Sync between Mac and Windows after wifi-sync no longer works

ericvr

Hi,

I've been using Wifi sync for a while now to keep my Windows/Iphone and my Mac in sync. Unfortunately my employer made some changes on the network which prevents wifi sync from functioning with my Windows laptop. I don't want to use dropbox, so I looked at the folder sync option. This would be great for me, but I'm having one problem... I now have a windows and a mac that I used to keep in sync but now no longer are in sync. The folder sync option just creates a copy in a sync folder that I can access using windows. What I want is to sync the two vaults that I used to sync with wifi-sync.
I've looked at doing an export on windows and import that into the mac and then throw away the windows vault and (on windows) open the new vault in the sync folder. I found a major issue (at least for me) on this. When doing an export to .1pif format, all passwords and usernames are stored in plain text :# . I noticed this just before hitting the send button in my e-mail with this file attached. Not relevant to this post, but why would I want do an unencrypted export to the 1passwords own export file type (1pif), a warning would have been nice?

Can you guys tell me how I can get my two vaults (mac and windows) in sync again without using drop box or wifi sync?

Thanks and best regards,
Eric

RichardPayne

You do an unencrypted export so that you can work with the 1Password data in other applications, like a spreadsheet or csv for example. You might want to import into another password manager, for example. I agree though, a warning (permanently dismissable) would be a good idea.

As for the sync, it's actually quite simple, copy the Windows vault over to your Mac system and then folder sync it. Since the Mac version uses a local database for it's own main data store, it will effectively merge the keychain with it's internal database. That's what folder sync is. The reason that it can't be done the other way around is that Windows does not have a folder sync option.

ericvr

Hi Richard,

Thanks for the reply, I will try this, sounds like a perfect solution!

Best regards,
Eric

DBrown

@ericvr, regarding that warning, here's a snippet from the Exporting data article in the 1Password 4 for Windows user's guide:

1PIF is "better" because you can export all items types, whereas delimited text is restricted to Login items, as noted in that article.

If you're leaning toward folder sync in 1Password for Mac, note that we don't recommend putting your .agilekeychain folder for 1Password for Windows on a network share drive unless you're comfortable with possible issues with performance and data access conflicts.

RichardPayne

@DBrown while solid documentation is always a good thing to have, not everyone reads it before it's too late. The software should warn the user about potentially unsafe actions before they can make them.

DBrown

OK. A question, then: Should the UI also pop up a warning that the delimited-text export file is unencrypted?

I ask because that's exactly as much a potentially unsafe action.

RichardPayne

Yes, I think that would be reasonable. However, just to re-iterate, these messages should have a "Do not show again" checkbox on them along with an entry on the Warnings tab in Preferences. It would not be a good idea to repeatedly bug experienced users.

DBrown

Thanks for the suggestion, @ericvr and @RichardPayne.