Do I need to update my current passwords before I install 1Password? Or does it take care of that?

lrushmore
lrushmore
Community Member

I just downloaded the free trial of 1Password because I'm worried I may have been hacked. I have over 100 accounts with passwords and many of them share the same of 3-4 different passwords I generally use. My question is, do I need to change all my existing passwords before downloading 1Password? Or will 1Password encrypt all my old ones? I already downloaded 1Password, and it seems like all my old passwords (which may have been hacked) are still there.

Comments

  • Megan
    Megan
    1Password Alumni

    Hi @lrushmore,

    I’m sorry to hear that you’re worried that you may have been a victim of a password attack! I’d be happy to help you get set up here.

    My question is, do I need to change all my existing passwords before downloading 1Password? Or will 1Password encrypt all my old ones?

    1Password is a secure place to store all of your passwords and other important data. Unfortunately, it will not automatically update your existing passwords. 1Password will make the password changing process simple for you, and can help create random passwords so that you’re not using the same password on more than one site. When you go about updating your passwords, I would recommend starting with the accounts that share the same password - if one of those 3 or 4 passwords that you use regularly has been compromised, any site that uses the password could be at risk.

    There’s a handy video on our support pages that can show you how to strengthen your passwords with 1Password:

    Change your passwords and make them stronger

    I hope this helps, but if you have any other questions or concerns, please let us know - we’re here for you!

  • lrushmore
    lrushmore
    Community Member

    Thanks! Just to clarify, though, when I go through each account to change passwords, now that I have 1Password installed, is it safe to make them all the same (will 1Password encrypt them?) or do I need to make them each different?

  • Drew_AG
    Drew_AG
    1Password Alumni

    Hi @lrushmore,

    The data stored in 1Password is encrypted, but your password for a particular website is also stored on that site's servers somewhere, and we have no control over whether or not that site is encrypting that password on their end. You should always use a different password for each website - you won't need to memorize them because you can keep track of them all in 1Password. And 1Password can also help you create unique and strong passwords for each site.

    It is never safe to use the same password for all your website accounts, because doing that would make your information on those sites much less secure. For example, if you use the same password on multiple websites, and just one of those websites is breached and hackers get your password for that site, that means they would have your password for all other sites where you use the same one. We have a great article about this on our blog: Friends don’t let friends reuse passwords

    Here's another blog article with a good example of why you should use a different password for each website: Heads up: Your best defense against the Russian hacker data breach is still strong, unique passwords

    I hope this helps, but if you have more questions about that, please don't hesitate to let us know. Cheers! :)

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