In a moment of panic, I purchased two years of a password manager service.
Nothing had actually happened. I had not been hacked. No mysterious person in another country was trying to buy electronics with my credit card. I had listened to a podcast about security breaches and decided that I needed a password manager immediately.
Simplify or Complicate
I had been thinking about getting one for quite a while, but I kept putting it off because I suspected a password manager would simplify some parts of my digital life while introducing an entirely new set of complications. I was not wrong.
There are some things I genuinely love about it. I can create a new account, let the password manager generate some completely ridiculous string of letters, numbers, and symbols, and never have to know what the password actually is. On my phone, this feels especially magical. I open a website, the password manager recognizes it, my face proves that I am apparently who I say I am, and the password appears. This is the future I was promised. But real life is messy.
A Clash of Titans
Before getting the password manager, I let Google save some of my passwords. Google has not entirely accepted that it’s been replaced. Every so often it confidently offers me an old password while my password manager is trying to offer me the new one. Nothing says convenience quite like Google and my password manager both volunteering for the same job.
Sometimes I’ve discovered duplicate accounts. My password manager will save two versions of the same login, and I have to figure out which one is current before deleting the other. There continues to be housekeeping I need to manage.
One for All
And then there is the Master Password. The Master Password protects all the other passwords, which means I have managed to solve the problem of remembering dozens of passwords by creating one password that I am now terrified of forgetting.
I did come up with a solution that makes me feel better. I wrote it down and placed a copy in my safe-deposit box. Knowing that I could retrieve it if I truly needed it lets me sleep a little better.
Personal Devices Only
There is also one limitation I have had to accept: I don’t use my password manager on my work computer. Occasionally, I’ll be at work and want to create a personal account for something. But I have chosen not to unlock my password manager there, and that is a choice I stand behind. So, if I create an account at work, I know I may need to change the password later at home so I can save it properly in the manager.
The Overall Benefit
The biggest thing I have learned about using a password manager is that it is not seamless and it does not eliminate all the friction. It simply moves some of the friction around managing passwords. Overall, I’m glad I finally took the plunge and set up a password manager. I know I’m creating stronger, more secure passwords, and that alone gives me some peace of mind.
If you don’t have the complication of using a work computer or another device you don’t own, and you’ve never saved passwords in Google, you may avoid much of the friction I’ve experienced. Even with those annoyances, I still think a password manager is worth the investment of time and money. For me, the biggest game changer has been how easy it is to log into accounts from my phone. When it works the way it’s supposed to, it really does make life easier.
Let’s Have a Conversation:
Do you know, off the top of your head, how many online accounts you have? How do you remember the passwords to all of them? Have you chosen to trust a password manager instead? What has been your experience so far, if you’re using one?
