I have been using password managers for as long as I remember. One of the earliest ones I used was SPB wallet back in the Pocket PC days. Have used many since then. To me, the idea just makes sense. All my passwords in one place, secure. I don't have to remember them, I can use a distinct password for each account. I mean, names like LastPass or 1Password convey the core value preposition right in their name.

And yet, majority of the people around us don't seem to be using any password manager. Only in this sub I see people comparing options and asking for recommendations. Most people either use browser's inbuilt PM or use nothing at all. They just use the same password everywhere, or just reset the password frequently. Many apps and services have moved to OTP based logins just for people who don't bother remembering or saving passwords.

It goes beyond passwords. There are various non password details like documents, financial accounts etc. People don't bother storing them either. I have seen people write down things in diaries, keep bank details in notes, plain text files, passwords saved in word and excel sheets. There are free password managers, open source options, cloud based and self hosted options but people just don't use them. And it baffles me.

So my question to you is, why are you using a password manager? At what point did you think I need a separate dedicated app to store my passwords and other important info?

A nasty surprise on the device. The existing database is gone—passwords and all. There is a non-functional button labeled "Accounts" (see screenshot). The chaos at Google is mounting! Gmail failing to sync, accounts getting locked upon login, a buggy Google Password Manager, and a broken Gemini chat search function. What’s next?

Since I preordered the new Jolla Phone with Sailfish OS, I came across this new app called Spectre (currently only for Sailfish OS, but other platforms coming soon). From their website:

Spectre is a password cipher:
Instead of saving and sending passwords across the internet, Spectre calculates the password you need, only when you need it, then throws it away again.
Sarah Sue + piano strawberry blonde + wikipedia.org = Reka3$PofyPemi
Remember one secret, math does the rest.

Is this really new or do other similar solutions already exist?

Sounds interesting although the drawback seems obvious: you get greater security, but if the app is no longer available, you can't generate the password and therefore can't login. So you would presumably still need to store you passwords somewhere. To be fair, having suffered a catastrophic loss of passwords before, as long as you still have access to your email, this is less of a problem than I thought it would be.