When setting up a Family on 1Password, what is the function of the Primary vault?

ritzman

I am trying to setup my family with 1Password. I have seen illustrations of a vaults menu showing Primary, Family, Husband, Wife. What is the function of the Primary vault in this situation? How would the Family vault be used? Isn't it redundant if the Primary vault holds all the common data? Obviously, Husband and Wife vaults are for their personal information.

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1Password Version: 6.1
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: 10.11.4
Sync Type: Dropbox
Referrer: kb:teams-families-setup

AGAlumB

@ritzman: You're right. You really don't need it! Really it's up to you though — whichever you prefer — but it's fun to discuss the various possibilities!

However, if you'd like to change your setup from having a local Primary vault, just make sure you have all your data in the correct vaults, backup, and then start over in 1Password. That way you can set it up just how you want it.

Another thing to keep in mind is that you have a Personal vault just for yourself, a Shared vault for the whole Family, and then you can also create additional vaults to share with one, many, or none of your Family members. Cheers! :)

ritzman

@brently I decided to go with a shared folder called Family that will hold all the common info. When I click on the Vaults pulldown in the upper left corner of the desktop app, I see two vaults created previous to upgrading to 1Password for Families. These appear in the 2nd section below the Primary vault (⌘1) next to the hotkeys ⌘2 and ⌘3. How do I remove these vaults? I've deleted the actual vault files from Dropbox, but they continue to show on all my devices.

littlebobbytables

Hello @ritzman,

Would I be right that when you click on the vault selector you see at the top All Vaults and then a separator, then you see Primary, maybe one or two others then another separator then the title of your family account and a list of vaults that you can see when you view your account from a browser?

Basically that middle section are what we call locally stored vaults in contrast to family vaults. We will eventually offer a way to remove a Primary vault from inside a running copy of 1Password but unfortunately right now the only way to remove the Primary vault would be to start over and then sign into your Family account from a fresh copy of 1Password. This would do the trick though, after that the only accessible vaults would be the ones in our family account.

If this sounds like something you would like to do then the first thing is to make sure you can definitely sign into your family account given we're about to start over with the 1Password application. Your emergency kit PDF with the QR code for example will come in handy here. What you need to make sure you have on hand is the URL for your team, your account key, email address and Master Password.

Once you know you have those ready you can use our How do I start over with an empty vault? guide. This will return 1Password to a never been run before state. You can then follow the steps in our Sign in to your Family or Team account on a new computer page and at the end the only vaults that should be visible will be the ones in your family account.

We will eventually make this easier, it's just this is the first time where 1Password has been able to run without a traditional primary vault so we have some adjustments to make.

If you have any questions before you start though please do ask.

ritzman

@littlebobbytables thank you. Starting over with an empty vault worked brilliantly.

Can Family members switch between vaults using a common user login on a shared computer? Or must they login to separate user profiles on the computer and do a unique setup of 1Password for each user?

Is there a way to change the master password on a Family member's vault?

Ben

Hi @ritzman,

Or must they login to separate user profiles on the computer and do a unique setup of 1Password for each user?

Yes, that would be the ideal situation. 1Password for Mac itself does not have any concept of user accounts; this is handled by the operating system.

Is there a way to change the master password on a Family member's vault?

You cannot set someone else's password, no. But you can, if you are an Owner, begin recovery for them:

1Password for Teams Admin Guide: Account Recovery

I hope that helps. Thanks!

Ben