My child can't sign into their vault from our shared computer

PHinchcliff
PHinchcliff
Community Member

My child can't sign into their vault from our shared computer, any way to make this possible, or is it and I'm just missing it?


1Password Version: Not Provided
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: Not Provided
Browser:_ Not Provided
Referrer: forum-search:my child can't sign into their vault from our shared computer

Comments

  • Hey there @PHinchcliff

    When you say "shared computer", there's an important point to make here. You'll need to have multiple user accounts on your computer to allow multiple family members to sign in on the same computer.

    ℹ️ You can't add more than one member of the same family account to the same user account on a computer.

    So, if you're trying to get your child to sign in, and you're still the active user on the computer with your own 1Password account added, it won't work.

    If they have their own user account on the computer, they should be able to sign in to their account using the sign-in details shown on their Emergency Kit or from another device. If they're already signed in on another device, it's probably easiest to have them scan their Setup Code from their device using the computer's webcam.

    I hope that helps in this situation, but please let me know if you run into any trouble and I'll be happy to walk you through it. :)

    — Grey

  • PHinchcliff
    PHinchcliff
    Community Member

    Hey Gray,

    I must be missing something, this really seems like there is an option missing here... or I'm not sure why developers haven't provided a way to do this.

    Multiple login's are nothing new. Assuming you have multiple accounts, as is our case with 4 different family member accounts, a simple drop down to select which account is being logged into would be appropriate. Or I'm missing something.

    Thanks,
    Paul

  • @PHinchcliff

    The main difficulty comes in how 1Password would store multiple family members' 1Password data in the same user account on the computer. At the moment, the safest and most secure way to make sure there's no chance that the wrong person sees the wrong data is to use separate user accounts, since that already solves the problem by making you log in to your computer as the right person before 1Password even has anything to do with it.

    The other problems stem from user experience. For example, unlocking 1Password with Touch ID or an Apple Watch on a Mac, or Windows Hello on a Windows PC, unlock all accounts at once by design. Things like fingerprints, face scans, PINs and so on are associated with the individual user account on that computer. That would mean that the only real way to do a multi-family-member setup in the same computer user account would be to disable convenience features like Touch ID, Unlock With Apple Watch, or Windows Hello. Every family member would have to manually enter their account password each time, which rather defeats the purpose of those features. Using separate user accounts on the computer means that unlocking with one of those methods will always be available and will always unlock the correct accounts for the right user.

    There's always a balance between security and convenience. In cases like this one, we'll always tip that balance towards security. And especially when the problem has already been solved for us by macOS, Windows, and Linux, we'll recommend separate user accounts as the best practice.

    While it's true that the issues of trust and secrecy aren't anywhere near as pronounced in families as they would be in a business setting, we're still keen to use the most private and secure methods of doing things by default. Everyone has secrets, no matter how benign those might be. (Those that think they don't probably haven't thought about it for long enough, in my opinion.) And while I can't imagine that a 12-year-old is keeping "the launch codes" in 1Password, for example, privacy is a human right, and even if all that happened would be that a parent might see something the child finds embarrassing (even completely by accident!), that 12-year-old might justifiably believe that 1Password had breached their trust. It could be a journal entry in a Secure Note, or a new Login for something that might spoil a birthday surprise, or a million other things. We don't pretend to know how anyone's family dynamic works – every family is different, and it would be a fool's errand to try and predict all the possible edge cases. So when that work has essentially been done for us, we'll quite happily work with that. I hope that goes some way to explain why we recommend separate user accounts, but if you have any follow-up questions or need help with anything else, please let me know.

This discussion has been closed.