Sharing Primary Vault

Hi @ChrisCC,

I would like to apologize for the delay in responding to you here but we have been a bit overwhelmed since the launch of 1Password 4 for Mac. We're all working hard and putting in extra hours to get back to our usual snappy responses and we really appreciate your patience.

At this point, it is not a simple feat to turn your primary vault into your spouse's secondary vault. Here are some options for you to consider:

• If you want to share your entire password database with your spouse, you can export one database and import it into the other so that you have one shared database. You can then organize this using folders (or Tags and Smart Folders) if you prefer to keep things separate.
• If you only want to share some of your data while keeping the rest separate, you can create a 'Family' vault and share that using the How to share a non-primary vault tutorial. To avoid moving these items manually, you can toss them into a folder, export and then import into the new vault.

We are working to make sharing easier in the future, and I'm sorry that I don't have a better answer for you right now. If I can help clarify things any further, or provide some more detailed steps for either of these options, please let me know!

Hi Eric ( @emelum ),

Try this:

• Open a Finder window to Dropbox
• Locate your mother's 1Password.agilekeychain
• Double-click to open as a secondary vault in your copy of 1Password.

Please note that because multiple vaults are currently a Mac-only feature, I would be careful setting this up right now if you also have an iOS device with 1Password. There is a chance that 1Password 4 for iOS might get a bit overzealous and attempt to merge the two databases. We do hope to have multiple vaults available for iOS soon... and then this will no longer be a concern! :)

Hi Chris ( @ChrisCC ),

Just to clarify: you can currently share a primary vault, but it works best if it is also the other users' primary vault as well. You can't easily make your primary vault someone else's secondary, and use their primary as your secondary. This is because your primary vault is designed to hold the encryption keys for all your secondary vaults. This allows you to have access to all of your vaults simply by unlocking the primary vault (which can make your workflow a lot easier if you use multiple vaults!) But it does complicate matters slightly for sharing purposes. I can't tell you why exactly, but I have tried to help a user swap primary vaults with a family member and after multiple attempts we had to find an alternate solution.

Unfortunately, multiple vaults is not yet available on iOS. It's at the tip-top of the priority list, but we still have to be a bit patient. (I'm waiting with bated breath to be able to set up shared vaults for my family.)

"If you want to share your entire password database with your spouse, you can export one database and import it into the other so that you have one shared database. You can then organize this using folders (or Tags and Smart Folders) if you prefer to keep things separate."

would work except that the two vaults are not synced (right?).

In this case we would have all of the information in one big family vault, and it could indeed be synced across to all users and all iOS devices. Use Folders to keep 'his' and 'hers' information organized separately. (This would essentially be the equivalent of your suggestion of moving all your Logins to a shared secondary vault and leaving the primary vault empty.)

"If you only want to share some of your data while keeping the rest separate, you can create a 'Family' vault and share that using the How to share a non-primary vault tutorial. To avoid moving these items manually, you can toss them into a folder, export and then import into the new vault."

also works except that if I move some of my logins to the shared family vault then it would create a problem for the iOS 1password app,

You're right, if you sync a secondary vault right now, there is a chance that your data could be merged if the iOS app finds the secondary keychain instead of your primary.

Since you have iOS devices that require 1Password access, here are your simplest alternatives:

• To have shared access right now, combine your databases into one 'family' database and sync the whole kit-and-caboodle to everyone and their iOS devices. You can organize things in regular folders to make things more easily accessible.
• If you're feeling patient, maintain your separate databases for now, and once multiple vaults are available on iOS, create a shared secondary vault with the 'family' Logins.

I hope I haven't confused you completely here - please let me know if you'd like some instructions to merge your database with your spouse.

Hi @Holt26,

I sincerely apologize for the confusion here - I can certainly see how the thread sounds a bit nutty.

One of the problems with sharing a primary vault is in the naming. Currently, all primary vaults are titled '1Password.agilekeychain', and this name cannot be changed. If a user wants to set up a system where his 1Password.agilekeychain is her secondary and her 1Password.agilekeychain is his secondary, a lot of potential complications are introduced. Because both vaults will be stored in Dropbox, there is an increased risk of merging databases if sync needs to be reset: which "1Password.agilekeychain" file is this vault supposed to sync to?

These issues are still present when simply syncing your parents' primary vault to your computer, but are greatly lessened when you're only dealing with a one-way share. (They should still be considered, however, and it is my mistake for not advising caution above.)

The original poster's situation was further complicated by the fact that multiple vaults were not yet available for the iOS app. Having multiple '1Password.agilekeychain' named files in Dropbox at that time presented a much greater danger for potential merging because the iOS app was not smart enough to differentiate between vaults, so there was the possibility that if sync got disconnected, 1Password 4 for iOS might have located the other 1Password.agilekeychain file and merged the databases.

Now that multiple vaults have been enabled for iOS, there is less reason to be concerned about accidental merging, but I would still advise against doing the primary <--> primary switching.

All I want to do is to be able to access mother's vault and when she changes/adds her info and it syncs with dropbox, I get the changes too from within my 1password as a secondary vault.

You certainly can do this, but the caution above definitely applies here:

If sync becomes disconnected, ensure that you select the correct 1Password.agilekeychain file to sync to when re-setting sync. This will be easier if:

• You organize the 1Password.agilekeychain files in separate subfolders
• And ensure that each vault has a unique Master Password hint. When re-setting sync, 1Password will prompt for the Master Password of the vault you are attempting to sync to if it is different than the vault you are viewing. The Master Password hints are shown in the dialogue box and can be a good clue that you may have selected the wrong 1Password.agilekeychain file.

There are two scenarios here, and I can provide you with more detailed instructions for either, if you'd like:

• You and your mother share a Dropbox account. In this case it is important to ensure that each of your vaults is in a separate sub-folder so that you can easily determine who belongs to which 1Password.agilekeychain.
• You and your mother have individual Dropbox accounts. In this case, you will create a shared folder between your Dropbox accounts, and store your mother's 1Password.agilekeychain file in there.

I hope this helps, please do let me know if you have any further questions, or would like any clarification on what I've said!

Hi @Holt26‌

I've replied to your other thread, it's best if we keep the discussion in a single place to avoid duplication of effort or conflicting advice resulting in any loss of data - I suggest there for now.