1password on my mac, data stored in dropbox.

pixiegirl

I've searched for answers in the forum but I can't even understand half the questions and most of the answers. Not as computer savvy as I wished, I guess. I have 1Password on my mac and I must have done something but my data is now stored in Dropbox. I am not sure that Dropbox is super secure and I'm not sure I'm comfortable with my bank and investment data stored there. However when I delete the folders in Dropbox, 1 Password no longer works. I think I put the data there so I could access it from my ipad and iphone but I can't seem to do that.

I do see in preferences on 1Password I can click a button that says stop using Dropbox but I'm afraid that if I do that it will erase the info on Dropbox and then my 1 Password won't work. Worse I don't have all my passwords stored anywhere else and if those files get deleted or something I don't have access to anything. Not my bank, my money, my nothing.

So can someone walk me thru this. Is Dropbox safe, if I click the stop using Dropbox button will my 1 password still work and what happens if somehow either in dropbox or if I store that info on my computer... and my house burns down, or my dropbox is compromised how can I ever recover those passwords?? Right now I'm not sure how safe any of this is, from a theft standpoint and a loss standpoint.

Thanks for any help,

Susan

danco

If you are worried about house burning down, etc., then you do need to keep an offsite backup somewhere, I don't see that there is an alternative. Dropbox is probably the simplest solution, but you could use something like Crashplan to back up date to a computer at work or with a friend.

Even if Dropbox were compromised, your data is encrypted, and there have been plenty of discussion, blog posts,etc, about the security of the 1PW database.

Your data lives on your computer (in a folder named Dropbox, if you have opted to use Dropbox) and gets uploaded to the Dropbox web site. I'm not exactly sure what would happen if someone took over your Dropbox account and deleted or replaced your 1PW keychain.

But 1PW does keep backups, so it would be very difficult to lose all access to your data.

I think (experts may be able to say more) that if you tell 1PW to stop using Dropbox, your data just gets moved to one of two standard places in yourLibrary (two places, as Mac App Store version and AgileBits web site version store in different places).

Megan

Hi @pixiegirl,

I am so glad you are thinking strongly about the security of your data - thats what we like to see!

We are very confident about storing 1Password data in the cloud, as your data file is encrypted with an exceedingly secure encryption algorithm called AES. Even if someone were to acquire a copy of your 1Password data file, it would be extremely difficult (approaching impossible in a human lifetime) for them to actually gain access to your passwords without your Master Password. In short, we believe it is just as secure as having the data on your laptop. To learn more about cloud data security, have a read through the following article.

http://help.agilebits.com/1Password3/cloud_storage_security.html

And you can see the thoughts behind our data format's design here.

http://learn.agilebits.com/1Password4/Security/keychain-design.html

Also, you can check out our blog for many more articles that go into the nitty gritty math behind what makes 1Password so secure.

http://blog.agilebits.com/tag/cryptography_/

I do see in preferences on 1Password I can click a button that says stop using Dropbox but I'm afraid that if I do that it will erase the info on Dropbox and then my 1 Password won't work.

You can stop syncing with Dropbox at any time, and with 1Password 4 there is no worry in deleting the data in Dropbox, because your data is always stored locally in addition to the location that you sync it to.

@danco is right, 1Password does also perform frequent backups, so you always have the option to restore from a backup if something happens to your database. Just use File > Restore ... and select the most recent backup!

I hope this helps to answer your questions, but please don't hesitate to ask if you have any more - I know that the decision on how to protect your data can be a bit daunting :)