Sunday, June 26, 2016

Mojito Version 1.1.6 is available - Mint authentication is fixed, but somewhat painful

Hi All,

I have fixed the Mint authentication problem in Mojito. See the previous post for more details on the issue.

You must now connect Mojito to an active Mint session, which means you must log in to Mint in a separate window first, then copy the HTTP headers from the Mint page over to Mojito. I know this is not convenient, but this is the only solution I have gotten to work. If you are like me, you are desperate to get your account data from Mint so you can manage your finances better; and this somewhat cumbersome work-around is certainly better than having to scrap Mojito altogether. The details for the new authentication process are described on the Mint Authentication Steps page.


To upgrade your copy of Mojito, follow the easy steps on the FAQ page.

Cheers,
-b3

Thursday, June 23, 2016

The bad news ... and then some good news (sort of)

Hi Mojito Users,

I have been working on the login problem for over a week now. The issue is that Mint changed their login process and now requires a second verification step when you login from a different computer or a new location. The verification is usually a code sent via email.

Other software programmers on the internet have figured out the underlying network requests that Mint requires. However, these individuals are running a script directly from their computers to download their accounts, etc., and Mint can't tell the difference between the script and a normal web browser running on their computer. Mojito is different. Mojito runs within Google Sheets directly from Google's servers, not from your home computer.

And that's the problem. No matter how I modify and tweak Mojito to send the new login requests to Mint, it always fails. Mint sees the network requests coming from Google's servers and rejects them. Logging into Mint directly from Mojito is simply no longer possible.

Having been a heavy Mojito user myself for over two years, I was desperate to find some way to get Mojito working again. I finally found one ... but it's not pretty. Some of you may decide that is just too "technical" and choose to stop using Mojito. I sincerely apologize if that is the case.

The work-around requires a few steps, which I will post once I have finished updating Mojito (hopefully in the next few days!). The gist is that you will have to log in to the Mint website directly, copy the Mint HTTP headers from Chrome's developer tools window, and paste the headers into Mojito (via a new Mint Authentication window). Like I said, it's not pretty ... but it works. The one nice thing about this change is that Mojito will not require re-authentication as long as you keep the Mint website active.

Stay tuned. I will post more detailed steps for the login work-around once Mojito is ready.

Thanks,
-b3