

    Please let me know how you'd like to proceed with the escalation!

    -Coach Natalie
  • AlexB
    AlexB Member ✭✭✭
    Please close, I'm not sure when I get another prompt as I mentioned removing some accounts from Simplifi. 
  • Coach Natalie
    Coach Natalie Administrator, Moderator admin
    Sounds good, @AlexB. Let us know if the issues pop back up. :smile:

    -Coach Natalie
This discussion has been closed.