Please improve the GUI to clarify the "passphrase" field: is it for BorgBase? for the SSH key? for encryption?

[m3nu]

Discussed in #2193

^{Originally posted by Flimm January 21, 2025}
When creating a new repository in Vorta, I am requested to enter a passphrase:

If I leave this field blank, I get this error message:

Passwords must be at least 9 characters long.

It was not clear to me what passphrase I should enter here. Should I enter the password for my BorgBase account? Should I enter the password for my SSH key? Should I enter a new passphrase that will be used to encrypt the backup? If I lose access to this passphrase, will I lose access to the backup? Now that I've done some research and some testing, I've found out that this passphrase is an encryption passphrase.

I suggest that the user interface of this dialog be improved in order to make it clearer what the passphrase is used for. The dialog should also encourage the user to make a separate backup of the encryption passphrase. Forgetting to do this could make the whole backup useless.

This is not a duplicate of other discussions or other issues. This discussion is specifically requesting that the GUI for adding a new repository be improved in order to clarify the meaning of the passphrase field. Other discussions or issues have not requested this specifically, and one has been marked as stale.

My suggestion is this: rename the field label from "Enter passphrase:" to "Enter new encryption passphrase:".

Second suggestion: change the text from "Storing password in your password manager." to "This passphrase will be stored in your password manager. Without this passphrase, your backup is useless. Therefore, we recommend making note of your passphrase in an additional place."

The passphrase section of the dialog could be under a section header named: "Encryption:".

Related:

• password when initializing new repo #1929
• Vorta should motivate the user to backup the repokey #1928
• add UI for borg key backup #1918