Passbolt 5, UI Redesign

Passbolt 5.0 is out!
This release brings a fresh coat of paint to the UI, including a new navigation menu, a clearer folder structure, and an updated information panel.
In this post, you’ll find a breakdown of the interface changes.

Interface Overhaul For Existing Functionality

Navigation

The top bar is replaced by a compact navigation menu in the upper-right corner, next to the avatar. What was previously called the “password workspace” is now named the main workspace where you can view, manage and share resources.

Fig. 1 New navigation

Filters

In the main workspace, filters have shifted from the left sidebar to the top of the grid. The “Home” button in the left navigation functions the same as the former “All items” filter, i.e. displaying all items, with the same behavior also present in the users and groups workspaces. Currently, filters still only apply to “all items”.

Fig. 2 New filters

Contextual Actions

Action buttons—such as share, edit, and copy—display only when one or more resources are selected. This contextual action bar can be closed to dismiss the selection, minimizing visual clutter when no actions are required.

Fig. 3 Contextual action bar

Folders

Navigating the root folder has been clarified by displaying the full folder tree, with the root folder relabeled as “My workspace”. Previously, the folder section itself was the root, which sometimes caused confusion.

Information Panel

When enabled, the information panel remains visible so that it is easier to find and use. Activity details now occupy a dedicated tab for improved clarity. Password and secrets details have been given their own section; any encrypted description is now shown as a “note”.

Profile and Signout

The avatar icon in the top-right corner features a dropdown containing profile settings. The signout action, formerly in the top bar, has moved to this dropdown menu for consistency.

Fig. 6 Manage account and sign out

Importing Resources

Import options have been moved to the “Create” primary button dropdown, making it simpler to locate all resource creation paths in one place.

Fig. 7 Importing resources

Miscellaneous

  • A minimum resolution of 1280 x 768 will introduce scrolling below that threshold.
  • In the main workspace information panel, the information section now appears below credentials and the shared-with sections for a more logical sequence.
  • Grid columns no longer resize proportionally with the browser window; column width remains fixed.
  • A “reset columns” option in the column settings restores the default view of the grid.
  • Empty passwords or secrets can now be created if needed.

Newly Introduced and Upcoming Enhancements

Multiple Resource Selection

Selecting multiple items shows a summary in the right-hand panel, including permissions. This feature is useful when sharing a large set of resources, allowing the selection to be refined before completing any bulk operation.

Fig. 8 Multiple selection

New Filter and Beyond

There’s a new filter called “Private” that shows resources that are not shared.

A new “Private” filter reveals resources that are not shared. Filtering still applies to “all items” by default, but future plans include contextual filters (e.g., items owned within specific folders) and additional parameters such as resource type, permissions, or resource owner.

Icons in the Grid and Beyond

Default resource icons appear in both the information panel and grid (they can be hidden via the column settings). In upcoming releases, icons and background colors will become customizable, followed by support for favicons and user-uploaded icons (no ETA for the moment).

New Resource Create/Edit Dialogs

A unified dialog layout accommodates the upcoming encrypted metadata and additional resource types, treating the creation/edit phase as a mini-workspace. Secrets can be added—such as a password plus a TOTP—and the sidebar helps organize notes and metadata.

  • Encrypted metadata and new sensitive data types arrive later in the 5.x series.
  • For resources (password, TOTP and password with TOTP) carried over from Passbolt 4, encrypted descriptions now appear as non-searchable “notes,” whereas cleartext descriptions remain in metadata (searchable but not encrypted).
  • When fully supported, metadata will be encrypted and searchable, while notes will remain secret and not searchable.

Reorganising the Administration Workspace

The administration workspace is now called “Organization settings”. Its homepage displays relevant settings in cards for quick navigation. The left panel organizes these settings by category, and any action button—like “Save” or “Edit”—is located at the bottom of the corresponding section. A back arrow in the top-left corner leads back to the main workspace from the user or administration workspace.

Fig. 12 New organisation workspace navigation and home

We’d love to hear your thoughts on Passbolt 5.0.
Let us know what you think or if you spot anything that could be improved!

17 Likes

Dear Vivien,
It looks great in the visuals! Is there an option to activate the new UI after upgrading or should it apply automatically? I just did the upgrade and the route/page, where the new UI is applied, is “app/administration”.
Kind Regards,
Dan

Hello @TheDanMain !

Actually, the update is automatic. It’s your browser which handles that for you. You can try to ask for an update in the “extensions” section of your browser but, in any case, it will appear without the need of doing something.

Also, the availability of the updated version of the extensions depends on the browsers you use. Generally, Chrome is the first available, then comes Edge and Firefox (it can take a few days or unfortunately sometimes 1 week or 2). And we are not able to play on the date of availability for the extensions too.

If you’re using Chrome however, one thing that could trigger an update also is you to log out from your Passbolt instance (not guaranteed that it works 100% of the time as we can’t control it, but it can yield to an update yes).

2 Likes

Hello @Steph, Thank you for your reply! Once I logged out and in again, the new UI is visible & the functionality is there

5 Likes

Hi,

update is automatic also, even if im self hosting passbolt on my own server?

Hi @s.kandula and welcome to the forum!

The browser extension is delivered to the browsers by their provider’s store, it’s managed by the browser itself and is automatic. On the other hand, as you own your own server, it needs to be updated manually.

You can follow the procedure here
https://www.passbolt.com/docs/hosting/update/

2 Likes

I love the new design, great work!

However, the amount of appearing scrollbars while using passbolt is annoying.

1 Like

Hello, we are still using version 4.10.1 and we have a new interface. So you update it via the Chrome extension?

@arwho We’re glad you enjoy the design! The scrollbars could be due to using a display (or window) under 1280 x 768. Could you share your resolution, OS, and browser so we can look into it?

Unfortunately I have a mix of new and old. Can you explain that? My Browser:
Microsoft Edge
Version 135.0.3179.73 (Offizielles Build) (64-Bit)

if it’s anything like for me, where only the Administration part is in the new UI, and the rest still being on the old UI, check if you can update the Plugin (for firefox, it’s still stuck on 4.12.0 at the time of writing; probably due to mozilla being slow with verifying the Plugin).
The update should be out on Edge, but potentially hasn’t updated on your end yet.

It’s possible as @juplayLP mentioned that either the browser extension or the server is in front. For example:

  • Browser in front: you have the resource workspace in v5 style but admin in old style => you need to update the server to v5.0.
  • Server in front: you are using mozilla firefox where the browser extension is still pending review => you need to wait :slight_smile: (or if you’re on chrome or edge you can trigger an update to have the extension in v5).

Hi,
First Thank you to update this majestic password manager ! :heart_eyes:
Otherwise, do you think in futures releases it can be possible to edit icon folders from “My Workspace” Tree ? :star_struck:

Thank you for the advise. I updated passbolt from Server 4.12.1/ Client 5.0.0 to Server 5.0.0/Client 5.0.0

  1. sudo systemctl stop nginx
  2. sudo apt update
  3. sudo apt --only-upgrade install passbolt-ce-server
  4. sudo apt upgrade
  5. sudo -H -u www-data bash -c “/usr/share/php/passbolt/bin/cake cache clear_all”
  6. sudo systemctl start nginx

Thank you for your help Guys.

3 Likes

Thank you for pointing that out. My current resolution is 2560x1400 but the scaling was set to 175%. The scrollbars will dissapear with scaling set to 150%.