Yes, I did read past posts that reflected similar issues, but I did not find a helpful answer. I am new to Bitwarden after Lastpass (lied about data loss), and now Dashline (miserable to use for me). I am running an updated Chrome and my Bitwarden version is within the last week or so. I have been carefully transfering each of my accounts to Bitwarden, one at a time and testing them, deleting them from Dashlane (and Google if applicable) as I go. My vault times out and I am asked to enter my Master Password. Okay, fine. No problem until last night and this morning when I started getting incorrect password notices. That is scary as he!!. Yes, I am 100% certain that I am using the correct master password. I have found that if I log out and then log back in, I can get access, but I am worried about that failing. Has one experienced this? Can someone explain what is going on? I did a lot of research before settling on Bitwarden and it is very discouraging to know you have the proper master password, and have no way to recover the account if it fails. Thanks.
@Umpire98 Welcome to the forum!
Start by getting in the habit of backing up your vault contents. Here is the best (safest and easiest) method:
- Log in to your account on the Web Vault (vault.bitwarden.com).
- Click on Tools > Export Vault in the left-hand navigation menu.
- In the dropdown menu under File Format, select the option .json (Encrypted).
- You will now see two options for Export Type: select Password-Protected (it is very important that you don’t select Account-Restricted).
- Choose a strong password for the backup (use the Bitwarden Password Generator if you like), and enter it into the input fields File password and Confirm file password. Write down this password in a safe location, so that you don’t lose it!
- Click Confirm Format.
- When prompted (in a window titled Confirm Vault Export), enter the Bitwarden Master Password (not your backup password).
- Click Export Vault button. You should see a green alert box in the upper right corner of your browser window, with the message “Vault data exported.”
- Go to your Downloads folder, and look for a file named something like
bitwarden_encrypted_export_20240425204532.json. Move this file to any location where you will be able to access it later. The file is encrypted, so you do not have to worry about hiding the file.
In addition, if you have file attachments in your vault, locate these by typing the following expression in the vault search bar:
>attachments:*
Then, download each attachment (as file attachments are not included in the vault export), and make a note of which vault item each file was attached to; be advised that the downloaded attachments will be saved in a decrypted form on your computer.
Create an updated vault backup before deleting passwords from Dashlane/Google, or after any major changes to your vault contents.
Other than that, what you’re experiencing is not common. Is it reproducible (i.e., can you generate the error message at will)? Is it only happening in the Desktop app? (you’ve tagged your post app:desktop but you mentioned your Chrome browser in the post — are you actually using the Web Vault or the browser extension?)
Hi and Welcome to the community,
Here are some tips about Bitwarden and unexpected errors after updates.
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The best way to check if your vault is still intact is by logging into the webvault, i.e. the URL Bitwarden Web Vault . If it looks OK, then it’s some sync/cache problems on other clients. If not OK, try clearing the browser’s cache, restart the browser, and try again.
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People sometimes experience hicups after software updates, which may happen automatically and is unnoticeable (like in the browser). When unexpected errors happen, the first things to do before trying to get help (since the people who help you will often tell you this anyway):
- Log out, and login again
- Uninstall extension, restart browser, reinstall extension and try again
- Blow away the desktop’s app directory (or get rid of some files), and try again.
- Uninstall the desktop app, reinstall, and try again.
I am sorry to hear that you are experiencing this, but from what you describe, it sounds like a resolvable problem.
ps: Some people have filed bug reports on github having similar problems, although BW ended up closing them all as irreproducible. Here is an example response for Bitwarden:
I attempted to reproduce your issue and was unable to do so. I recommend removing all files from the location mentioned here (Storage | Bitwarden Help Center), restarting your device, and re-installing the application.