iMac Pro and Master Password Onslaught

Tracy

I own an Accounting Firm and have a strong affection for amateur video and photograph. We have 1 password for teams for the accounting (mostly cloud and web apps) with 900 passwords. No way I could keep it straight for our company without 1Password!

I have my eye on a great deal on a used iMac Pro for about $1,000 under Apple's price. But iMac Pro has no fingerprint sensor that I'm used to now on my 2016 MB Pro.

Can someone explain how I could maybe setup the iMac Pro without a fingerprint sensor to maintain good security while not driving myself crazy having to enter the 1Password Master Password all the time? I seem to recall master password entry was very frustrating before I had Touch ID. I'm not sure I want to regress to entering my master password 10 times a day. But I have to maintain strong security and really want iMac Pro too so would like ideas on trading some local security concessions for a manageable 1Password without fingerprints.

Thanks for your thoughts.

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1Password Version: 7.3
Extension Version: Safari 7.3, Chrome 4.7.4.90
OS Version: Mac OS 10.14.5
Sync Type: Not Provided
Referrer: forum-search:iMac pro

Lars

@Tracy - we're glad to hear you're enjoying 1Password as part of your business! And yes, those iMac Pros are amazing, powerful machines. But you're correct, they lack a fingerprint scanner for Touch ID like your MacBook Pro (and my Air) have. It's definitely a convenience. However, your Master Password is literally the heart of the encryption provided in 1Password; you cannot replace your Master Password with Touch ID, even on devices that offer it. If Touch ID (or Face ID on compatible phones/iPads) crashes, you'll need to enter your Master Password. In fact, it's good practice to enter your Master Password on a regular basis just to make sure you still remember it, since -- if you forget it -- your data will be unrecoverable. We never have the data except in encrypted form, and we don't have either the decryption keys or the secrets with which to derive them (your Master Password and Secret Key, if you have a 1password.com membership).

I have an iMac (though not the Pro) at home as my own "main" computer, and I have to type in my Master Password whenever I use it, including for work. Yes, it's less convenient than simply scanning my finger...but it's also arguably more secure and it helps strengthen my memory. I'd recommend looking into changing some of the settings in Preferences > Security to suit your liking. While you can't completely eliminate the need to enter your Master Password, you can set the timeouts for when you'll be required to re-enter it, as well as some other parameters such as whether to lock on sleep, etc. Hope this helps! :)

Tracy

Thanks for the comments. I don't know why, but your input was needed to remind me I can use the settings in 1Password Security Preference to cause my MB Pro to mimic how a iMac Pro will work. So I can test it and see if I can get the login requests to something tolerable but very safe.

It's also enlightening how privileged I've become with the MB Pro with it's T1 security chip. My employees don't all have Macs and they manage with 1Password just fine. The Touch Bar just makes master password entry usually a no thought thing even if you have 1Password lock after something like every idle five minutes. iMac Pro would also make Apple Pay and iTunes (soon to be replaced with Music and TV apps ) a little harder than what I've become accustomed too. But yeah, I can test all this on MB Pro before I buy to see if I value MB Pro Touch ID more than the iMac Pro features.

ag_ana

Hi @Tracy,

Thank you for sharing your thoughts! I think that the security settings in 1Password could really help you configure auto lock so it works well for you on a desktop computer as well. Touch ID cannot be beaten when it comes to convenience for sure, but please do let us know how tweaking those settings worked for you :)