App Passwords

Generating and Managing App Passwords

An App Password is a password that grants a third-party app or device permission to access your Cloud server account. App passwords are used in place of your W3C TAG account password when you set up things like file, calendar, and contacts synchronization on your devices.

App passwords are the only way to grant third-party apps access to your Cloud server account; the Cloud server will deny connections from apps attempting to use your W3C TAG account password.

You create and manage your own app passwords on the Cloud server using a web browser. Ideally, you’ll generate individual app passwords for every device you connect to your account. This allows you to disconnect a single device (e.g. mobile phone, tablet, or laptop) if it is lost or stolen, without having to disconnect and reconfigure your other devices.

  1. Go to the W3C TAG Cloud server home page (https://cloud.w3ctag.org/).

    Go to the Cloud server home page

  2. If you’re not already signed in, you’ll be redirected to the Single Sign-On (SSO) page:

    If Necessary, Sign On with SSO

    Enter your W3C TAG account credentials and click Log in

  3. In the web browser, click on your profile picture at the upper-right corner of your web page, and choose Settings from the drop down menu.

    Go to (Personal) Settings

  4. From the list in the navigation pane at the left side of the page, click on Security.

    Go to “Security” Page

    Note that the options listed in the Personal Settings page depend upon the applications that are enabled by the administrator, so yours may look a little different from the example shown.

  5. Scroll down to the section entitled Devices & sessions.

    Managing Devices & Sessions

    This section displays a list of currently and recently connected devices and browser sessions, and allows you to disconnect any that you don’t recognize or aren’t using any more. But we’re more interested in the Create new app password controls at the bottom for now.

  6. To create an app password for your phone, click the App name field and enter a name like My iPhone. The name can be anything; it’s just a label you’ll use to identify which app password goes with which of your devices.

  7. Click the Create new app password button.

    New App Password Created

    Your W3C TAG account username and the newly-generated app password will appear.

  8. Copy the app password and store it somewhere safe (e.g. a password manager), along with your W3C TAG account username.

    Copy the App Password

    You’ll need this username and password to configure any apps on your phone that need access to your Cloud server account.

  9. Click the Done button. Now you can repeat the process to generate app passwords for other devices, such as your laptop, tablet, and desktop computer. Remember to give each one a name that will help you associate it with a specific device.

  10. Finally, if any of your devices is ever lost or stolen, you can come back to this page and revoke the app password for that device.

    Revoke an App Password

    No apps using the revoked password will be able to access your Cloud server account. If you’ve created individual app passwords for each device, revoking one won’t affect the others.

 Help & Support

Additional information on creating and managing App Passwords for your Cloud server account is available in the  Nextcloud User Manual.