complex family license questions [follow-up support via email]

Nonessme

Two questions. I have 1Password for mac family license. My 6 children are now adults, so we live in different household, but we still share financial and other sensitive information. Can I use my family license to share a vault with them on Dropbox? If not, what can I do now?

Also, I seem to be going about upgrades in the wrong way. For 2 years, I had one family key number, starting with 1PW2. Then, in Feb, 2010, I upgraded to 1Password 3, family, paying $34.95 and received a different key number, starting with 1PW3.

In March 2014, I paid another $34.99 for what I thought was an upgrade to version 4 family, but was given the same key again starting with 1PW3, purchased from AgileBits.

Do I now need to pay a third time for Version 5? Shouldn't there have been at least 1 free upgrade in there?

I'm tech ignorant and confused: what can I do about my family license, given 7 family users, and how do I do proceed? Thanks for the help.

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1Password Version: 4
Extension Version: 4.4.3
OS Version: OSX 10.9.5
Sync Type: Dropbox

Ben

Hi @Nonessme,

Thanks for taking the time to write in about this. I'd be happy to point you in the right direction.

Let me start by explaining a little history:
We used to sell "Single User" and "Family" licenses in our online store (on a per-platform basis). A single user license allowed one person to use 1Password on as many devices of the purchased platform as they wished, but no one else was allowed to use 1Password on those devices unless they were otherwise covered by a license for that product.
Family licenses allowed up to five family members living under the same roof to do the same.

Fast forward to today and we no longer sell two separate license categories. Our software is licensed per person and per platform, not per device. Each user and each platform requires a license. Licenses can be shared by up to six family members living in the same household. Licenses can not be transferred or re-sold.

Any previously purchased licenses (yours included) have been updated to these new terms. For you basically all this means is one additional person living within your household can share your license.

As for your purchase history and upgrades... You've purchased:
In 2008 1Password 2 for Mac Family License
In 2010 upgraded to 1Password 3 for Mac Family License
In 2014 upgraded to 1Password 4/5 for Mac Family License [v5 was a free upgrade from v4]

The reason you received the same license key back with the upgrade to v4/5 is that the newer versions of 1Password do not use license keys. The license key is included for reference so that you can register legacy versions (such as v3, which does use that key). Instead the new versions use a license file, which is downloaded from our website. Our records show you've downloaded that license file 6 times (I only include this information for your reference -- there is no limit). So it does appear all of these purchases were appropriate. I don't feel you purchased something you didn't need, or that any of the purchases were redundant.

As you and your children live separately (and there are more than 6 of you anyway) multiple licenses would be required in order for everyone to use 1Password on their devices. But this has no effect on sharing a vault, which is a totally separate concept from licensing. You can read about multiple vaults / sharing vaults in section 1.7 of our 1Password for Mac user guide:
https://support.1password.com/guides/mac/multiple-vaults.html

If you'd like to discuss the specifics of what licenses would be required please email us a list of who needs 1Password, and what (if any) additional licenses beyond the ones listed above have been purchased. You can email us at support+forum@agilebits.com. Please include a link to this thread in that correspondence. Once you have sent the email our friend BitBot will reply with a ticket number. Please post that number here to expedite your request.

I hope that helps. Should you have any other questions or concerns, please feel free to ask.

Ben

Nonessme

Thank you for your answer, Ben. I've emailed support with this thread link: support ID [#ICN-96262-677].
I still don't understand about upgrades, though. I am running 4 now, but when I go to your site to upgrade to 5, it appears that I am to pay yet again. Is this true? If not, how do I get the free upgrade from 4 to 5? What am I doing wrong?

Drew_AG

Hi @Nonessme,

We received your email, thanks! I see that Steve has already replied to you (if you didn't receive the email, please make sure you check any junk folders/spam filters to see if it was caught there). Hopefully his reply answers your questions, but if you need more help with that, we'll keep the conversation going directly via email to avoid complicating things between here and there. Thanks! :)

ref: ICN-96262-677

Nonessme

I appreciate the prompt answers. Steve is helpful; I'll continue to discuss with him via email. I'm sure I'll have more questions later on. Takes me forever to figure out how to use software, even the best. Thanks for the help.

Drew_AG

Steve is definitely a very helpful guy, you're in good hands! :) I'm sorry for any confusion about licenses & upgrades, and I'm positive he'll help make sense out of all that, if he hasn't already done so.

If anything new comes up, please feel free to email us again or start a new topic in the forums, and we'll be happy to help you out!