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Can two separate accounts share a vault?

bjtspartan
bjtspartan
Community Member

I’ve seen several threads where families or friends have wanted to share vaults but I can’t figure this out specifically. I have a small business with a partner. We are not family and we BOTH have our own 1Password accounts. Mine is a membership and his is a license. Is there no way we can just share 1 vault? I know a families plan has been the answer I’ve seen but when I signed up for it it seems like it wants someone to create an account to receive the vault. If I send him an email to join my “family” is he going to be able to use his current account with a license or will he be able to just accept the vault in his current set up?
I find it hard to see the reason why we can’t just share a single vault with our current setup since we both already pay for the service. If I sign up for a teams account does he also have to have a teams account? Again, he already has an account and doesn’t want to mess with it. We have separate setups otherwise and the only thing that needs to be connected is this one work vault.

Comments

  • Hi @bjtspartan

    The requirement for sharing a vault is everyone has to have an account within the same membership. It is possible to use multiple accounts in the apps. The recommended way forward to share information with a business partner would be to create either a 1Password Teams or 1Password Business membership, with each of you having an account within said membership, and then sharing a vault within said membership.

    Create and share vaults

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

    Ben

  • ag_ana
    ag_ana
    1Password Alumni

    @bjtspartan:

    Is there no way to offer 25 shared logins if you both have a paying consumer account?

    You could also consider using guests. You can do this with both a Teams and a Families account.

    1) Does he need a family account too or can he keep his license and just accept the shared vault? We want our accounts to stay separate.

    If you want to use a Families accounts, you can invite them to your Families account. They don't need to have their own account to join yours and be able to share logins.

    Login information will be separate for each user within the account, so each of you will have their own credentials.

    1) Do both of us sign up for our OWN unique team account our foes one of us have to be an administrator and assign an account to the other?

    The second: like in the Families example, one of you would invite the other to the existing account.

    2) Does the admin have access to the logins on the other persons account? Again he has his own private account that he doesn’t want to share with me if I were admin and vice versa if he were admin.

    No, if they already have their own separate account, you won't have access to it. You will invite them as a member of your account, so they will have two (one with you, and the one they already have, which remains separate).

  • Ben
    Ben
    edited July 2020

    We don't currently have a way to share encryption keys across memberships. It is possible that may become feasible in the future, but at the moment there is no way to make that happen. I'm sorry I don't have the answer you were hoping for.

    Ben

  • WhyNotHugo
    WhyNotHugo
    Community Member

    The lack of this feature is become a dealbraker for me. I need to share password with close friends, clients, with my mum, and many others, and so far, 1Password doesn't help.

    The only solution right now is to send them the password over some other mean (e.g.: Telegram), and inform them when I change it. They need to then update their own entry in their 1P account. This is starting to collectively drive all of us away from 1Password to a platform that DOES support this (but all the other platforms suck in other ways!).

    The problem with family plan

    • I don't want to control the account of my mum or of my close friends (I'm sure they don't either).
    • In the family plan, I can override the vault permissions for vaults that my mum creates -- that's terrible, I don't want that kind of power!
    • The above point means that, essentially, members of a family plan don't have multiple private vaults like a personal account.
    • If I want to share TWO passwords with a client, do I need to add them to my family plan!? And if I share my netflix password with my girlfriend?

    Family plans feels like it's designed for parents to give access to their kids, not for independent adults.

    Sharing seems very all or nothing right now. If I'm the admin, I can delete their accounts, or seize extra vaults they've created. I can also delete their accounts. No-one feels comfortable with this kind of power.

    The problem with team plan

    • I still have complete control over their accounts, again, undesirable.
    • This is more expensive than the personal plan, but, in our case, it's far worse.
    • Each individual still needs to additionally pay for their own personal plan for an account they control.
    • Want a share (and sync) a two passwords with a friend? That's $8 per month!

    Team plan is obviously not the right solution here (and that's fine: it's designed for another usage scenario). Each person pays their own subscription, but for each person with which I need to share a single password, I've to pay an extra team subscription.


    I don't mind us having to pay 1 personal plan per person, that's kind of a given. The problem is that it's IMPOSSIBLE to safely share passwords between these accounts. I've about 10 people with whom I share some password or other. People share passwords all the time, and 1Password pushes us to do it both manually, and through far more insecure channels.

  • ag_ana
    ag_ana
    1Password Alumni

    @WhyNotHugo:

    The only solution right now is to send them the password over some other mean (e.g.: Telegram), and inform them when I change it. They need to then update their own entry in their 1P account. This is starting to collectively drive all of us away from 1Password to a platform that DOES support this (but all the other platforms suck in other ways!).

    I wonder if you considered using guests for this?

    If I want to share TWO passwords with a client, do I need to add them to my family plan!?

    Guests would help here too: that's one of the scenarios we thought about when we added the feature. If you share a vault with a guest, you can then share as many passwords inside that vault as you wish.

    And if I share my netflix password with my girlfriend?

    If you add them as guests, they will only have access to the specific vault you choose, so they won't be able to access anything else in your account.

  • WhyNotHugo
    WhyNotHugo
    Community Member

    Looks like using the "guest" feature requires that the sharer upgrades to a family plan, despite the other person is already paying a personal plan.

    It also seems they need to create a guest account; does that mean they'll end up having to manage two accounts, rather than see the vault as one within their usual account?

  • ag_ana
    ag_ana
    1Password Alumni

    @WhyNotHugo:

    It also seems they need to create a guest account; does that mean they'll end up having to manage two accounts, rather than see the vault as one within their usual account?

    Correct: they will have two accounts. However, they can always add both accounts to the same 1Password app, so while they would have two accounts, they can see all vaults at the same time within the app :+1:

This discussion has been closed.