Install 1Password on your Mac
One account for every password you own, set up properly the first time. Nine steps, about an hour, and the browser stops being your password book.
Describe what happens in the video
Silent screen recording of a 1Password setup, one clip per step with a caption naming it: the Families trial page and account form, the master password screen, generating the Secret Key, downloading and installing the 1Password 8 Mac app and signing in, adding the Chrome extension and the save-and-fill tutorial, importing passwords from Chrome into the Private vault, turning off Chrome's password saving and switching Mac AutoFill to 1Password, creating a shared vault, and inviting family members. Names, email addresses and vault names are covered.
This is the setup I walk clients through on a call. It is written from a real session with a two-person team: everything here is something we actually clicked, including the parts that went wrong.
By the end you have 1Password on your Mac and phone, every password Chrome was holding moved in, Chrome and Apple no longer saving their own copies, and a shared vault for the logins your team needs.
Before you start
- A Mac you are signed in to as yourself, and about an hour without interruptions.
- A printer, for the Emergency Kit.
- Your phone nearby. Some sites will text you a code during the cleanup.
- The email addresses of anyone you will share logins with. They each set up their own login; you do not make one for them.
The steps
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Start a Families account
Go to 1password.com and choose Get started. Pick Personal, then Families. It covers up to five people, with a 14-day free trial first. It was about $80 a year in Canada when we set this up; check the site for today’s price.
Families is enough for a small team. Each person gets their own login and their own Private vault, and you share work logins through a shared vault. You do not need a Business plan for that.
Sign up with an email address you will keep for years. The person who signs up becomes the organizer and invites everyone else later.
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Pick a master password you have never used anywhere
This is the one password you will still type. It has to be new: not a variation of something you already use, not something you have used before with a number changed.
Make it long and memorable rather than short and clever. A few unrelated things only you would put together (an old street, a number from childhood, a word, a symbol) beats a scrambled eight characters you will forget.
Do not write it in a notes app or email it to yourself. If you must write it down, it goes on paper with the Emergency Kit.
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Save the Emergency Kit properly
At the end of sign-up, 1Password gives you an Emergency Kit PDF. It holds your Secret Key, a long code that, together with your master password, unlocks your account on a new device.
Lose both the Secret Key and your devices and the account is gone. 1Password cannot recover it for you, by design.
Print it and keep the paper somewhere safe: a home safe or a safety deposit box. Then delete the PDF from your Downloads folder and empty the Trash. A Secret Key sitting in Downloads is the first thing a thief would look for.
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Install the 1Password 8 app
Download the Mac app from 1password.com/downloads. When it opens, check the menu bar says 1Password, not 1Password 7. Version 7 is retired and does not show up in the Mac autofill settings later, which is the whole point.
Sign in with your email, your Secret Key from the Emergency Kit, and your master password.
When it offers, tick Open 1Password in the background when you log in, and turn on Touch ID. After that you unlock it with a finger, not the master password, most of the day.
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Add the browser extension and pin it
Install 1Password for Chrome (or Safari) from the same downloads page. In Chrome, click the puzzle piece in the toolbar and pin 1Password so the icon is always visible.
The extension is what fills logins on websites and offers to save new ones. Work through the short tutorial it opens: it shows you one save and one fill, which is most of what you will do day to day.
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Move your Chrome passwords in
In Chrome, open Settings, then Google Password Manager, then Settings, and choose Export passwords. Save the file to your Desktop.
In the 1Password app, open File, then Import, and choose Chrome. Pick your Private vault and select the file from your Desktop. Expect hundreds of items. That is normal.
Then delete that file straight away and empty the Trash. It is every password you own in plain text.
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Turn off the password managers you are replacing
In Chrome, go back to Google Password Manager settings and turn off Offer to save passwords and Sign in automatically. Once 1Password has everything, delete the passwords Chrome still holds so there is only one copy.
On the Mac, open System Settings, then General, then AutoFill & Passwords. Turn 1Password on and turn Passwords (Apple’s) off. Leave Delete After Use off for verification codes, or they vanish before you need them.
While you are in System Settings, check General, then Login Items, lists 1Password under Open at Login. If not, click the plus and add it.
