Sponsored Families FAQs
Q: Can self-hosted Enterprise organizations issue sponsorships?
A: Yes. There's a short setup procedure that must be completed by an administrator which you can learn more about here. Please remind your users that their sponsored Families organization can be redeemed through our public cloud (https://vault.bitwarden.com).
Q: Can I redeem with the account that's a member of the sponsoring Enterprise?
A: No. Upon redemption, you will be asked to enter a personal email address that you own. If you already have a personal Bitwarden account, enter that account's email address. If you don't, enter a personal email address for which you want to create a personal Bitwarden account.
Q: Can I redeem for my existing Families organization?
A: Yes! Redeeming a sponsorship for an active Families organization will immediately switch you to a sponsored subscription and add prorated account credit for the time remaining on the subscription you have paid for.
Q: Can I add additional storage?
A: Yes, however only 1 GB is included in your sponsorship. More storage can be added at any time and doing so will charge your payment method on file.
Q: What happens if I leave the organization sponsoring me?
A: If you leave or are removed from the sponsoring organization, or if you manually end your sponsorship, your payment method on file will be charged at the next billing interval.
Q: What do I do if I received a renewal reminder in my email?
A: If you're still a member of the Enterprise organization, typically an employer, that's sponsoring your free Families organization, you can safely ignore this email. If you're no longer a member of that Enterprise organization, ensure your organization will renew without interruption by opening your Families organization Admin Console, navigating to Billing → Payment method, and checking that the payment method is valid.
Q: What does Awaiting Sync mean?
A: The status Awaiting Sync indicates your self-hosted Bitwarden server is waiting to sync with the Bitwarden cloud before your sponsorship can be fully redeemed or changed. Sync happens once a day.
If you try to redeem your sponsorship before the sync is complete, you will get an error message in the cloud web vault that reads Cannot find an outstanding sponsorship offer for this organization.
Q: Can a sponsored Families organization be on a self-hosted server?
A: Yes, however there are a few steps to go through:
Redeem your sponsorship at
https://vault.bitwarden.comas described above.Still on
https://vault.bitwarden.com, retrieve your Families organization's license file as described here.Log in to your self-hosted server and apply the license file to an organization as described here.
Please note, your self-hosted server will need to be connected to an SMTP mail server in order for invitations to your families organization to be sent to other members.
Q: If my organization is on a US server, can I redeem a Families organization on the EU server?
A: No, the Families plan sponsorship can only be redeemed on the same cloud server as the sponsoring Enterprise organization. If your Enterprise organization has migrated from one cloud server to another, a new Families organization will have to be sponsored on the correct cloud server. For more information on migrating organizations, see the Bitwarden migration guide.
Q: How do I remove a Families organization?
A: To remove a Families organization, log in to the account that is a member of the Enterprise organization and navigate to Settings → Free Bitwarden Families. Select the cog icon associated with the sponsored Families organization and select Remove.