Recently a client had a problem logging in. She had the correct username and the password was correct, because she just reset it. When I tried, after changing the password to something I knew, I logged in with no problem. After repeating the process about a dozen times, and digging through way too many debugging files, the problem turned out to be a single space at the end of her username. This is a common problem I have run into myself when copying and pasting usernames or passwords. I told her about the problem and she tried again, but got the same result; authentication failed.

The real problem turned out to be a saved password on chrome. Chrome had saved her username with an additional space, then when she went to put in the username, it automatically went to the saved username. Being that an end space is invisible in the text box, the only way she could tell it was happening is to click at the end of the text box and then delete the extra space. Chrome, while trying to be smart, was actually causing the authentication failure.

While saving passwords in your browser is a bad idea, occasionally it is necessary, or you just happen to hit the "Save" button instead of the "Don't Save" button. No matter the reason for the saved username and password, getting rid of the bad combination is more challenging than it should be. In my client's situation, she had to first remove the password before she could remove the erroneous username.

Removing a Saved Password

1. Click on the Menu button to the right of the address bar
2. Click "Settings"
3. Go down the list until you get to the "Passwords and forms" section. If it doesn't appear, click on the link "Show advanced settings" to display all of the settings
4. Click on "Manage passwords" link
5. Find the website where you want to remove the saved password and click the little "X" to the right of the appropriate username.
6. Click "Done" and exit the settings. For security reasons, you should remove all the passwords and uncheck the box on the Settings page "Offer to save your web passwords." This will prevent Chrome from asking you to save a password in the future.

Removing the Username

1. Right click on the text box for the username. This should bring up a list of usernames previously entered into the text box.
2. Press the down arrow key until you select the username you want to delete.
3. Press Shift+Delete (for Windows & Linux) or Shift+Fn+Delete (Mac) to remove the username from the saved list