Creating Bitwarden Collections

Collections

Collections gather together logins, notes, cards, and identities for secure sharing from an organization. Think of collections as organization-equivalents to folders, with a few key differences:

  • Organizations control access to organization-owned items by assigning users or groups to collections.

  • Organization-owned items must be included in at least one collection.

Create a collection

Creating a collection, like many organization management tasks, can only be done from the Password Manager web app.

Organization members with collection management permission can create collections. To create a collection:

  1. Log in to the Bitwarden web app, select the  New button, and choose Collection from the dropdown:

    collection

Create new collection

  1. In the Collection info tab give your collection a Name, choose the Organization it should belong to, and, optionally, select a collection to nest this collection under.

Tip

The External Id field is only relevant if you are using Directory Connector.

  1. In the Access tab, assign access to any existing members or groups. For each selection, assign the appropriate level of permission. As the creator of the collection, you will have Can manage permission.

  2. Select Save to finish creating your collection.

Organization members with access to the Admin Console may also create collections from there. Your ability to create collections in one location, both locations, or neither is determined by the organization.

Nested collections

Collections can be nested in order to logically organize them within your vault:

nested collection

Nested collection

Nested collections are for display-purposes only. They will not inherit items, access, or permissions from their "parent" collection.

To create a nested collection, follow the steps above and select a parent collection from the Nest collection under dropdown.

Note

Searching inside a "parent" collection will not include items in collections nested inside it as potential search results. For more information, see search your vault.

Manage a collection

You may find that you need to add or remove users or groups from a collection, or delete it entirely. These can be done from the Vaults view by selecting the collection and using the  button:

Manage a collection

Users with access to the Admin Console may also do this by opening the collection from there.

Note

Deleting a collection will not delete the vault items included in it. When a collection is deleted, vault items will be moved to the  Unassigned filter, accessible from the Admin Console.

Move an item between collections

Users with access to multiple collections within your organization can move a vault item from one collection to another, or add a vault item to multiple collections. Unlike creating a collection, this can be done from any Bitwarden app:

  • Web vault

  • Browser extension

  • Mobile

  • Desktop

  • CLI

To move an item between collections:

  1. Select the  Options menu for the item to move.

  2. Select  Collections from the dropdown.

  3. Select the collection(s) to add or move the item to and select Save.

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