Transition from 1Password local to Family

jonshow

I've been using, and helping others set-up and use, 1Password, for years, and am therefore fairly familiar with how it works, and am fairly tech-savvy. I just signed-up for Family, however, and find the instructions for transitioning from 1Password "local" to 1Password Family (online) to be less than clear on a number of important issues.

For example: What does it mean to have both a "Primary" and a "Personal" vault? Do I want/need both? What do I do with my Dropbox vault? (I currently have duplicate items showing when I open 1Password on all devices.)

What does Preferences "Vault for Saving" mean? If I'm using online Family, which vault should I use, and what are the pros and cons?

A related issue: If I'm using only 1Password Family, will I be able to use 1Password locally if not connected to the internet? In other words, is there still a local backup of the 1Password data?

Another set of issues relate to sharing items and vaults. For example, my wife and I will each have our own vault, but would like to share certain items, such as bank accounts, and have one of us responsible for updating the item, but both seeing the updated item. Can a item within a vault be shared with a family member, or does the item have to be in a separate vault? If the latter, then do we need to change the vault we're using every time we need to access that item?

Thanks.

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1Password Version: Not Provided
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: Not Provided
Sync Type: Not Provided

Jacob

Hey @jonshow! Thanks so much for posting about this. :) The feedback on our migration article is greatly appreciated. Every time we update it I hope it will make things clearer, but it does seem there's a bit of room for improvement. I'm going to chat with the docs team about this. To answer your questions...

What does it mean to have both a "Primary" and a "Personal" vault?

In most cases, and yours, it means you have two copies of your data. One is the older copy, synced with Dropbox, the other is the new one, synced with your account. Since you're moving to an account, you don't need the old vault anymore. That's why we have a
"To delete your old vault" section of the article. There's no need to keep syncing with Dropbox, also, because your account handles all this for you with the vaults that are in it. :)

What does Preferences "Vault for Saving" mean? If I'm using online Family, which vault should I use, and what are the pros and cons?

It's the default vault that an item you create is saved in. So if you are in All Vaults mode, click the + button, and create an item, that will go in the vault you've chosen for saving. When you save a Login from your browser, that will go into this vault as well. I'd recommend using your Personal one unless you want things to be shared with others immediately after you create them.

If I'm using only 1Password Family, will I be able to use 1Password locally if not connected to the internet? In other words, is there still a local backup of the 1Password data?

Yep! Your data is cached offline so you can use it without connecting to the internet. :) Backups are handled by the server, so there are no local backups. Backing up your data requires connecting to the internet.

Can a item within a vault be shared with a family member, or does the item have to be in a separate vault? If the latter, then do we need to change the vault we're using every time we need to access that item?

Right now it has to be in a separate vault. We're working on single item sharing, though, and that will make things a bit easier. :) With the scenario you described, the default Shared vault would be just fine unless you have other members on the account. Learn more about family sharing.

Hope that helps! Let us know if you have some other questions.

jonshow

Thanks very much for your responsiveness and excellent answers. I have another question: Are items that are in more than one vault synchronized, that is, if I copy an item in my Personal vault to a shared vault (therefore, there are two copies of the item, one copy in Personal and one copy in Shared), does updating the item in the Personal vault also update the item in the Shared vault (and vice versa)?

Jacob

@jonshow You're welcome! :) Items aren't updated between vaults if you copy them. If you're looking to share an item with someone, I'd recommend just moving it to the Shared vault, or a vault you have created and shared with them.