Guide
Share a password in 1Password
Hand a password to a colleague without emailing it. Move the item out of your Private vault and into a vault you both can see.
Describe what happens in the video
A 1Password window with a login open. The vault chip above the item is clicked, opening a panel with a Move button. A vault picker appears and a shared vault is selected. A confirmation dialog lists the people who will gain access, and Move Item is clicked. The item leaves the Private vault, a confirmation message appears at the bottom of the window, and the item header updates to show the shared vault and the number of people who can see it. Vault names, member names and account emails are blurred throughout.
This is the normal way to hand a password to someone you work with. You are not emailing it, not texting it, and not typing it into a chat window.
The password itself never leaves 1Password. All you are changing is which vault holds it, and the vault is what decides who can read it.
Before you start
- 1Password open on your computer. The desktop app, not the browser extension.
- The login already saved in 1Password.
- A shared vault that you and the other person are both members of. If you do not see one in your list, ask whoever administers the account to create it and add you.
The steps
-
Open the item you want to share
Find the login in your list and click it so the details show on the right.
While it sits in Private, you are the only person who can see it, even if other people are in the same 1Password account.
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Click the vault name in the header
Just above the item there is a small chip showing where it lives, something like "Company Vault | Private". Click it.
A panel opens headed Located In, with a Move button on the right. Click it.
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Pick the shared vault
A window opens: Move this item to. Choose your shared vault. If the list is long, type its name into the search box instead of scrolling.
Vaults labelled "Only you" are private. Vaults labelled "Shared, N people" are the ones other people can read. You want a shared one.
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Check who gets access
1Password will not move anything until you confirm. It shows a dialog headed This vault is shared, listing every person who will be able to read the item.
Read those names before you click. This is the moment to catch a mistake. When the list is right, click Move Item.
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Confirm the move
The item disappears from your Private vault and a message appears at the bottom of the window confirming where it went.
That message carries an Undo button. It lasts a few seconds, so if you picked the wrong vault, click it now.
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Verify it landed
Click View on that message, or open the item from the shared vault.
The header now shows the shared vault name and a people icon with a number beside it. That number is how many people can see the item. That is your proof it worked.
Things worth knowing
Moving is not copying
The item leaves your Private vault. It will not be under Private afterwards. If you want to keep a personal copy, duplicate the item first and move the duplicate.
Everyone in the vault sees it, including people added later
If someone joins that vault next year, they can read everything in it. Only put things in a shared vault that the whole vault should have.
Changing the password later updates it for everyone
That is the point of doing it this way. Edit it once in the shared vault and everyone has the new one immediately. No follow up message needed.
Do not use the Share button for this
The Share button next to Edit creates a public link that anyone holding the URL can open. It is for one off sends to people outside your account. For ongoing work together, moving the item to a shared vault is the right tool.
To take it back, move it and then change it
Repeat the same steps and move the item back to Private. Then change the password, because the other person has already seen the old one.
If something goes wrong
| What you see | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| No Move button in the panel | You do not have permission to move items out of that vault | Ask whoever administers the account to adjust the vault permissions |
| The shared vault is not in the list | You are not a member of it yet | Ask to be added to the vault |
| You moved the wrong item and Undo is gone | The few second window expired | Move it back to Private, then change that password |
| It is in the shared vault but the other person cannot see it | Their app has not synced yet | Have them quit and reopen 1Password |
Password hygiene is the boring part that saves you
Shared vaults, offboarding, who still has access to what. If nobody at your business owns that, it is worth an hour of someone's time. I do this work.
Common questions
- What is the safest way to share a password with a coworker?
- Move the item into a shared vault in your password manager and let them open it there. Do not email it, text it, or paste it into a chat. In 1Password that means moving the login out of your Private vault into a vault the other person already has access to, which takes about thirty seconds and leaves a clear record of who can see it.
- Why should I not just email or text a password?
- Because the password then lives in two mailboxes forever, in plain text, outside anything you control. Mail and chat histories get searched, exported, forwarded, and breached. A shared vault keeps the secret in one encrypted place, shows you exactly who has access, and lets you take that access away later without changing the password.
- What happens if I move a 1Password item into the wrong vault?
- You get a few seconds to undo it. 1Password shows a confirmation at the bottom of the window with an Undo button right after the move. It also lists every person who will be able to read the item before it moves anything, so that dialog is the moment to catch the mistake. If you miss the undo, move the item again to the right vault and change the password.