upgrade path with local and 1p.com vaults

Welcome to the forum, @amolio! Glad to hear you're making the upgrade to 1Password 7 for Mac and also to 1password.com. I think you'll love both.

I also want to be able to keep those passwords the same over time.

I must confess I didn't really understand this part of your otherwise very clear post. You mean you want to have the same passwords in both the local (standalone) vault AND the 1password.com account vaults? If so, I strongly recommend against that, as the two will not sync with one another. If you meant something else by this, can you clarify? Thanks.

In terms of the rest of what you're trying to do, it shouldn't be too complicated. Because you want to keep a standalone vault in addition to a 1password.com account, you'll want to sign up for the account first, then add it to your copy of 1Password 7 for Mac later. When creating your account, make sure you choose the same Master Password that you currently use for your standalone data. You'll need to use at least ten characters, so if your Master Password for your standalone data is NOT ten or more characters, you may want to change it to something at least that long first, in your existing 1Password 6 for Mac setup.

Next, download the latest version of 1Password 7 for Mac from our downloads page. When you run the 1Password 7 for Mac installer, it will discover your existing 1Password 6 for Mac data and import it. You'll be asked if you want to purchase a license or begin a 1password.com subscription; choose the second link (right below the green "Subscribe Today" button), to purchase a license, and confirm on the second screen that you want the license and not the subscription:

NOTE: you will not actually be purchasing a license, but that's the link to choose in order for your 1Password 6 for Mac data to be imported into a standalone vault instead of an account. When the installer finishes and 1Password 7 for Mac runs for the first time, you'll see the familiar lock screen; enter your Master Password to see all your old (version 6) data, successfully imported into 1Password 7 for Mac. You'll also see a pop-up window in back that's for our FastSpring store, where you can purchase the license -- just close that window.

Your data will now be in Read Only mode because you don't have a license and you haven't added your account (yet -- that's what we'll do now): open Preferences > Accounts and click the plus button in the lower-left corner of the window. Scan your setup code from your Emergency Kit or enter your 1password.com account credentials manually. Your data will now be unlocked (because you added the account), and you'll have your Primary vault, as well as your Personal vault from your 1password.com account.

To answer your question #2 -- you can't. It doesn't work that way, since the two are 100% separate storage locations. To change your Primary vault's password, you'll need to go to Preferences > Security and click "Change Master Password." Because the standalone (Primary) vault is, well, primary, it's the one that changes within that setting. To change the password for your 1password.com account, open Preferences > Accounts, select your account, and click "Change Password." However, I have to ask: why would you want to do this? It's your prerogative, of course, but if you've chosen a good strong Master Password, and you haven't shared it with anyone nor suspect it's been breached, it will remain as strong as it was the day you created it. We don't recommend changing passwords (especially one as important as your Master Password) on any kind of regular schedule, and neither do the most-current NIST guidelines.

Hope this helps! :)

@amolio - sorry for the misunderstanding.

your initial comment is that you don’t recommend the same password for the existing/imported local and the 1p.com but then later instruct me to set the 1p.com password to be the same as the existing local. Should they be the same initially or not?

It's fine to have the same Master Password. In fact, it's likely safer since having two separate ones makes it twice as likely that you might forget one of them. What I thought you might have been saying is that you want to keep some of the same data in the local vault as you keep in your 1password.com account. If that's the case, I recommend against it because local data does not and will not sync with 1password.com data.

Was I correct: are you planning to have the same set of data in both places (or at least that SOME of the data in both places will be the same)? If so, may I ask what you're trying to accomplish by doing this? I may be able to suggest a way to do it that won't involve having to manually update things in both places, and run such a risk of out-of-sync data.

@amolio - thanks for the clarification! Moving forward with your other questions:

2. Yes. You will need to change those separately, because they ARE separate.
3. If you are the Family Organizer on the account, you would invite your family members. When they sign up, you'd confirm them, and then they would be a member of your 1Password Families account. If they, too, have previous standalone 1Password data that they were using in 1Password 6 for Mac which they still want to keep in a standalone vault in 1Password 7 for Mac also, then yes -- they should go the same route I recommended to you as well: sign up for the account online by accepting your invitation, then go through the upgrade/data migration process as I outlined it to you.