Join a family
To join a family you need its name and invite code from someone in it, or an emailed invitation with
a Join the family button. Without a plan of your own you can join while the family has a free seat,
and with Plus or Premium of your own, while it has fewer than 6 people
To join with the name and code you need a Vauz account first.
If you don't have one, see the How to Create a Vauz Account guide. An emailed invitation sets one up for you
A seat is a place on the family's plan. See Family Seats and Guardians
Join with the family name and invite code
Step 1: Get the family's name and invite code
Anyone in the family can pass them on. If they press Copy invitation on their dashboard and paste it
to you, it looks like this:
Hey! Come join my Vauz family 🏡 Family name: Smith · Invite code: AE9WPE
Here the family name is Smith and the invite code is AE9WPE. An emailed invitation shows them too,
in its Family and Code boxes
Step 2: Sign In to Your Vauz Account in a Web Browser
Visit https://vauz.sealzi.com/enter/ (opens in a new tab) and press Sign in with a passkey. There is no email field and no password field — your device asks for your fingerprint, face or PIN instead. See Signing in with a passkey if you have not done this before
Step 3: Go to the Family card
Scroll down your dashboard to the Family card, or press Family (the heart) in the menu. It says
"You're not in a family yet"
The video shows an earlier version of the page, so some of its words differ from what you see now
Step 4: Press Join Existing Family
The video shows an earlier version of the page, so some of its words differ from what you see now
Step 5: Type the code and the name
In Family Code, type the 6 letters or numbers: capitals or small letters both work. In Family
Name, type the name exactly as you were given it, capitals included (the box says Case sensitive).
For the invitation above, that is AE9WPE and Smith
Step 6: Press Join Family
The dashboard says "Welcome to the family 🎉", and your Family card shows the family
The video shows an earlier version of the page, so some of its words differ from what you see now
Already paying for Plus or Premium yourself? Joining a family does not stop your payments. See Do two of us need to pay?
Joining from an emailed invitation
If the owner or a guardian emailed you an invitation, it is titled You're invited to a family on
vauz.sealzi.com. It names who invited you and the family, shows the family's name and code, and has
a Join the family button. Press the button. It works once, for 24 hours, and only for the
address it was sent to. It also stops working if the family changes its invite code or is closed
A box names the family — "You're invited to the “Smith” family on vauz.sealzi.com" — and asks you to
press Continue. While it checks the invitation, the button says Checking your invitation…. It does
not show the address the invitation was sent to. (Already signed in on that
browser? You go straight to your dashboard and join.) Then:
- You already have an account: a box says "You already have an account 🙌" and "Sign in to join
“Smith”". Press
Sign in with a passkey, and you join as soon as you are in - You don't have an account yet, or never finished setting one up: a box opens to create one for
the invited address. Tick "I am 14 or older, and I agree to the Terms of Service" (a Vauz account
is for people 14 or older), press
Add a passkeyand approve your device's prompt. It says "Passkey ready 🔑 Signing you in…". Approve the second prompt, and you are signed in and in the family
When you join, the dashboard says "Welcome to the family 🎉"
An invitation that has expired, been replaced or already been used is refused as soon as it opens, in a box titled That link no longer works (signed in, it is said on your dashboard instead). The table below says what each message means
If the page can't check the invitation at all, for example because your internet connection dropped,
it doesn't say the link no longer works. A box titled Couldn't reach us 😕 says "Your link couldn't
be checked just now. Check your internet connection, then press Try again". Or a box titled
Couldn't check your link opens, for example with "Whoa, that's a lot of tries 🐢 Take a few minutes
and try again". Press Try again: it checks the same invitation again, without going back to the
email
Once you have pressed Add a passkey in the box to create your account, you have an hour to finish. If
you press it again after that, the box closes, and the sign-in page says "This setup waited too long ⏳
Type your email address in the box above and press Email me a link to finish". Your account is there,
but it has no passkey yet. Type the invited address and press Email me a link, finish from the Finish setting
up your vauz.sealzi.com account email, then press Join the family in the invitation again, or join
with the family's name and code. See Never finished signing up
Lost your passkey?
