Portable App is No Longer Portable

[bwbug]

Steps To Reproduce

1. Install portable desktop app on a USB drive.
2. Log in to portable desktop app, then lock vault and close app.
3. Attach USB drive to a different PC.
4. Optionally, disconnect the second PC from the internet.
5. Launch portable desktop app from USB drive connected to second PC.

Expected Result

It is expected that the vault unlock prompt should be displayed, and that entering the unlock credentials should unlock the app and provide access to the vault data.

Actual Result

When the portable app is launched on a new PC, a toast error message is displayed with the following text:

If the unlock credentials are entered, the vault is logged out with the following notice:

Screenshots or Videos

No response

Additional Context

If there is no internet connection available (or if the server is otherwise inaccessible), then the user has no way of recovering their vault data.

This bug prevents the portable app from being used while traveling, etc.

Note that if the USB drive is returned to the first PC after the initial error message (without attempting to unlock the vault), then the portable app can be launched without error, and the vault can be unlocked even when there is no internet connection. This indicates that there is a new dependence on a refresh token that is stored outside the bitwarden-appdata folder. This dependence makes the "portable" app non-portable.

Operating System

Windows

Operating System Version

Windows 11 (23H2)

Installation method

Direct Download (from bitwarden.com)

Build Version

2024.11.2

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.

[bitwarden-bot]

Thank you for reporting this issue! We've added this to our internal tracking system.
ID: PM-15333

[Krychaz]

Hi there,

Thank you for your report!

I was able to reproduce this issue, and I have flagged this to our engineering team.

If you wish to add any further information/screenshots/recordings etc., please feel free to do so at any time - our engineering team will be happy to review these.

Thanks once again!