Family License setup: can we get a tutorial?

justhere
justhere
Community Member
edited July 2014 in Lounge

Hello,

Could Agilebits provide a tutorial that describes the fundamental principles behind a multi-user family setup, as well as specific instructions for each possible starting point?

Fundamental principles:

  • Can one 1Password install accept multiple master passwords (one for each family member), or should a shared client device have multiple user accounts, and each user account installs 1Password?
  • Assuming hubby and wife each want their own private keychain, with some accounts shared, should each have their own dropbox account? If so, how does this work on a shared PC? ...on a shared Mac?

Starting points:

  • both hubby and wife each have their own PC, own iPhones, and share a tablet and share an iPod touch. On some occasions, each would like to use the others pc. (Eg they go a vacation and only bring one laptop.)
  • hubby uses a PC. Wife uses a Mac. Each has own iphone, share two tablets. Sometimes hubby uses the wife's Mac.

These are two actual cases of families that I'd like to get up and running on 1password.

I've rad through a bunch of posts concerning family license setup. Confusion abounds. The (awesome) Agilebits team always tries to help with specific, case by case instructions. After reading through several of those cases, I'm still not able to glean the fundamental architectural principles behind the family setup. Is one install of 1Password using one client device user account "multi-tenant" or not?

I've read every agilebits blog post since 2010. I so appreciate Jeff the explainer. Maybe you could sic Jeff on this task? Tell him it's a prime opprtunity to use his two dogs in a blog post, he won't be able to say no.

I appreciate your company, thanks for all you do.

Comments

  • khad
    khad
    1Password Alumni

    Thank you for your kind words and support, @justhere‌! @jpgoldberg‌ is not available at the moment. (Believe it or not, he's busy with his dogs.) But I hope I'm able to help. :)

    I suspect the reason there isn't one massive tutorial for setting up 1Password for a family is because the possibilities are virtually limitless for different configurations (as it sounds like you have seen in your reading of various other threads about this topic). The fundamentals are included in the User Guide which I'll be linking to throughout my reply, but it's hard to string them together perfectly for each user since each situation is slightly different (i.e. various platforms for each user; various numbers of users; share everything, nothing, or some things). It would end up like a very long Choose Your Own Adventure book.

    • Can one 1Password install accept multiple master passwords (one for each family member), or should a shared client device have multiple user accounts, and each user account installs 1Password?

    Like most Mac and Windows apps, 1Password stores its data in the user's Home folder. This means that the best way to have multiple 1Password users is to have multiple user accounts in OS X or Windows. Each user account in the OS will have separate 1Password settings and the opportunity to have separate data as well. These user accounts can be on separate machines or within the same machine. They are treated the same in both cases.

    I'll employ the term "user account" below to refer to an OS-level user account (i.e. OS X user account or Windows user account).

    • Assuming hubby and wife each want their own private keychain, with some accounts shared, should each have their own dropbox account? If so, how does this work on a shared PC? ...on a shared Mac?

    In Husband's user account set up 1Password as a new user, creating a Master Password for Husband. Do the same in Wife's user account. Now each user has separate data and Master Password. Either user can create a secondary vault, and share that vault with the other user.

    You can either do this with a single Dropbox account or share the folder in which your vault resides from one Dropbox account to the other.

    Starting points:

    Ah. I should have read your post backwards. :)

    • both hubby and wife each have their own PC, own iPhones, and share a tablet and share an iPod touch. On some occasions, each would like to use the others pc. (Eg they go a vacation and only bring one laptop.)
    • hubby uses a PC. Wife uses a Mac. Each has own iphone, share two tablets. Sometimes hubby uses the wife's Mac.

    Husband and Wife can use multiple vaults on Mac, Windows, and iOS. You can even open Husband's primary vault as a secondary on Wife's Mac if you like. You should be all set in this department. However, there is no concept of multiple user accounts on iOS at this time, so if you are sharing iOS devices you may need to set up Husband, Wife, and shared vaults all in a single instance of 1Password on iOS if you require access to all data on all iOS devices.

    In summary, you can set up a single vault to share between both Husband and Wife (which may be the easiest if it is an option), or you can set up any number of vaults on each platform depending on which ones need to be accessed where.

    If I've left anything out or you have more questions, please let me know. I'd be happy to assist further.

    Cheers!

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