Think twice before pressing Lost your passkey? in that box. A passkey added from a lost-passkey
email link cannot join a family for its first 24 hours (a safety pause),
and the invitation lasts only 24 hours, so it would run out first
Instead:
- If you have a passkey on another device, your phone for example, sign in with that one. The pause does not apply to a passkey you had before
- If you have no other passkey, get back in with
Lost your passkey?(see Lost your passkey). Once 24 hours have passed since you added the new passkey, join with the name and code from the invitation's Family and Code boxes, usingJoin Existing Familyas above — that works as long as the family has not changed its code. Or ask whoever invited you for a fresh invitation
You can only be in one family
Join Existing Family only shows while you are not in a family, and an emailed invitation never moves
you out of one: it asks you to leave first
If your page is out of date (say you joined a family in another window) and you join by name and code from it while you are in a family you don't run, you are moved into the new family straight away, without being asked. The family you were in loses you. If you were the one paying for its plan, it moves to the best plan anyone left there pays for, or to Free
If joining doesn't work
After a refusal the Join Family box closes by itself a few seconds later, except for the messages
about a full family and open seats. Press Join Existing Family to open it again
| Message | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| "Need both the family name and the invite code 🧩" | One of the boxes was empty | Fill in both, then press Join Family again |
| "No family matches that name and code 🧐 Double-check both (the name is case-sensitive)" | The name or the code does not match. The name has to be exact, capitals included. The code may also have changed: it changes when someone is removed, or when the owner or a guardian makes a new one | Check both against what you were sent. If they match, ask someone in the family for the current code |
| "This family is full 🏠 6 is the most any family can hold" | The family already has 6 people | Someone has to leave before you can join. Support can't add more |
| "This family has no open seats 🛋️ Joining it needs Plus (up to 4) or Premium (up to 6)" | You have no plan of your own, and every seat on the family's plan is taken, or the family is on Free and has none | Get Plus or Premium of your own and join with it (see Manage your plan), or wait until a seat comes free |
| "You run a family of your own 👑 Close it first (Close family on the Family card), then join this one" | You are the owner of another family, and an owner cannot move to a different one | Close your family first, then join. Everyone in it leaves it when you do |
| "You're already in another family 🙂 Leave it first, then press Join in the invite again" | An emailed invitation never moves you out of the family you are in | Press Leave family on your Family card (see Leave a family), then press Join the family in the invitation again |
| "You're already in this family 🙂" | You pressed Join Family or an invitation's Join the family for the family you are already in | Nothing to do |
| "This invite was sent to a different email address 🤔 Sign in with the account it was sent to" | You are signed in to an account with another address, and an invitation only joins the account it was sent to | Sign out, press Join the family again and sign in with the account for that address. Or join with the family's name and code, which work for any account |
| "That invite has expired or been replaced ⏳ Ask whoever invited you to send a fresh one" | The invitation is more than 24 hours old, or the family has changed its invite code or been closed since it was sent | Ask for a fresh invitation, or for the family's current name and code |
| A box titled "Couldn't reach us 😕", saying "Your link couldn't be checked just now. Check your internet connection, then press Try again" | The page couldn't reach us to check the invitation. The invitation may well be fine | Check your internet connection, then press Try again |
| A box titled "Couldn't check your link" | We couldn't check the invitation just then, for example after too many tries | Wait a moment, or as long as the box asks, then press Try again |
| "This setup waited too long ⏳ Type your email address in the box above and press Email me a link to finish" | More than an hour passed between your first press of Add a passkey and the last one, so the box closed. Your account exists, still without a passkey | Type the invited address and press Email me a link, then finish from the email. See Never finished signing up |
| "Your account is set up already 🙌 Sign in with your passkey", with a box titled "You already have an account 🙌" and "Sign in to join “Smith”" | Setting up your account, your passkey was made already, perhaps from another link, or the answer never reached the page | Press Sign in with a passkey, and you join as soon as you are in |
| "Couldn't reach us 😕 Check your internet connection, then press Add a passkey again" | Setting up your account, the page couldn't reach us | Check your connection, then press Add a passkey again |
| "This invite has already been used 🙂 If you joined with it, your family is on your dashboard" or "This invite has already been used 🙂 Ask whoever invited you for a fresh one if you need it" | Someone has already joined with this invitation. Each one works only once | If it was you, you are in. If not, ask for a fresh one |
| "This invite already set up an account 🙂 Sign in to join, or choose “Email me a link” if you never finished" | The invitation has already been used to set up your account, perhaps in another window | Sign in with your passkey. If you never added one, press Lost your passkey, or never finished signing up? on the sign-in page, then Email me a link (see Finish signing up). Then press Join the family in the invitation again |
| "Couldn't reach us 😕 Press Continue again in a moment" | The page could not reach us when you pressed Continue | Press Continue again |
| "Something went wrong 😬 Try the invitation again" | Something unexpected went wrong | Press Join the family in the invitation again |
| "Whoa, that's a lot of tries 🐢 Take a few minutes and try again" | Joining is limited to 10 tries in 15 minutes for each account, right or wrong, and many tries from one internet connection are limited too | Wait a few minutes. The wait starts at a minute, and gets longer if you keep trying, up to an hour |
| "That family's busy right now 🐝 Try again in a moment" | Someone else was changing the family at the same moment | Try again |
| "Couldn't join the family. Give it another go in a moment 🤞" or "Couldn't join the family. Press Join in the invite again in a moment 🤞" | Something went wrong on our side, or the connection dropped | Try again in a minute |
| "Couldn't join that family 🧐 Double-check the name and the invite code" | Despite the wording, the page could not reach us, so the name and code may well be right | Check your connection and try again |
| "This browser doesn't do passkeys 😕 Open the invitation in a current Chrome, Safari or Firefox" | This browser cannot sign you in | Open the invitation in a current Chrome, Safari or Firefox |
| "Safety pause 🛡️ You signed in with a passkey added from a recovery link, so joining a family is paused for another 23 hours and 5 minutes. Sign in with the original passkey, or come back then" | You are signed in with a passkey you added from a lost-passkey email link less than 24 hours ago. It says how much of the wait is left | See Lost your passkey? above |
| "Safety pause 🛡️ Joining a family needs a fresh sign-in first. Sign out, then sign in with your passkey and try again" | The page couldn't tell which passkey you signed in with | Sign out, sign in again and try once more. See the safety pause |