All things being equal...

Saomes

I have been reading everything that I can about the difference between 1pw 4 & 5. I have a simple question; if all thing are equal and you take out the fact the you need to repurchase 1pw5 from the app store to use iCloud sync, which is safest and fastest and most robust way to sync 1pw with all your devices (iCloud or dropbox)?

I have been very happy with the way that all my apple gear has synced via iCloud in 1pw 4 . I have several mobile devices, and three osx machines, and have never had a problem with my 1pw data base.

I want to setup 1pw 5 only once and want to make sure that I am using the safest and fastest and most robust version. I have to much critical data housed within this app, and use it so frequently that I want to use the best of the best.

Thank you for your time and consideration to my question.

hawkmoth

I used to worry about the same thing, until I finally came to grips with the fact that the cloud solution is irrelevant to the security of your data. The database is encrypted and protected by your strong master password. If the cloud service provider should be compromised, your data are still safe, provided you have actually created a strong master password. If you haven't already seen this blog post about creating strong master passwords, it's well worth the time to read.

Beyond this, the rest is about your preferences and convenience. If you are entirely within the Apple ecosystem, iCloud is great, but if you will ever need to sync to an Android or Windows device, it won't work for those. You would have to turn to Dropbox. If you are opposed to putting anything like this in the cloud, you'll have to turn to WiFi or Folder sync.

Others will likely have a different view from this, so it will be worth weighing the other opinions that likely will appear.

[Deleted User]

If you ask about iCloud vs Dropbox and security, then you should be aware of one very important fact: there are two syncing formats used by 1Password. There is the old one, agilekeychain and the new one, opvault. If you only use 1Password on Apple devices, then you can stop reading here, iCloud (in both 1Password 4 and 5) always uses the newer format. If you consider switching to Dropbox, read on.

Here is the support document about opvault (there referred to as 1Password 4 Cloud Keychain):

https://learn2.agilebits.com/1Password4/Security/keychain-design.html

Search the forum for opvault, there has been some discussion about it.

Opvault is the newer and better format. It is more secure, although I wouldn't call agilekeychain insecure. The older agilekeychain doesn't encrypt your items' titles or URLs. Opvault does. Agilekeychain uses 1 file for each item in your vault, while opvault uses a fixed number of files, making syncing faster in most (all?) cases.

So, iCloud always uses this format, but what about Dropbox? Well, Dropbox defaults to the older agilekeychain but you can use opvault with Dropbox if you already have pre-Yosemite iCloud sync set up. Follow these instructions:

https://discussions.agilebits.com/discussion/comment/120098/#Comment_120098

Opvault works with the Mac, Windows and iOS versions of 1Password. If you care about security, I would recommend using it. However, I would also repeat what @hawkmoth‌ said, use a master password that's considered strong. Opvault with a weak master password is less secure than agilekeychain with a strong master password (I simplified but you get the point).

hawkmoth

@Xe997‌ - I forgot about the distinction between the new opvault and agilekeychain. In another thread I urged the developers to move more quickly to implementing that for Dropbox users, given that AgileBits web store customers no longer have access to iCloud.

For my purposes, I've never noticed a savings in time for one sync method or the other with my database of about 325 records. Maybe it would be noticeable with a larger database.

MikeT

Hi guys,

@Xe997's post #3 hits it on the nail, either format are strong to use in the cloud as long as you use a strong master password. However, OPVault is a newer format that's built for the next decade as well as using newer encryption standards with all metadata being encrypted. We're working our butts off to get it officially switched on for both Dropbox and Folder Sync. Some users are using it in 1Password 5 for Mac via private testing at the moment and we're trying to resolve the remaining glitches before we flip the switch. There's also the Android app that needs to adopt the format as Windows, Mac, and iOS are almost ready to go.

@hawkmoth:

For my purposes, I've never noticed a savings in time for one sync method or the other with my database of about 325 records. Maybe it would be noticeable with a larger database.

It is definitely a huge improvement over initial sync and larger databases, we've been using identical sync format for iCloud over the past year in 1Password 4 for iOS and Mac. We use a 16-band structure for OPvault, meaning that no matter how many items you have, 1Password will only deal with 16 files to sync. In the previous format, each item is a file, so 325 items = 325 files. They're smaller than 16 bands but when it comes to syncing with a cloud service that have rate limits, the less files you have to sync, the better and faster it is.

benfdc

@MikeT—

Will the .agilekeychain format remain available even after you "flip the switch"? Some of us still have and use older Macs that cannot be upgraded beyond OS X Lion and therefore are stuck at 1Password 3. Also, at least as of yet there is no 1PasswordAnywhere support for OPVault.

Rad

Hi @benfdc‌,

There are no plans to drop support for the agilekeychain format, as it is still the default format for Dropbox and Folder sync in 1Password 5.

Hope that this helps :wink:

Cheers!

Rad

Saomes

Thanks everyone for your input. I have another question as I am reading things about 1PW 5 and iCloud. Am I correct that if you have more then one vault, that iCloud will only sync the main vault and that you need to setup different sync options for the other vaults?

Ben

It is correct that iCloud can only sync primary vaults currently. To sync secondary vaults you'd need Dropbox.