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chris000's avatar
chris000
Occasional Contributor
2 years ago

security key stored in keychain

I recently erased the hard drive on my Mac and manually reinstalled everything. Surprisingly, after installing 1Password, it didn’t ask me for my security key. I assume this is because Keychain automatically saved it and restored it from the cloud backup. If this is the case, would it be advisable to turn off Keychain from saving the security key in order to keep it off the cloud and stored locally only? I do have a printed copy of my security key as a backup already.

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macos

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

    Hello chris000! 👋

    Thanks for the question! When you add your 1Password account to the 1Password app on one of your Apple devices (such as a Mac, iPhone, or iPad) then 1Password stores an encrypted version of your Secret Key in the iCloud Keychain which is securely synced to all of your Apple devices. The next time that you need to add your 1Password account to another device you'll only be asked for your account password since the 1Password app will retrieve your Secret Key from the iCloud Keychain.

    You'll always need to enter your account password, which isn't stored, in order to decrypt your data and access your passwords and other items.

    This process safely and securely backs up your Secret Key and saves you from having to type it into all of your devices. The Secret Key is stored encrypted and can only be accessed by you and you can safely keep iCloud Keychain turned on. You can read more here: About your Secret Key

    -Dave