Sharing some observations + feedback from managing a family account
Hi all and 1P team,
I'm a family plan user, with a family of 4 which includes me, my sister, my dad and my mom. I also create and use a secondary account for sharing some credentials at work. First of all, I super appreciate all the hard work 1Password team is doing and I hope to continue using this product for many years to come.
That said, I can't help but feel frustrated in many ways using 1Password in a family context such as mine and I wanted to share what they are and if there are workarounds which are better or if it needs to be taken as feedback for product improvement. I'd love others' thoughts into this as well.
Problem 1: Lots of duplicate credentials!
If I want to share credentials with my entire family, I can easily do that my adding to the Family Vault. But, what if I want to just share some credentials with my Dad or just with my sister? Or few credentials with my work account? This is where pain comes in. Currently, one credential can only live in a single vault and not across multiple vaults. So, if I need to share an account with my sister but also want access from my work account, I need to have two vaults: "Shared with Sis", "Shared with Work" and have two credentials live in these. Or I have to create another vault "Shared with Sis + Work" and share it there. You can imagine the permutations of vault names I need to create if I gotta have such sharing needs.
Currently, there is a share option for a given credential but it's only for sharing outside 1Password.
Feedback 1: it'd be great if I could stop duplicating credentials and not rely on just vaults for sharing. I'd love to have the ability to keep the same credentials but share it with members of the family individually.
Feedback 2: In the same way, it'd also be nice if I could share the same credentials across multiple vaults.
Problem 2: My parents prefer to write their passwords into notes 😅
My Dad/Mom both used to write their passwords into OneNote/Google Keep. Even though I migrated it in one go to secure note and some into proper credentials initially, and even though I've shown them how to add a new password into 1Password, they still struggle to do this and on a good day, they add it to secured note and most other times, they just revert back to adding to their favorite note-taking application.
I just wanted to share this since I've pretty much failed to "teach" and I feel this points to opportunities to make it easier for such folks to use. Given GPT and stuff, I'm wondering if there's a way to give a friendlier interface alternative for folks like my Dad and Mom?
Feedback 1: Intelligently parse and import handwritten notes with usernames and passwords in bulk
Feedback 2: alternative/simpler UI for less technically-abled folks?
Problem 3: I'm the IT guy in the house
But I find it difficult to do that management for my Dad and Mom when they are stuck with something. I wish there was such a designation in 1Password so that my Dad/Mom could let me handle updating passwords, adding new ones into their account on their behalf? Right now, if I'm away from them, and I need to create a new Apple account for my Dad let's say, I gotta add one into the vault shared with my Dad and call it "[Dad's Name] Apple" to differentiate from my Apple account. I have a couple of these credentials created already so my own autofill gets messed up.
Feedback: "IT guy in the family" role?
Problem 4: Dad/Mom doesn't remember the master password and gets stuck when 1Password sometimes ask it to (Related to #3)
Even though I've set to "Never" to not ask for the master password for my Mom and Dad's devices, there are times 1Password still locks up and doesn't work with the fingerprint/touch ID mechanisms until that password is entered again. This also causes problems cause I'd personally prefer that their master passwords are secure and not something stupid simple to social engineer. But that makes it difficult for them to remember and type it in when they call me to ask for it.
Feedback: ability to unlock a family members' account on their behalf remotely
I'm sure there's more but that's all I can remember for now and would love it if this feedback can be considered into making the product better for all of us. I've also signed up for the research program so I'm happy to keep the feedback coming in.
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Comments
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Great comments about some of the challenges caused by 1Password protocols - - So where is a useful answer from 1P team ??
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I am also the IT gal in my family and all family members drove me nuts with their lack of ability to consistantly use 1Password. I gave up. Older family members needing an easy interface is real
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Kinda disappointed in the lack of response really. Joined here just to share some of the big pains as mentioned in my post and I’m glad I’m not alone as I imagined. I remember 1Password sort of seeking such feedback which prompter me to share these in the first place. Some of these continue to be real annoyances right now. I have to keep creating vaults just to share some credentials with few family members.
@Dave_1P seems to be active, please do have a look at these.
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Yes, sad to see no response here. I was considering 1password for families and, while some issues mentioned by the OP can be maybe too complex (roles and stuff), the IT family guy is something I can foresee, even with my partner.
