Export contents of vault to file
Hope I have the right forum here. I imagine this question must have been asked and answered a million times, so apologies if I'm duplicating. But I have searched without success. Found some related info, but not exactly this ...
So my question -- I have a remarkably tech savvy 89yo father-in-law in an aged care facility, for whom I hold financial power of attorney. I have a separate vault with his stuff in my own 1Password records. (There's only 15 items in it).
He uses a mac computer fairly proficiently. But even so his info processing faculties aren't what they were, and I don't think trying to introduce a password manager app into his digital life is realistic. We do run a 1Password for Families account thingy, but I don't think adding him to that as a user is realistic either.
Anyway he wants a copy of his account logins and passwords so he can stay in touch with stuff. So I'm looking for a functional way to provide that to him in some accessible read-only form. I'm thinking maybe a spreadsheet or table in a PDF file. Is there a way of exporting the contents of the vault to a file? (Never mind how secure it is; security compromises are going to be essential here, just being realistic). Thanks in anticipation.
1Password Version: 8.10.1
Extension Version: 2.8
OS Version: macOS 12.6.3
Browser:_ Brave
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A better method might be to store passwords in iCloud Keychain for him. You can do this either via screen sharing, where you populate the Keychain, or do it via a macOS VM which is logged into his AppleID.
With this, Safari and auto-fill, logins just work, and there’s no password manager to worry about.
But you do have to be sure that he is not changing passwords, or if he does, you’ll have to examine the Keychain records to keep your 1Password records up to date.
I do this via VM for my father-in-law, who refuses to use a password manager.
For security, don’t use printed records.
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Thanks for the suggestion. I like it in principle. But the problem in this case is that it's still adding a new system to his digital world. As I said in the OP I think his cognitive functions now at 89 aren't going to allow for that. I don't like printed documents for security either, but I think that's just going to have to be. Even back when he was in full health, he was very competently using his mac for word processing, email and music library, and alongside that ... maintaining a a several-page hand-written paper document with all his logins etc. 😂😂😂. Can't change him now.
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1Password 8 exports all vaults in the entire user's account, so you don't have an option to export just a single vault. So you'd have to export everything first. (A recent discussion mentioned a workaround to use travel mode).
1Password 7 allows you to export a single vault, or subset of items. So you'd have to uninstall 8, install 7, do your work, uninstall 7, re-install 8.
If you'd prefer not to go that route, you can export your account into 1PUX, and use the onepux converter in my converter suite, It will allow you to convert one or more named vaults into CSV. You could use this to specify conversion of only his vault; you can also specify which categories you want placed into the final CSV file(s). Ask if you need help and this is a route you'd prefer. While 1Password allows you to export Logins and Passwords via CSV, you won't have the vault names, so all of your Logins and Passwords would be in the resulting file.
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Thanks. I'll think that one over. But I'm starting to think that if it's all that complicated, then for 15 items I might be better off with a manual copy and paste operation.
Note to devs: Please provide something functional for this. I know we want security. But those many of us with elderly relatives do have to be able to straddle the two worlds. There must be ways this could be provided for. Surely?
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I can definitely empathize with your search for a solution here. I also have relatives who would struggle to use a password manager app. That being said, I can't recommend that you export your father-in-law's items to a spreadsheet or other unencrypted file, as a security company we always want to make sure that everyone is protected and it's why we built 1Password in the first place: to provide a way to securely and conveniently store passwords and other items so that folks would no longer feel the need to use less secure methods.
Out of curiosity, does your father-in-law actually need a table of his passwords? Or does he just need to be able to login to the websites and services that are important to him? Have you considered skipping the app entirely and just installing 1Password in the browser on his Mac? He won't have to worry about using an app and his passwords will automatically appear as suggestions when he tries to login to a website:
Using 1Password in the browser seems even simpler than him having to keep a spreadsheet or other sort of file and manually copy and paste his passwords. 🙂
-Dave
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Hi Dave - Really appreciate the time taken and the thought. The browser idea does sound simpler than a lot of others. Yet unfortunately it's also the same in the sense of being a new digital skill to acquire at 89. If this had come up say 5 years ago I'd likely have jumped at the strategy you suggest. I think then he would have been able to acquire it. I don't think he could now. It's the cognitive decline thing, which probably lies in all our futures. 😉 He's at the stage of frequent short-term and even medium-term memory loss. e.g. We've recently had to (yet again!) show him how to send a text on his phone. He had that down pat for years; but not anymore. And so he just gets stressed out by anything new, especially if it requires a layer of detail and complexity. (And that's anything and everything digital, really).
I do get your passion for security, and I'm very grateful for the way you guys have all invested that passion in 1PW which I've relied on since .... well I can't remember when. Version 2? Maybe even 1.x?? I sure don't want to downgrade security in anything digital that I'm a part of. Yet I can't see a lot of options with an 89 year old who's probably nearing the end.
My best suggestion now: Provide a horribly low security export option and bury it in obscurity. Give it some incomprehensible name, make it accessible through the last tab of an advanced panel whatsit, even leave it out of all help documents. i.e. Make it so people can only find it by asking a question like mine here. And configure it so one has to click through 53 warning / confirmation screens full of pictures of skeletons, ghouls, blood-soaked daggers, masonic curses about one's bowels being ripped out .... you get my drift I'm sure. But make it possible even as a last resort. Caveat emptor, and all that.
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I'm sorry to hear about your father-in-law's situation. My grandmother suffered from dementia and I understand what you mean when you say that learning something new, even just the browser extension, just isn't an option. The truth is that this is an area where there's still a lot of work for us to do, a simpler version of 1Password is something that I've seen discussed by colleagues before although I'm not personally aware of any concrete plans to build something like that. We are working hard on passkeys as a replacement for passwords so that, in the future, people won't have to deal with the complexity of managing and using passwords and will just be able to authenticate to websites using their face or fingerprint. I think that passkeys will help a lot of people and make technology more accessible.
That being said, the future is a long time and you need something for your father-in-law now. Reading over the thread again, if you wanted to create a PDF of your father-in-law's 15 items then you can use 1Password.com to "Print to PDF" each individual item and then use Apple's Preview app to merge the PDFs together:
- Log in to your 1Password account on 1Password.com (in the browser, not the app).
- Select the vault where you keep his items.
- Click on an item.
- In your browser, click File > Print.
- Choose the "Save to PDF" option to print to a PDF.
- Repeat for all 15 items.
- Once all 15 items are individually printed to a PDF you can use Preview to merge them: Combine PDFs in Preview on Mac - Apple Support
Although I'll sound like a broken record, I have to mention my obligatory disclaimer for anyone reading this: I can't actually recommend exporting/printing passwords like this since that will remove them from the secure and encrypted environment of 1Password. Any exported or printed copy of the passwords will be in plain text and so will be readable by anyone who views it, including other residents and staff in an aged care facility. The best option, if at all possible, would be to use 1Password in the browser or the desktop app.
Our product team is always on the look out for ways to make 1Password easier to use for everyone regardless of ability and I've filed an internal feature request on your behalf for the team to look into building a special simpler version of 1Password in the future.
-Dave
ref: PB-31741824
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Thanks Dave. All understood, and you've covered it well. Cheers
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I'm happy to help. 🙂
-Dave
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