Cancel bitwarden download/installation after PC crash

My oldish desktop computer crashed unrecoverably (I’m reasonably computer literate) and I’m setting up a new replacement (W10 not yet 20H2) but I can’t install the Bitwarden app on my new PC because it’s associated with the email address on the old PC.

To make matters worse I somehow earlier managed to download a free copy on the now crashed computer for each of my several secondary emails so I can’t use one of them. Rather than set up a dummy Gmail address and use that to download Bitwarden on the new PC I’d like to “cancel” the registrations associated with the crashed computer and then reuse my main email address.

I do have the master password so I hope my password file is still up in the clouds waiting …

This 95 yr old WW-II veteran who used computers already back in the 1970’s needs all the quick help he can get

TIA

Hugh

If your looking to change the email address just go to Bitwarden Web vault -> My account and change it from there.

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If you want to delete your account

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Before even trying to delete your account make sure to create at least one (local) backup.
To do so follow these steps:

  • Go to https://vault.bitwarden.com and log in
  • In the top left corner select Tools
  • Select Export Vault
  • Enter your Masterpassword, click onto Export Vault
  • Check your download-folder.

Done!

Now that this is out of the way:
Why do you think that you cannot use the former email address on your new PC ?

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Thanks everyone for those prompt replies; sorry not to come back sooner.

Sorry if I was not clear at first.

My main desktop computer that has Bitwarden on it crashed on Thursday and is for the time being not recoverable – I do have tools for this but …

I now have a new desktop computer that I am setting up with the apps I used and so I to access need the Bitwarden vault. I can’t download a new copy of Bitwarden and install it because it’s tied to the email address I used originally which is why I thought of “cancelling” that registration and then reusing the email address but the warning from Peter H indicates that that would cut me off from the “existing” vault so I will create a new gmail address and use that on the new PC to download and install Bitwarden and then hopefully access the old vault from up in the clouds or wherever!

Is there any reason that should not work if I am correct and I have the password for the original vault?

If I have to create a new vault then once I can pull out the old hard drives and access them through a drive caddy on the new computer I should be able to find at least the original .csn file from Firefox and transfer that to Bitwarden as I originally did. I doubt that there were many critical files created since that date.

Amazon delivered the drive caddy this morning instead of Monday so I can do a bit more about recovering from the old PC.

I’ll check back before downloading Bitwarden with a new email address just in case …

Because if I try to download Bitwarden it asks for an email address and then says it is already in use – that’s what led me to think of “cancelling” the registration.

This is on the Free version; if I pay the yearly fee does this solve this problem?

Sorry I don’t quite understand why you can’t use your email and password to sign in Bitwarden, it allows you to have multiple login sessions. It seems like your trying to create a new account for each device.

That is what I was trying to do… my mistake then.

So what do I click on in the new PC that has never used Bitwarden before to get it to open the vault, or if I’m asking the new PC to open a website it has never opened before?

This is where I did with any new computer I’ve had and that is to install the apps I wanted to use, and I put Bitwarden into the same category.

If I go to a website on the new computer that requires a password to access how does the system know where to go to get that password?

PS how do I get to the part of Bitwarden which would accept them? Is there a URL rather than downloading the installer?

So what do I click on in the new PC that has never used Bitwarden before to get it to open the vault, or if I’m asking the new PC to open a website it has never opened before?>

Once it is installed you’ll find it in the Start menu if you’re on windows


It doesn’t matter if the PC hasn’t opened the site before, as long as you have the login saved in Bitwarden it will sync across to the new PC.

If I go to a website on the new computer that requires a password to access how does the system know where to go to get that password?

Install the BW browser extension and sign in, BW will show a small number by the icon indicating the number of logins you have for the site your browsing. By default, BW will not autofill logins automatically.

PS how do I get to the part of Bitwarden which would accept them?

Click on the extension icon and on the login that you want to use or use Ctrl + shift + L (Windows / Linux) or Cmd + Shift + L (Mac)

Is there a URL rather than downloading the installer?

You can access your vault on Bitwarden Online Vault if you don’t want to install the browser extension but autofill won’t be available.

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Go to https://vault.bitwarden.com/#/

Use your email
And Master Password

Tada! Your vault is unlocked.

