Common Practice

aldavis99

I’m curious as to what might be common practice in the use of 1 Password -- this is a home computer for just me and my wife, so generally (except when we have house guests) no one else would have access to the computer. Specifically, I have a 30 digit password to unlock my Primary Vault, which becomes a real nuisance every time I want to access a password protected website.

So, I’m curious as to a good solution. I have around 60 passwords stored and there may be numerous times through the day that I would like to access a password protected website. Might it be a common practice to open 1 Password and leave it open through the day? Is there a risk if I were to do that?

Frankly, I’ve been hesitant in using the Strong Password Generator; commonly through the day I will launch a stored web page in which I can use an old password that I remember; if I were to use the Password Generator, it would be necessary to enter my 30 digit password to unlock 1 Password because I’d never remember the new (very long) password.

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1Password Version: 5.3.2
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: 10.10.3
Sync Type: Wi-Fi

hawkmoth

I took the liberty of deleting your duplicate post.

In my opinion, this is something that you will have to determine based on your own comfort level. I can say what I do in a similar home situation. I have my installation set as illustrated in the attached screen capture. 1Password locks after the computer is idle for 180 minutes. That really does mean the computer is idle, not just 1Password itself. So if I'm working off and on during the day, I seldom need to reenter my master password, except when I start up 1Password for the first time after starting my computer.

I am not worried about anyone other than my wife or me accessing my computer, and the chance of theft is remote during the day when I'm home.

I will comment that this seems much better to me than avoiding complex, random passwords for the web sites I access. There is little chance of physical access to my computer, but weak passwords are are a real risk.

Drew_AG

Hi @aldavis99,

Thanks for taking the time to ask us about this, it's a very important topic! As far as when/how often 1Password locks itself and requires you to enter your master password again, the Auto-lock settings (as shown in hawkmoth's screenshot) should be helpful for you. If you want/need to lock 1Password right away, you can click the padlock icon in the top-right corner of the 1Password window, or use the ^⌥⌘L ( Control+Option+Command+L ) keyboard shortcut from anywhere.

Now, if you want to change your master password to something easier for you to type, that's fine as long as it's still a strong master password - you definitely don't want to change it to a weak one. I strongly recommend taking a look at this knowledgebase article: How do I choose a good Master Password?

That article also has a link to an article on our blog called Toward Better Master Passwords which will give some excellent information on how to create a memorable password that is also long enough to be very secure.

I hope that helps, but if you have more questions, please let us know. :)