Why are 'logins' (user id & password) and 'passwords' separate items?

grendl
grendl
Community Member

I've used 1P for years but have to admit I've never been clear on why 'logins' (which typically store a user id and a password) are separate from 'passwords' -- which are only the password? What's the use case for only storing a password? My problem is that I often accidentally create password entries when what I really want is a login entry (capturing both user id and password). Thank you.


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Comments

  • Lars
    Lars
    1Password Alumni

    @grendl - the Passwords category is for generated passwords, which are always created whenever you're generating a password (within a Login item or elsewhere). If that were not the case, it might be possible that 1Password would generate a nice long, random password at your request...and then your computer might crash. Or your electricity or internet go out. Or 1Password might simply fail to offer to save the Login item, leaving you with a password that's not saved anywhere. So, if you generate a password, we save it as a Password item.

    If you then save a Login item using the same password at the same site, 1Password should remove the Password item. If it doesn't, though, you can always remove unneeded Password items yourself, manually. Better having to occasionally do that than to have a generated password that gets used for a site but is not saved anywhere in 1Password.

  • hawkmoth
    hawkmoth
    Community Member

    The Password category is populated with the passwords you create while setting up a new account. These are saved separately to be sure you have access to them, even if you forgot to save them to a new record in one of the other 1Password categories. If you open one of the items in the Password category, it will offer you the opportunity to convert it to a Login, where it will be stored along with the web address. The option to covert it to a Login is found on the button next to the Edit button at the top of the item. You might have to manually enter your username in the newly converted Login item.

  • Lars
    Lars
    1Password Alumni

    @hawkmoth - jinx. ;)

  • grendl
    grendl
    Community Member

    Thank you @lars @hawkmoth.

  • Lars
    Lars
    1Password Alumni

    @grendl - :) :+1:

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