Level up your business security with free, on-demand training and certification. Explore 1Password Academy today →
Forum Discussion
1Password Access after Death, Legacy Contacts
I am not planning to die anytime soon, but sometimes things happen.
Beyond securing my 1Password details in an Escrow account, or with a lawyer, or in a bank lockbox, does 1Password offer any means of allowing one or more designated member of the 1Password Families account to access the 1Password account in case of the primary owner's passing?
Apple now offers the ability to add one or more https://support.apple.com/en-us/102631 so that in case of your untimely demise, an Access Key and a Death Certificate allows Apple to grant the holder of both of these to get a new Apple ID that has access to your Apple ID Account.
It may be something 1Password wants to consider, though I realize that reviewing Death Certificates may not be on the high list of priorities for the team!
1Password Version: Not Provided
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: Not Provided
Browser: Not Provided
146 Replies
When switching from Lastpass family sub my wife and I share with my brother, Sister in Law and father, this was the one downside. I really feel strongly this should be implemented.
I would vote that you can appoint your one (or two) 'beneficiaries' that can request legacy access, which will be given when after three days the vault owner has not responded.
Handing out an emergency kit (or putting it in a safety deposit box, which are a dying breed) is not the same.
Please create a solution for this.I am going to preface my post by saying that I have been a big proponent of getting Legacy Access feature in 1Password. I even left 1Password for Bitwarden due to the fact that Bitwarden has this feature. I have since done a whole big circle and I am back with 1Password.
Other password managers such as Bitwarden, Proton Pass, and NordPass (AFAIK) have an emergency access feature. I have found that both Bitwarden and Proton Pass (I'm not sure about NordPass) require the emergency contact(s) to also have an account to be able to accept the invitation to become your emergency contact and access your account if anything happens to you. In both cases, they can have a free account with that provider. It blew my mind when my daughter told me that she had to create a Bitwarden account to accept my invitation to become an emergency contact.
It makes no sense to me that an emergency contact needs to create an account for a service that they may never use, other than if something were to happen to me 20 years from now.
There is a way around this. Both Proton and Bitwarden say that you can record your login, master password, and any other pertinent information on a sheet of paper and keep it somewhere safe, such as in a safe. Does that sound familiar? This sounds like the same solution that 1Password has.
The whole point -is- the emergency contact should have the account with the service, this way -your- login/pw/key don't have to be written down. Your vault transfers to their account with proper Emergency access. No paper w/ password, more secure and clean that way.
And there's the rub. If this is the way that it needs to work, an emergency contact would need to have a 1password account. Since 1Password does not offer a free version, they would need to pay for a service that they may not use.
Just as I was taking a look at new answers on this topic, what do I see on the header of the page?
Surely this is a joke.
As much as the advice given : "you could leave instructions for accessing your account in a safe, or alongside your traditional will." Really?With new data leaks happening almost every day, which will only get worse with the rise of AI and automated security breach scanning, and safe deposit boxes now being violated, you really want us to trust anyone with our most precious data? Are you serious?
So true. We really really need something like Bitwarden/Proton/Apple/Google and all the other big players do have.
Really don't understand, why 1Password refuses this for several years now.
This topic seems to be 1Password's "Achilles Heal".
Seriously, it's the only reason I haven't switched yet.
I just found this article from 1Password.
https://www.1password.community/kb/digital-estate-planning/2-how-to-create-a-digital-estate-plan/164198
At the end of the article it says how good Google, Apple and others are managing it, but 1Password itself is missing... So sad and hopefully they will change that behavior soon.
How time flies... Is there an update or development on this from 1Password? Will it happen at some point, or are you scrapping the feature completely?
Hear, hear!
I doubt this is ever going to happen. No apparent reason for a company like AgileBits other than "no resources / no funds / no KPI alignment" to keep such a thing pending for years and just keep telling customers to focus on using their Emergency Kit. I moved from Dashlane (who had this feature) to 1Password, don't regret it overall, but definitely would expect to see such a "digital legacy" feature by now. Like others I'd also be willing to pay a (reasonable) premium for the option.
Agreed. Would set 1Password ahead of other apps.
I just wanted to get on board with this as well. PLEASE make a legacy contact feature for 1Password!
This is so important.I liked this post because I think this is an important feature to have.
I use 1Password personally: if I do not have 2FA on my 1password account, would all the information on the Emergency Kit allow someone to get into my account?
What I am not clear about is how would someone be able to access my account if I do have 2FA on the account and they cannot get into my phone to access the authenicator app.- 1P_Dave
Moderator
I've shared your request for this type of legacy feature with our product team internally.
Your Emergency Kit, by default, contains the following information:
- Your sign-in address.
- Your email address.
- Your Secret Key.
You would also need to write your account password on the Emergency Kit in order for it to contain all of the information needed to sign into your account. If you're using two-factor authentication then you would need to include that along with your Emergency Kit. For example: a copy of a hardware security key that's added as a second-factor to your account, or a printed copy of the QR code that contains your 2FA TOTP secret (that appears when you turn on 2FA) so that someone can add it to their authenticator app. Alternatively, you would need to ensure that they have access to the device where your authenticator app is installed.Let me know if you have any questions.
-Dave
PB-51335454
Would prefer an actual legacy feature.
