Automatic locking of your 1Password data

By default, your 1Password data is configured to lock itself automatically in certain circumstances, such as when your PC is locked or after a specific period of inactivity. This is usually considered a great security feature, as it protects your data even if you forget to lock 1Password manually.

In some environments, however, having the data lock so often is more of an annoyance than anything else. Fortunately, the data locking preferences are completely configurable. You can change these settings on the Security tab of 1Password preferences.

Keychain tab of 1Password preferences

In 1Password for Mac, we provide an option to store your master password in the OS X system keychain. We don’t recommend it, as it makes your 1Password data accessible to anyone who can unlock your Mac OS X account, but it’s an option we can provide. Windows doesn’t offer an equivalent to the OS X system keychain, though, so there’s no secure way to store your master password.

For that reason, 1Password for Windows doesn’t include a “remember my master password” option. There is no way to set the preferences so as to avoid locking altogether.

Global unlock

In Windows, 1Password and your browsers run in separate processes, and the locked/unlocked status is associated with individual processes. Closing 1Password for Windows or closing the last Firefox, Chrome, or Internet Explorer window “kills” the associated process, which normally locks your 1Password data for access from that process; hence, restarting 1Password for Windows or either of the browsers requires unlocking the 1Password data again.

New: You can override this security measure by enabling the Keep extensions unlocked option on the Browsers tab of 1Password preferences.

Here are some important things to remember about this option:

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