I never thought too hard about password managers. Apple’s built-in Keychain had done the job well enough for me—it was seamless, secure enough, and tucked neatly into the Apple ecosystem. But when I started thinking more seriously about digital hygiene, I quickly realized how much I didn’t know—about how these tools actually work, or what else was even out there.
I’m someone who generally wonders how things work. But a lot has changed online since the early days of building Sailor Moon fan pages with hand-coded HTML. Back then, a password was just what you used to log into AIM. Now it’s the first line of defense—not just for sensitive information, but for the finer details of your life, personal or otherwise.
Taking on this piece was a chance to revisit that original curiosity. To look more closely—not just at the tools we trust (and sometimes take for granted), but at what happens when I navigate one for myself and figure out what it actually means to choose one intentionally.
Getting a Feel for the Vault
I didn’t dive in with everything figured out. I started with the basics: downloaded Bitwarden, created an account, and set a master password I wouldn’t forget (important side note: Bitwarden doesn’t have a recovery option for this).
Then I saved my newly updated Gmail login.
Next came a small test case: my ChatGPT account. That one uses “Sign in with Apple” and a relay email—no password to save, really—but I added a quick note for it anyway. It wasn’t strategic, but it was enough to begin. And maybe that’s the point.
Password management doesn’t have to be everything all at once. You can start with one step, and Bitwarden makes that feel possible.
Why I Didn’t Import Everything (Yet)
Bitwarden offers an import feature for passwords saved in browsers or exported from other apps as CSV files. I’ll probably explore that later, but it didn’t feel urgent.
Part of that was practical: most of the passwords stored in my Apple Keychain were for things I hadn’t used in years—free trials, one-time logins, forgotten Wi-Fi networks. Importing all of that would’ve felt like bringing a junk drawer into a new apartment.
The other part was personal. I wanted to trust the tool before handing it everything. I wanted to feel how Bitwarden worked before giving it a full “yes.” So I added just a couple logins manually. That kept things controlled instead of cluttered.
Adding 2FA: One Layer Deeper
Once I had a few logins saved and felt more comfortable navigating the vault (Bitwarden’s term for your dashboard of saved items), I turned to two-factor authentication (2FA).
Bitwarden supports 2FA for your login—an extra layer of security beyond the master password. It felt like the natural next step.
2FA is like adding a second lock to your door. The first is your password. The second is usually a time-sensitive code from a separate app—something only you have access to. Even if someone steals your password, they can’t get in without that second key.
I tried Authy first, but no luck: no Mac support unless you’ve already installed it. Google Authenticator didn’t work out either. So I went with Raivo OTP, a clean, open-source option made for Apple users. Simple, quiet, and just enough.
Setting it up was straightforward. Bitwarden generated a secret key during setup, which I copied into Raivo manually. I labeled the entry, saved it, and used the six-digit code it produced to finalize the setup. I also saved my backup codes in Bitwarden (don’t skip this step).
Final Thoughts (for Now)
Setting up Bitwarden with two-factor authentication wasn’t complicated, but it did require focused steps. I had to decide what to bring in, what to leave behind, and how to protect what I was building.
And in the process, I didn’t just start using a password manager—I started understanding it.
This is still in progress. I’ve got more accounts to move, and some old habits to unlearn. Like letting tools do the thinking for me just because they’re convenient. But I have a foundation now. And that feels like a good place to start.
