A family is an organizer and up to five more people. Everyone shares a Family vault, and a member who’s locked out can ask the organizer for help, if they chose to allow it.
Start a family
- Open Family: under Account in the browser extension and the phone apps, and in the sidebar of the web vault and the desktop apps.
- Choose Start a family. Vallkey makes a vault called Family, which you own.
Invite someone
- Under Invite someone, enter the email address of their Vallkey account and choose Find.
- Vallkey shows their fingerprint. Compare it with them if you can: see Checking a fingerprint.
- Choose Invite. They’re emailed, and see the invitation under Family.
A family has up to six people, invitations included, and an account is in one family at a time.
Join a family
Under Family, the invitation shows the organizer’s fingerprint. Compare it with them if you can, then choose Join. The Family vault’s items show up with everything else. Decline turns it down.
Family recovery
Each member chooses whether the organizer can help them back in if they lose their master password. See Family recovery.
Leaving, removing and ending
- A member leaves under Family. The Family vault goes from their devices.
- The organizer removes a member or cancels an invitation. The Family vault gets a new key.
- The organizer ends the family once nobody else is in it. The Family vault stays, as one of their own.
Last updated October 3, 2026