If you’re a LastPass user, you’ll be exporting your LastPass passwords and importing them into 1Password. You may be locked out forever if you forget the master password and you don’t have this backup. If you forget your master password, you will be able to get back into the account if you have the Emergency Kit.

Write your master password in the blank and keep the Emergency Kit page with the other papers that you would store in a safe if you had a safe. For your purposes, the important part is: follow the instructions to print the Emergency Kit and store a copy of it in a safe place. Behind the scenes, the additional encryption key adds another layer of security. There’s one unusual step where you print out an “Emergency Kit,” a single page with an additional encryption key and a QR code. Here’s one from Lifehacker, and one from Wirecutter. There are plenty of step by step guides to get started with 1Password. Bonus features: storing credit card information and personal details to fill in online forms family and sharing features storing other types of information (drivers license, insurance, medical, etc.).

It’s really helpful if the password manager can be unlocked by biometrics – my face or fingerprint – when the device supports that, so I don’t have to type in the master password all the time.

Being able to auto-fill passwords in a phone app is darned handy when it works but I have low expectations about that.

Looking up passwords on a phone is helpful.

At the least it needs to be convenient to copy and paste, either from a right-click menu or from the extension icon in the upper right.

I’ll mostly use a password manager in a browser, so auto-filling entries on websites is a pretty swell trick.

I’m going to use a password manager on a couple of computers and my phone, so I want one that syncs online and works on multiple devices.

Sounds obvious, eh? Not all of them are good at this part.

More than anything else, a password manager is a notebook where I can look up passwords conveniently.

Lastpass v 1password