Travel Mode can’t prevent a search, but it could help you store information you’d rather border agents not see. It’s for a little extra peace of mind that, in the event of an invasive search, some of your data won’t be accessible. It works well for two reasons. First, Travel Mode removes marked vaults from your device completely. You can sign into the 1Password app and do everything else you normally would, but your travel vaults won’t be there. It’s as if the vaults you marked never existed in the first place.
You’ll want to restore these vaults eventually, but border agents won’t be able to do that. 1Password says you can only turn Travel Mode on or off from a browser (at 1password.com) that’s been authenticated with both your secret key and master password. So, even if a border agent seizes your phone, there’s no way to turn off Travel Mode from the 1Password app.
“As a practical matter, a border agent can’t search what isn’t in your possession when crossing the border,” Bill Budington, senior staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, wrote to WIRED in an email. “As a feature that limits the amount of data you carry with you, Travel Mode seems like a good way to protect that data.”
How to Use Travel Mode in 1Password
It’s easy to turn Travel Mode on and off with 1Password, but there’s some important housekeeping you should do beforehand.
Mark vaults as safe for travel. When you create a new vault with 1Password, you can mark it as safe for travel. If it’s marked, it won’t be removed from your device when you turn Travel Mode on. For existing vaults, you can mark them as safe or not safe for travel using the cog icon on the vault at my.1password.com.
Store your emergency kit somewhere safe. 1Password has an emergency kit, which includes your secret key, login email, a setup QR code, and a space to write (or type) your master password. You can generate an emergency kit at my.1password.com with the Manage Account button. You can print this and physically store it somewhere safe, or upload it to an encrypted cloud storage service like Proton Drive; make sure the device you’re traveling with isn’t logged into that storage service.