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Create a shared vault for work logins
In the 1Password app, click the plus next to Vaults and make a new vault named after the business. Your Private vault stays yours; the shared vault is where logins the team needs go.
Open the vault settings, choose People, and add the others. Give them view and edit if they need to change passwords, view only if not.
Move the first few work logins into it. The guide Share a password in 1Password shows exactly how.
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Invite the rest of the household or team, and add phones
From 1password.com, open People and invite each person by email. They follow the same steps from Step 2: their own master password, their own Emergency Kit.
Once they accept, the organizer has to confirm them before they can see shared vaults. 1Password sends a reminder.
Everyone installs the 1Password app on their phone and signs in with the same account. On iPhone, set it as the AutoFill provider in Settings, then General, then AutoFill & Passwords.
Things worth knowing
Your old passwords are still your old passwords
Importing copies what Chrome had, including the wrong and outdated ones. In our session a login failed several times because the saved password was stale, and the site locked the account for 30 minutes. If a saved login does not work, reset it on the website and let 1Password save the new one. Do not keep guessing.
Change the password on the site, then in 1Password
Generating a new password in 1Password does not change it on the website. Use the site’s own change password page, let 1Password fill the generated one, and save when it asks. Do it in that order or you lock yourself out.
Clean up duplicates as you go, not all at once
A Chrome import often has five copies of the same login. When you next use a site, keep the one that worked and delete the rest. Archive rather than delete if you are unsure; archived items can be brought back.
Passkeys and two-factor codes can live in the shared vault
When a site offers a passkey, let 1Password save it, in the shared vault if the whole team needs it. One-time codes and backup codes for team accounts go there too, so no one is waiting on one person’s phone.
Hunt down the passwords that were never in a browser
Notes apps, spreadsheets, a sticky note in a drawer. Move those into 1Password by hand, then delete the originals. That last part is the step people skip.
If something goes wrong
| What you see | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| 1Password is missing from AutoFill & Passwords on the Mac | You are running 1Password 7, or the app has not been restarted since installing | Quit 1Password (Command Q), install 1Password 8 from 1password.com/downloads, open it, and check System Settings again |
| Sign-in says the details are invalid | Wrong email, or a typo in the Secret Key | Copy the Secret Key from the Emergency Kit rather than typing it, and check the email matches the one you signed up with |
| A saved login does not work and the site locks you out | The imported password is out of date | Wait out the lock, use the site’s Forgot password link, and save the new one in 1Password |
| Chrome keeps offering to save passwords | Chrome’s password manager is still on | Turn off Offer to save passwords in Google Password Manager settings |
| A new member cannot see the shared vault | They have not been confirmed, or not added to the vault | Confirm them under People on 1password.com, then add them to the vault |
Would rather not do this alone?
Setup, the Chrome import, the cleanup of five copies of every login, and a shared vault your team actually uses. I do this with clients as part of onboarding.
Common questions
- Which 1Password plan should a small business use?
- For a team of five or fewer, Families is enough. Each person has their own login and Private vault, and you can create shared vaults for work logins and choose who sees each one. It was about $80 a year in Canada when this was written, after a 14-day trial. Move to a Business plan when you pass five people or need admin features like enforced policies and reporting.
- What happens if I lose my 1Password Secret Key?
- If you are still signed in on a device, you can find the Secret Key in the app and print a new Emergency Kit. If you lose the Secret Key and every signed-in device, the account cannot be recovered; 1Password does not hold a copy. On a Families plan the organizer can start a recovery for another member, which is a good reason to have two organizers.
- Is it safe to export my Chrome passwords to a file?
- Only for the minute it takes to import them. The export is a plain text file with every password in it. Import it into 1Password, then delete the file and empty the Trash straight away. Do not email it, upload it, or leave it on the Desktop.
- Should I turn off Chrome and Apple passwords after installing 1Password?
- Yes. Two password managers means two copies that drift apart, and the browser will keep saving logins 1Password never sees. Turn off saving in Chrome, delete what Chrome still holds once it is all in 1Password, and switch the Mac autofill provider from Passwords to 1Password.