Understand Log In vs. Unlock

In order to understand why unlocking and logging in are not the same, it's important to remember that Bitwarden

Logging in to Bitwarden retrieves the encrypted vault data and decrypts the vault data locally on your device. In practice, that means two things:

1. Logging in will always require you to use your master password or

   login with device
   to gain access to the
   account encryption key
   that will be needed to decrypt vault data.
   
   This stage is also where
   any enabled two-step login methods
   will be required.

2. Logging in will always require you to be connected to the internet (or, if you are self-hosting, connected to the server) to download the encrypted vault to disk, which will subsequently be decrypted in your device's memory.
   

Unlocking can only be done when you are already logged in. This means, according to the above section, your device has encrypted vault data stored on disk. In practice, this means two things:

1. You don't specifically need your master password. While your master password can be used to unlock your vault, so can other methods like

   PIN
   codes and
   biometrics
   .
   

   note

   När du ställer in en PIN-kod eller biometri används en ny krypteringsnyckel härledd från PIN-koden eller den biometriska faktorn för att kryptera

   kontons krypteringsnyckel

   , som du kommer att ha tillgång till genom att vara inloggad och lagrad på diskª.

   Upplåsning av ditt valv gör att PIN-koden eller den biometriska nyckeln dekrypterar kontokrypteringsnyckeln i minnet. Den dekrypterade kontokrypteringsnyckeln används sedan för att dekryptera alla valvdata i minnet.

   Att låsa ditt valv gör att all dekrypterad valvdata, inklusive den dekrypterade kontokrypteringsnyckeln, raderas.

   ª - Om du använder alternativet Lås med huvudlösenord vid omstart, lagras denna nyckel bara i minnet istället för på disken.

2. You don't need to be connected to the internet (or, if you are self-hosting, connected to the server).