Cannot access existing vault (local on my mac) from newly installed 1P extension

Wow, thanks for the quick reply. I need to take it slower... Yes, I installed 1P in the Brave browser. I have a membership and have had one for years. Don't know what you mean by "it only works with memberships." Do you mean that the Brave browser extension is only capable of seeing the Personal vault which is stored on a 1P server? Not sure what you mean by competing sync mechanisms. I have a primary vault file on my mac and I have a 1P application. Why can't two browsers access that file? What could be simpler - in theory? Thanks for your interest in helping me here!