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Folks, this was an older post from 2023. We do our best, but sometimes we can't get to every post. There are only so many hours in the day and the number of us here is in the community is a lot less than my counterparts on the email support team. Sometimes folks just want to talk with their piers. This is a community of like minded individuals and we all come together to help each other. Please feel free to contribute and share personal experiences. That is what brought me to this community all those years ago.
The Op's first issue:
All credentials need to live in one vault. Most duplicates occur because items were not updated as needed or they live in two locations. We've launched a duplicate detection tool. It is conservative and always errs on the side of caution. Also, there is a new save/update method that may prove helpful.
Item-level encryption would be stellar and might allow us to have items outside of physical confines, such as a vault. I would love to see that.
Second issue:
Honestly, if you could tell me how to do this, I would love to know. The struggle is real with older folks. I went through this with my father and still go through this with my father-in-law. He is resistant to change. He does not have trouble with the UI; he prefers notes. Plain and simple. He is the kind that prefers everything written down. It needs to be tangible or physical. He thinks it being saved in a program will block him from accessing what he needs. To use an old term, he's of the mindset that if it's not on paper, it did not happen.
The same can be said for several friends with whom I help admin. I set them each up with 1Password, and they all reverted back to the paper method. I've done this several times now. One interesting aspect I found is that they (they and their spouse) share credentials. Most feel like keeping it handy will allow it to be shared more easily. "Hey, hon, look on the blue sticky next to the monitor. "
They all grew up in an era when you did everything yourself. It wasn't until recently that my in-laws started trusting me to help with their computer. They preferred paying someone to come out when I could have fixed it in 5 minutes or less. I am dragging them into the next generation. My wife always told me to take it slow. So that's what we/I did/do.
No matter what we do there is always going to be that family member that needs IT support. To use another comment a friend once told me, many years back "Not Everyone flies as fast as you do" and "Sometimes we need to help those in need" A wise friend you are Ryan M.
Third:
Yes, this is how I feel sometimes. I am an admin for six people in my immediate family. I am curious about this, though. How does the autofill get messed up? The inline menu and 1Password in the browser offers to fill all logins for a given site. You would only need to select the correct one while visiting the site. I can log into and out of several accounts quickly. I keep multiple browsers for situations where I need to be logged into several accounts simultaneously.
I may be missing something. This is a serious question, no joke. I literally create a login for my sons on site A and save it in 1Password (in their vault), and then they can log in easily. Nowadays, my teens can do this all on their own, and my older children can, too. This is also the approach we took with my in-laws.It might be that you might have all of your vaults set to autofill. I maintain a collection or use Quick Access to fill a large portion of the time.
Fourth:
Why not use one of the many screen-sharing applications out there to log in remotely and resolve the situation? I only mention this because one of the folks I admin is several hours away, and this is so much of a plus (for us). I can anticipate your next question. Yes, you are correct. This adds yet another layer of complexity to the preparation, but we've found it very helpful. This is especially true for us as the friend advances in age. He's 85+ at this point. That's not to say all 85-year-old folks have trouble. I have helped many who grasped the concept quicker than some of the 20-30-year folks just coming to 1Password.
Take me, for example. I found that when I came to 1Password 17 years ago, I could soak it up like a sponge. Since that time, I've gone through a lot, ranging from Cancer, 26 rounds of radiation, a stroke, the loss of a spouse, and the loss of multiple family members. All of these terrible life events have taken a toll on me physically and mentally. Luckily, I am still to where I can do what I love each day. Not everyone is able to say that. When folks cannot keep up it's up to use to assist them. I promise you'll look back on it and go, yeah, I remember when Dad had trouble doing this. Hopefully, you'll recall it with a smile.
Sure, it's not always fun to stop and help. Just remember that it was not always fun to clean up after you as a kid, either. The struggle with an older generation is real. I don't know if anyone has the best answers. I don't, but we try to bring new features to our users that can hopefully improve the quality of everyone's life. Yes, this includes the IT for the family folks. An example is the default vault. This feature allows folks to ensure all data is saved in a vault that needed parties can access. Sometimes this is a shared vault that the family IT admin can access.
1Password 8 allows us to build upon the foundation brick by brick to help bring the needed features to everyone. If you have examples of what would be most helpful, please share them, and we'll make sure the products team knows they matter to you. We're all about building a greater product and we recored all feedback. Who knows you're suggestion may just become a part of the 1Password of the future.
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