Chrome extension hangs with WiFi captive portal or slow network

[wrs]

Steps To Reproduce

1. Get on an Alaska Airlines plane (same thing may happen in a coffee shop, etc.).
2. Connect to the in-flight wifi and open the portal.
3. Click on the Bitwarden extension in Chrome to access credit card info.

Expected Result

Bitwarden extension opens and allows autofill of the credit card.

Actual Result

Bitwarden extension opens with a blank grey UI and is unresponsive.

Screenshots or Videos

Additional Context

My guess is the extension is attempting to contact a server and receiving a redirect or an error from the captive portal, and getting confused.

A similar effect occurs when the wifi is working but just slow. The UI is blank for several seconds before appearing.

My expectation is that the UI should be using the local password store, and any server usage should be done in the background so it doesn't affect the responsiveness of the UI.

Operating System

macOS

Operating System Version

Sonoma 14.6.1 (23G93)

Web Browser

Chrome

Browser Version

Version 128.0.6613.121 (Official Build) (arm64)

Build Version

2024.9.0

Issue Tracking Info

• I understand that work is tracked outside of Github. A PR will be linked to this issue should one be opened to address it, but Bitwarden doesn't use fields like "assigned", "milestone", or "project" to track progress.

[Neonwarden]

Hi there,

This has been escalated for further investigation. If you have more information that can help us, please add it below.

Thanks!

[ulyssesdotcodes]

I am seeing this on edge / windows. I have a self-hosted bitwardenrs and whenever I am not on my home network vpn the extension is blank.

Edit: after updating from bitwardenrs to vaultwarden this seems to no longer happen

[dam-cav]

Hi, I also have that problem and I'm in a situation similar to ulyssesdotcodes. I can't say exactly from which version of the extension I started encountering it, but definitely not before May 2024.

I have a self-hosted Bitwarden in a server that I don't keep active 24/7, but only start it at certain times of the day, relying on locally stored data for the rest of the time. When the server is up, the extension responds instantly, asking for the master password or filling in login fields immediately. However, when the server is down, it gets stuck as if waiting for a response from the server, then only unlocks itself after a certain amount of time, which seems to be the maximum timeout for the server connection attempt.

I encounter the problem on Firefox, both on Windows 10 and Ubuntu 24, but on Windows 10 the problem is much more noticeable.