Hello! Do you have a LastPass account? If not I’d absolutely recommend it. We have a couple of guides which I’ve linked to below.

Here are some simple steps you can take to make sure you don’t get locked out of your LastPass Account.

Tip: You might want to print this guide out and tick off the bits as you go. Remember to note down any details you give them – if you give them your phone number, for example, make a note of which number you give them.

What I’m going to cover

  • Checking your email address
  • Adding a backup phone number
  • Saving a One Time Password
  • A note about a Master Password Hint
  • Emergency Access

Note: The menu structure is a bit… rubbish… so I’ve only included the menu image once right at the end of this article. When I talk about the menu I mean the grey one on the left hand side of your vault.

Checking your email address

Check your email address is correct

From the menu, select “Account Settings”, then look for where it says “Account Email”, make sure this is your email address. If you’re not sure click the “Send test” button, then make sure you get the test email.

If it’s right, move on to the next setting. If it’s wrong, update the email address and click the red “update” button. Then check your email for the next steps.

Adding a phone number

Check, Add or Update your phone number – best to use a mobile number here

On the same screen as above, “Account Settings” from the left menu, scroll down a little, you’ll see “SMS Account Recovery”. Has this got your phone number? If so just double-check it and if it’s correct then move on to the next step.

If it hasn’t got your phone number, or if it’s wrong, click on “Add Phone” or “Update”. Then follow the prompts. Then click the red “Update” button at the bottom. You’ll be sent a text message so it’s best for you to use a mobile phone number here.

Saving a One Time Password

This one is a bit of a pain. From the left hand menu, select “Advanced Options” then “Manage One-Time Passwords”.

This takes you to another website where you need to log in again with your Master Password.

Log in again 😒

Then click on “Generate a one-time password”

Write down the password, print it out, or save it somewhere safe (not in your LastPass vault!)

Click Generate

The page will refresh and look like this:

Make sure you write these down or print them out or tattoo them on your arm…

Once you’ve saved/written/printed/tattooed this one-time password, you can close this page and go back to your vault.

Emergency Access (Paid for feature)

Note: The person you give Emergency Access to needs to also have a LastPass account. You should only give this to someone you trust and check that you give it to the right person (double/triple check the person’s email address).

Pop your friend’s email address in and set a wait time, I’d suggest 48hrs or 24hrs for most people.

This is a final fail-safe, but you need to trust the person you share your account with, they can’t see your account all the time but they can log in as you with minimal checks once it’s setup.

  1. Ask someone if they will be your Emergency Contact. They also need a LastPass account and be willing to help you out.
  2. From the left-hand menu select “Emergency Access”
  3. Click on the red + symbol in the bottom right
  4. Type in the person’s email address you want to share with (double, triple check this)
  5. Set the amount of time they have to wait after requesting a login, for my work one I’ve got someone down as “Immediate” so we can get in in a panic, but my home one is 24hrs.
  6. Click Send Invite
  7. Let your friend know the invite is on its way and ask them to accept it.
  8. Wait for your friend to accept and then check back on this “Emergency Access” screen from the left-hand menu. It’ll show a list of accepted contacts.

Master Password Hint

This is the code you set when you set up your password. The only way to change this is to change your LastPass password. I’m not going to go into this here, but if you do change your LastPass password, then just make sure you put a good hint in.

The hint will be sent to you by email (see above for checking your email address is correct), so make sure it’s not something that gives away the password to anyone but you.

And that’s it!
Mike 🙂

LastPass menu