Passwords are meant to be private, yet almost everyone shares at least a few of them. A streaming subscription, a shared utility bill, a family Wi-Fi network, a team login for a social media account — the need to share credentials is real and ordinary. The question is whether you share them safely or improvise. Proton Pass handles sharing through shared folders and defined permission levels, and understanding those two concepts is the whole skill.
Why shared folders beat shared passwords
The old method of sharing a password is to send it through chat, email, or a note, and then hope the recipient never forwards it. That method fails because the password escapes the vault and starts living in places you no longer control. A shared folder is different. The credential stays encrypted inside Proton Pass, the recipient sees it through their own account, and you can remove their access at any moment without changing the password itself. Nothing sensitive ever travels through an unprotected channel.
How a shared folder is created
Sharing begins when the vault owner creates a folder and places the relevant items inside it. Proton Pass separates your personal vault from shared spaces, so the first decision is which items actually belong in the shared folder. A good rule is to share only what the other person genuinely needs. If a team needs access to a marketing account and nothing else, create a folder for that account alone rather than moving an entire category into the shared space.
Inviting people and choosing permissions
Once the folder exists, you invite people by email address. At the moment of invitation you choose a permission level, and that choice matters more than most users expect. Proton Pass distinguishes between roles that can view items and roles that can edit or manage them. A household member who only needs to watch a streaming service should not be able to rename folders or change credentials. A colleague who manages an account may need edit access. The principle is simple: give the smallest permission that does the job.
What each permission level allows
View access lets a person open the shared items and use them, but not change them. Edit access allows updates — useful when a password rotates or a team member needs to correct a stale entry. Manage access sits above edit and includes the ability to reorganise the folder and control who else can see it. Before inviting anyone, decide which of those three patterns matches the relationship. A family member is not a colleague, and a colleague is not the account owner.
Removing access cleanly
When someone leaves a household or a team, the first instinct is often to change every password. That is slow and usually unnecessary. Remove the person from the shared folder first; their access disappears immediately. Then decide whether the credential itself needs rotating. If the person never saw the password outside the vault, removal is usually sufficient. If there is any doubt — a screenshot, a written copy, a shared screen — rotate the password and update the saved item so everyone with legitimate access receives the new value.
Habits that keep shared credentials safe
Shared folders work best when the ownership is clear. Name the folder after the purpose rather than the person, keep the number of managers small, and review the member list periodically. When a shared login changes, update the item in the folder rather than sending the new password around. And never place a master password, a recovery code, or a vault export in a shared folder; those belong to one person and should never be shared with anyone. For more guidance on getting signed in and using the service, return to the Proton Pass login portal and review the help articles there.
Sharing with people outside your household or team
External sharing deserves its own caution. A contractor, an accountant, or a temporary collaborator may need access to a specific login for a limited time. Create a dedicated folder for that purpose, invite the person with view access only, and set a reminder to remove them when the work is done. The habit of temporary access with an end date is far safer than adding someone to a permanent folder and forgetting they are still there.
Reviewing permissions as life changes
Permissions that made sense last year may not make sense now. A shared folder created for a project that ended, a family member who moved out, a colleague who changed roles — each leaves behind access that no longer matches reality. Once a quarter, open each shared folder and ask the uncomfortable question: does every person here still need to be here? Five minutes of housekeeping answers it, and the answer is always easier to act on than to ignore.
Used this way, sharing stops being a security compromise and becomes one of the safest parts of your setup — credentials that never leave the vault, access that can be adjusted in seconds, and no passwords living in chat history where they never belonged.