1Password 8: 2nd account doesn't unlock with app

Nathaniel Daught

Hello.

Perhaps this is meant as a security measure(?) but in the past I've NEVER had to re-enter my alternate (work) account master password once it was added to my apps... With 1P8 my alternate account has been locking itself but both the Firefox extension and Mac app didn't prompt me for the master password to unlock that account, it just stops showing logins saved in that account and I had to investigate and manually unlock it from the Mac app.

Also of note: Since it's an alternate account I don't remember it's master password, I keep that in my primary account as a login. It's annoying that I can't access the main app interface to copy that password when I'm prompted to unlock an account. Might be nice to look for saved 1Password logins in unlocked vaults and offer to auto-fill those when adding/unlocking a 2nd account.

General v8 beta feedback: Kudos to your UI designers on v8. Besides preference panels rendering the main interface useless I'm really enjoying the new interface. Still adjusting to "Quick Access" replacing Mini. At this point my only real concern with the switch to Electron is memory usage.

Thanks!

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1Password Version: Mac 8.2.2-6.BETA
Extension Version: Firefox version 2.1.0
OS Version: macOS 11.5.2

charlesjolley

I use multiple accounts on my Mac (personal/family and work). They have different master passwords. When 1Password8 is locked, I am presented with a screen to put in my password - but how do I unlock both accounts at once? It seems like the only way to do it is:

1- put in a master password for one account then, manually, click on the account at the top left and log into the second one as well
2- change both master passwords to be the same thing -- then entering the master password on the main screen unlocks both

Option 2 seems considerably less secure. I would prefer each account to have completely distinct passwords. This worked on 1Password 7.

Incidentally, using Touch ID allows me to sign into both accounts. However I often use an external monitor with my laptop closed so I can't use touch ID (wish I could)

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1Password Version: 8
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: Not Provided

Blake

Howdy @charlesjolley @Nathaniel Daught! 👋

I went ahead and merged both of your respective threads to keep things tidy, hope you don't mind!

Nathaniel: "Perhaps this is meant as a security measure(?) but in the past I've NEVER had to re-enter my alternate (work) account master password once it was added to my apps..."

Charles: "I use multiple accounts on my Mac (personal/family and work). They have different master passwords. When 1Password8 is locked, I am presented with a screen to put in my password - but how do I unlock both accounts at once?"

In short, this is intentional behavior. As you noticed, 1Password 7 will unlock all accounts, even if they have different passwords, whereas 1Password 8 selectively unlocks accounts based on the password entered, unless you're using Touch ID to unlock the app.

Why change things now?

To give a bit of backstory, back in the day we implemented a very "hacky" workaround in older versions of 1Password to allow you to use the Account Password for the first account added to the app. Admittedly, this was a seriously handy tool to have, but it came also with some serious drawbacks. What you couldn't see is that this tended to cause many issues where the password could be different depending on the devices, on top of the fact that the Account Password would change suddenly when that first account originally added to the app was removed, leaving folks locked out of 1Password entirely.

You can still unlock all of your accounts simultaneously in 1Password 8 by using the same password for all of them. They will each still have their own unique Secret Key to protect against the normal threats caused with password reuse.

If you're curious about some of the finer details, our very own Security Wizard @jpgoldberg explains it all here...

Nathaniel: "Kudos to your UI designers on v8. Besides preference panels rendering the main interface useless I'm really enjoying the new interface. Still adjusting to "Quick Access" replacing Mini. At this point my only real concern with the switch to Electron is memory usage."

Thank you for the kind words, I'll be sure to pass them along! Our design team has really been putting in some serious work making 1Password 8 as beautiful as can be! 🥰

Quick Access has easily become so much more useful than I think Mini ever was, at leastfor me personally. As for the memory usage related to Electron, then I think you can put your fears to rest entirely. As of today, actually were finally able to find the bug that was causing 1Password 8 for Mac to consume huge amounts of memory in some cases. The culprit? A 4 year old bug in Swift...

Nathaniel Daught

Thanks so much for the response! Good to know this is by design. I hope the UI can be made a bit more proactive about prompting to unlock a 2nd account. I might consider using the same master password for both since I was already keeping the password for the 2nd one in my main account.

Nathaniel: Since it's an alternate account I don't remember it's master password, I keep that in my primary account as a login. It's annoying that I can't access the main app interface to copy that password when I'm prompted to unlock an account.

Think we might eventually see in-app 1password.com login suggestions for unlocking/adding additional accounts? Does macOS Monterey's iOS style autofill feature support this? (I haven't jumped on the beta) At least Quick Access is usable when the the main app's UI is locked-out by a preference panel.