Forum Discussion

BurningOutside's avatar
BurningOutside
Occasional Contributor
2 months ago

Family Organizer & Recovery Code

I am the sole Family Organizer on my account and looking into how best to ensure family is able to recover access to 1Password and I'm currently at a loss.  I'm trying to solve for two problems here:

  1. I'm dead
  2. I'm not dead, but all of my logged in devices are (e.g. fire, but I didn't think to take my phone)

I've generated a Recovery Code, which requires access to my email.  My email credentials are long, unique, use MFA/Passkey, and are stored in 1Password.

I've set up and tested recovery access with my email, which works successfully.

With access to email, using my 1Password Recovery Code sends an email, and when I click the View My Account link that's sent, I just get a page saying You're part of a family and can request a recovery.  I'm the only Family Organizer and at this time, and even if I were to change that- it wouldn't account for #2 above.

My 1Password account uses MFA, so even providing my Secret Key/Master Password wouldn't be sufficient.  My intended plan was to create a separate vault, with reset info for my email, 1password, and a note w/ instructions- and share that vault with a trusted remote friend (using the Guest account feature), but if the Recovery Code doesn't let someone recover my account and unlink MFA- I'm not really understanding what the purpose of it is?

Am I misunderstanding the purpose of the Recovery Code or using it wrong, or is it actually basically useless with a Family Account?

discussion
  • 1P_Dave's avatar
    1P_Dave
    Icon for Moderator rankModerator
    2 months ago

    Hello BurningOutside! 👋

    Thanks for reaching out! How to give family members, or a lawyer, access to important credentials and documents in case of an emergency is something that I've thought about as well. At the moment, 1Password doesn't have a dedicated emergency access feature and a recovery code is meant more for you to recover access to your own 1Password account if you yourself lose your account password or Secret Key. 

    As you mentioned, using the recovery code requires access to your email address in order to verify your identity and if you previously enabled two-factor authentication for your account, it will remain turned on.

    My recommendation would be to print and store your Emergency Kit somewhere secure, like a safe in your home, that a trusted family member has access to in case of an emergency. You'll want to write your account password on the printed copy of your Emergency Kit: 


    You're correct that if you have two-factor authentication enabled for your 1Password account, your family member will need that as well. You could print out a copy of the QR code containing the one-time password secret with instructions for them to scan it using an authenticator app. Or you could purchase and add a physical security key, like a YubiKey, as another factor to your 1Password account and keep that in the safe.

    That being said, it sounds like you've got one of the steps a little wrong for using your recovery code. Follow these steps:

    1. Go to: https://my.1password.com/signin
    2. Click on "Having trouble signing in?".
    3. Click on "Have a recovery code?" 

    Follow the steps to use your recovery code. Let me know if that doesn't work.

    -Dave

    • BurningOutside's avatar
      BurningOutside
      Occasional Contributor
      2 months ago

      Thanks for the response 1P_Dave .  I'd been considering including the TOTP code or providing a linked Yubikey along with email/secret key/password to work with the issue of linked MFA- but that just doesn't sound like the ideal or intended method of dealing with a situation where I'm dead, or all of my connected devices have been destroyed in a disaster.  I thought that's what the Recovery Code was supposed to solve for.

      I'm pretty sure I got the steps correct for using the recovery code.  Using the link you've shown and providing the Recovery Code, I get an email with a (non-expiring) link to View my account.  Here's what I'm seeing after clicking that link:

      Clicking into that then just says "You're part of a family account and can request a recovery", which I can't, as I'm the only Organizer.  The other option is to just "Delete my account", which is something I'm not even sure why it's presented as an option to someone trying to recover access.

       

      Making another family member an organizer is not something I want to do at this time- and a family member is just as susceptible to all connected devices being destroyed in a fire.  The vault and recovery info I'm making is something I'd be sharing with a trusted friend on the entire opposite side of the country from me.

      LA's fires are on the forefront of my mind right now, and I'm trying to prevent a situation where I've already lost everything physical in my life and now I'm locked out of everything in my digital life, finances, etc., without a monumental amount of headache and frustration in an already frustrating and exhausting time.

      • 1P_Dave's avatar
        1P_Dave
        Icon for Moderator rankModerator
        2 months ago

        BurningOutside 

        Thank you for the reply. The behaviour that you're seeing isn't right, after you enter your recovery code you should see a message saying that a six-digit verification code was sent to the email address associated with your 1Password account: 

        So that the team and I can investigate this further, please send an email to support@1Password.com and include a link to this thread. Once you receive the auto-reply, please post the Support ID here and I'll be able to locate your message and take a look. 

        -Dave