My wife and I share the same Bitwarden account in Safari and The Bitwarden app. Suddenly I cannot login and it won’t except our known password or send hint to my computer. My wife’s computer works as usual.
Backup Your Data:
First, you should create a backup of your a.s.a.p., because if Bitwarden should stop working on your wife’s computer as well, you could lose access to all of your passwords. Using your wife’s computer, log in at https://vault.bitwarden.com/#/login. In the left-hand navigation menu, navigate to Tools > Export Vault. There, change the “File Format” to “.json (Encrypted)”, and subsequently change the “Export Type” to “Password Protected”. You will be asked to enter (and confirm) a “File Password”, which you should generate randomly and write down in a safe location (note that the “File Password” is different from the Bitwarden Master Password). Click Confirm Format; then, when prompted, enter your Master Password (not the File Password that you just created), and click Export Vault. If you are asked to specify a location to save the file, do so, and then click the Save button.
If you have a Premium subscription, and if you have ever uploaded a file attachment into your Bitwarden vault (or are unsure if you have any file attachments in your vault), then copy and paste the following search expression (including the leading > character, and the final * character) into the search bar in your wife’s Bitwarden app:
>attachments:*
Inspect each vault item in the Search results, and downloaded copies of the attached files.
Troubleshoot:
On your own computer, go to https://vault.bitwarden.com/#/login and attempt to log in. Do you get an error message, and if so, at what exact point in the login process does the error occur (and what is the exact wording of the error message?)?
Is there any chance that you migrated your account from the bitwarden.com cloud to the bitwarden.eu cloud within the past 8 months? (If so, try the same steps given above, but logging in at https://vault.bitwarden.eu instead).
If you get error messages, try clearing the browser cache, and try using a different browser (Chrome, Firefox, Brave, DuckDuckGo) to access https://vault.bitwarden.com.
Some “generic” troubleshooting steps that you should try for good measure also include rebooting your computer, and updating your web browsers to the most recent versions available (and possibly updating your operating system).
If your situation is not cleared up by the above, then please provide more information about the exact type of device you are using, what operating system you are using (including version), and what browser you are using (including the version number).
Loose Ends:
After you have sorted out your login issue and ensured that you are no longer at risk of losing your vault access, you should create a separate Bitwarden account for yourself (or for your wife). To be compliant with Bitwarden’s Terms of Service, each Bitwarden account login may only be used by one person (i.e., a single login may not be shared by multiple people).
If you and your wife have certain passwords stored in Bitwarden that you share (e.g., a joint bank account, or a shared Netflix account, etc.), then you can set up shared vault items by creating a free “organization” vault. If you need help with this set-up, please let us know.
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I really appreciate all your information and so quickly perhaps I should have started with the fact that my computers are Mac OS 14.5 and my phone uses iOS 17.5.1.
So some of the instructions you gave don’t work but interestingly enough I was able to export the Bitwarden file and open it in Preview and even change the file name to .docx
So I was wondering if it would be possible to import the Master file to my new account that I just created as you suggested.
Or any other way to restore the master file
Which instructions specifically were you having problems with, and why do you say that it didn’t work (i.e., what error message or other issue did you encounter?)? As far as I know, everything that I wrote in my comment above should work in macOS.
If you created the export following my instructions here, then you should have just seen gibberish if you attempted to preview the file contents. However, it is possible that you created an unencrypted export (either in .csv or .json format).
If your export was originally a file with a .json extension, then if you change the extension back from .docx to .json (and assuming that you didn’t make any changes to the files when opening it in Word), then it could be imported into a new account.
However, doing so is not necessarily the best way forward for you and your wife, because it means that your copy and and your wife’s copy of the passwords will be completely independent. This means that if either of you add a new password, delete a password, or update an existing password, then the other spouse will not get those changes in their copy of the Bitwarden vault.
I can provide advice or instructions for a better way to configure your two accounts to have shared passwords. However, before doing so, it is important that we address the original problem that you posted about last week. You were having problems logging in to your Bitwarden account. This is not normal, and could be a sign of a serious problem (although it is also possible that the issue was caused by something simple and easy to fix).
Thus, I would suggest that you revisit my previous response, and address points and before jumping to point .
Thanks again for the quick reply. I understand better Now, It would be better to delete my account that is using her password and create a new one with my email and a new password, get the new one confirmed and create a collective on my wife’s computer as the owner of the collective. Tomorrow she has the day off, so I will start by making a new back up of her vault and keeping it untouched. After that, I will set up a collective on her computer and see if I can invite my new account, except and confirm
If I can manage that we should be able to share the vault contents and add or make changes for both of us.
By the way, our browser is safari and it’s up-to-date. I do have access to Chrome.
I assume by deleting my account on my computer it will delete the data associated with it. What about Safari’s bitwarden extension on my computer?
After deleting your account in the Web Vault (vault.bitwarden.com), the next time that you open the browser extension in Safari, it will log you out of your account, which purges the locally cached vault data.
Hi, I must say I didn’t follow the whole conversation, but could it be that that what you use for “daily access” to your app and what seems to work, still, is actually a PIN and not the master password? (and if it was just a PIN, then the master password must be something else…)
That is actually a short password. We have a pen which is separate, but I’m not sure if we actually set that up, but it’s not the same.
I created another problem for myself, I created a bit warden account under my email address t***@d***.com. I was in a bit of a post surgical haze that day and created the account and password, but I forgot the password and my helpful hint was not helpful. Is there anyway to erase that email from your servers? I never created a vault and all I did was mess up the login password, I have tried all your suggestions several times and using the best memory drugs I can find.
Tory & Wendy:
You are in luck that Bitwarden has recently made it easier to create backups. Therefore, I would suggest that you try the following revised procedure to create a password-protected backup from the Bitwarden app that you are using (which I assume is the Desktop app on your Mac).
NEW STEP — Backup Your Data:
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Using Wendy’s Mac computer, open your Bitwarden Desktop app, and log in /unlock.
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Using the menus, navigate to File > Export Vault. There, click the arrow to open the “File Format” dropdown menu, and then click “.json (Encrypted)”, as shown in the screenshot below:
- Next, change the “Export Type” to “Password Protected”, by clicking the second option as shown in the screenshot below:
- You will be asked to enter (and confirm) a “File Password”, which you should generate randomly and write down in a safe location (note that the “File Password” is different from the Bitwarden Master Password). After entering the file password, click Export Vault, as shown in the screenshot below:
- On the next pop-up prompt, enter your Master Password (not the File Password that you just created), and click Export Vault, as shown in the screenshot below:
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If you are asked to specify a location to save the file, do so, and then click the Save button. If you are not asked specifically where the file should be saved, then look in your default Downloads folder, and confirm that it now shows a recently created file with a name that is similar to
bitwarden_encrypted_export_20240625113002.json(the numbers at the end will be different). -
If you have a Premium subscription, and if you have ever uploaded a file attachment into your Bitwarden vault (or are unsure if you have any file attachments in your vault), then copy and paste the following search expression (including the leading
>character, and the final*character) into the search bar in your Bitwarden app:
>attachments:*
- Inspect each vault item in the Search results, and downloaded copies of the attached files.
If you wish to delete the Bitwarden account that was created using that email address, thereby irrevocably erasing any infomration that was entered or imported into that account, here is the procedure:
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Click this link: https://vault.bitwarden.com/#/recover-delete
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On the web form that opens, enter the email address for the account you wish to delete, then click Submit:
- You should receive an email from
<[email protected]>, to confirm if you wish to delete the account. Follow the instructions provided in that email.