Thanks Henry

I’ll try that and I understand that a little better now – I do see a START menu entry for Bitwarden in the new PC so just going to the vault site must install that which deals with my mystification about getting something there without installing!

Have to delay a while but I’ll get back with even more thanks!

Thanks – between all of you the clouds begin to disappear – more later!

Thanks every one … finally resolved when trying to access the vault and filing it asked me if I wanted a password hint so I said YES and with the aid of that I realized what part of my password I had missed – an ALT + NNNN character!

So I have access on the new computer and life is nearly back to normal apart from a glitch on my Thunderbird Mail setup which is less urgent since it works OK again on my laptop.

I really do appreciate all the help and the speed of it too.

One thing – do I have to do anything to get the Bitwarden icon up on a browser toolbar (Firefox at present) or does it come up the first time I am faced with a website log in?

I guess I’ll know soon enough!

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  • Go to Tools (if you do not have the Menu Bar, click onto the Ξ in the top right corner), then go to Add-ons.

  • On the left side click onto Extensions

  • Check if the Bitwarden add-on is installed

  • If it is not installed, skip some lines till you find *** INSTALL ***

  • If it already is installed right-click the area to the left of the Ξ, then select Customize

  • If you see the Bitwarden icon, click it, hold the mouse button and then drag the icon to the Toolbar. If instead the icon is not shown the only solution I have found (@Community: HELP! Is there any ELI5-solution?) to get the Bitwarden icon back after it was removed is to un- and then to re-install Bitwarden.

  • So if Bitwarden is installed but its icon neither is shown on the Toolbar, nor under Customize uninstall the Bitwarden add-on:

*** INSTALL ***

  • Next, look at the top of that screen for Find more add-ons, enter Bitwarden and press Enter

  • This should be the 1st search result. Click it.

  • Click onto + Add to Firefox

  • In the pop-up click onto Add

  • In the next pop-up 1st decide if you want Bitwarden to also run in Private Windows, then select Okay, Got it

  • If Bitwarden stil is not on the Toolbar it now definetely can be found under Customize.

  • Drag it as mentioned above to the Toolbar. It however still is grey.

  • Click it and log in.

Done!

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Great – that worked perfectly including the search …

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That certainly worked – as I said but now the master password that worked until now is reported incorrect. Not your fault but that of the crash.

I think what I must do is write off the previous installation of Bitwarden that I could access since it had very few entries – due to my multiple “installs” I’m sure – and set up a new Gmail address then use that to start a new vault. I do have a number of correctly working logins recorded in FireFox so I can export that to the new empty Bitwarden.

I’ll not be able to delete the several earlier attempts when I did not understand that Bitwarden on my Desktop was just a link and Install did not download an app to my PC as other things – like say LibreOffice does.

Make sense?

I need to spend more time on getting the Banks to sort out their login problems and perhaps trying to boot into the damaged hard drive installation of Windows from Olllie and if successful see if it still accesses Bitwarden. If not then I’ll come back to the new HP PC and start Bitwarden from scratch … with help from here before and not after …

Thanks again – I’ll still check in here …

I believe that you have the wrong idea about Bitwarden. The encrypted database that contains all your passwords indeed is on the hard drive of your broken computer. But this is just a copy. Bitwarden has this database on their servers. Therefore it is not necessary to get your old computer back to work. You can access this database from anywhere: The Bitwarden program, the Bitwarden add-on you installed inside Firefox or even their website https://vault.bitwarden.com.

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No I do now understand and I can as of now access the vault (see below) and assuming the recorded login information is still correct since I had to change some after the crash – but you know what assume means and some do some don’t.

However this is just one vault set up under one of my email and before the crash when I ran into problems with Bitwarden and before all the help here since it happened I tried to resolve the problem by “downloading” a new Bitwarden using a different email address which stopped Bitwarden from saying “Already in Use” for the old one. Each such “new” Biwarden with a new login and password would have different passwords surely? Each would be just as if I set up Bitwarden and then someone else did?

I take your word that what Bitwarden shows me now on the new PC is what I would have seen on the old PC if I could have accessed it.

Now I’ve learned how it works here I will just accept that I have to log in again onto each website etc and let Bitwarden add them to my present log.

I still want to sort out the old drive login but for other reasons but it’s less and less urgent than before.

I hope that explains it if not making Bitwarden sense …

Thanks for getting me to think again!