I need to purchase for 5 employees for my business and need to sync using iCloud

bozo_256

I need to purchase for 5 employees for my business. I don't want to set them up with Dropbox so I would like to use iCloud for syncing with iOS devices. Do I need to buy the Mac version from the Mac App store to use iCloud syncing or can I buy a volume license direct from Agile?

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1Password Version: latest
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: Not Provided
Sync Type: iCloud

AGAlumB

@bozo_256: Apple does not offer a means of sharing data between iCloud accounts, so unless everyone in your business is sharing a single Apple ID for iCloud, that won't work.

Dropbox also has the advantage that it can be used to share vaultsThe 1Password for Mac User Guide can get you started if you'd like to sync with Dropbox. This would also allow you to use the AgileBits Store version of 1Password, which can be purchased in bulk.

Otherwise, if iCloud is a viable option for your situation, you will need to purchase 1Password from the Mac App Store, as Apple does not allow apps outside of it to use iCloud. I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions! :)

bozo_256

I should have clarified: I don't need sharing of passwords among the employees, so each employee will only have access to their own passwords. I have used 1Password on Dropbox myself for many years and I know it well.

I am interested in deploying 1Password for the employees in my company. The challenge is that we need to maintain a tightly locked down network such that employees cannot share data outside of the company using services such as Dropbox or iCloud. I have everything configured this way now and it is making the possibility of syncing 1Password data to two iPad users difficult. The Macs are configured to not allow copying data onto flash drives or external devices of any kind, including burning CD or DVD media. Basically we have a total lock down of everything on the network so it can't be copied and taken out of the business.

I would like to run 1Password on the employee Macs, that part is easy. I am in the process of deploying iPads to two specific employees and I would like to set the iPads up with 1Password so each iPad user will have their passwords on the iPads as well. The Macs and iPads will never leave the building. I do not want to use Dropbox for this because I don't want employees to be able to share files or have access to data outside of the company. I don't believe Wi-Fi 1Password synching is an option because the two employees that will be using iPads don't always use the same Mac workstation. This is because employees have to move around the building to different departments depending on the needs of the particular day so no one has a dedicated Mac workstation.

Currently each employee has a "Private" folder on our local server that only they have access to. The only option I believe I have is to configure each Mac user account to store the 1Password data in each respective users private server folder. This should allow the roaming users to always have access to their 1Password data on the Macs.

Since my first post with this question I have come to the conclusion iCloud Drive sharing is not an option for the same concerns as those centered around Dropbox.

I am drawing the conclusion I may not be able to incorporate 1Password data syncing to the iPad users due to our need to keep our network locked down such that employees can't share data outside of the company. Any suggestions?

Thank you.

hawkmoth

@bozo_256 - Would Folder Sync work for those two employees? They'd only be able to synchronize manually, but they should be able to use those private folders you referred to. I do know that using network assignable drives isn't recommended because 1Password gets confused when it can find the drive if it's uncounted.

Caution though. I haven't used Folder Sync myself, so I may not thoroughly understand how it works. I'm mainly providing this pointer for your consideration. I'm sure experts will chime in if you think this is at all appealing.

littlebobbytables

Hi @bozo_256,

I suspect a lot will hinge on how you do hot-desks. If you've configured your OS X user accounts so they're network users with their home directory stored on a server then 1Password should be able to exist in this environment. What I suspect won't work well is if you need to use a symlink to point the normal location for 1Password's support files to a specific user's private folder. Under 1Password 3 for Mac this might have worked as your vault was the 1Password.agilekeychain and you could move the location of it. In 1Password 4/5 though the locally stored vault is in your Library folder, it isn't configurable and the .agilekeychain is now just for syncing.

Let's say your OS X accounts are set up as network users though to allow hot-desking. Wi-Fi Sync may work for the two users with iPads as the machine itself doesn't need to have Wi-Fi, it merely needs to be able to communicate with the iPad using Bonjour which means the same subnet. Now if your Wi-Fi is separated from the rest of the network then that would eliminate Wi-Fi as an option too.

It might be 1Password doesn't meet all of your needs, I believe if we can learn a little more about your network we could at least say either way if this is the case. If you've decided iCloud isn't a feasible route you can at least test 1Password out using Wi-Fi with the 30 day trial for the Mac version and the fact that you can download 1Password for iOS for free and see if it works. That way even if it doesn't you haven't lost anything in terms of software outlay.

AGAlumB

@bozo_256: Thanks for clarifying! It certainly sounds like you have worked out how you want things to be set up and have a good idea of your needs. While hawkmoth and lil bobby made some great points, ultimately 1Password might not be the best fit here.

However, I do have one final suggestion for a solution, and you can determine if it fits into your schema as you've defined it:

1. Run your own (unsupported) sync service — Part of the benefit of using something like Dropbox or iCloud is that you have large, well-established companies backing (and supporting) the service. But nothing is stopping you from running your own in-house. You could even use something like ChronoSync. Ultimately 1Password just needs a local folder to write to using Folder Sync on each Mac (not a network mount), but after that you can use whatever tool you like to sync the data between Macs.
2. Establish a designated Mac as The Wi-Fi Sync Server — Since Wi-Fi Sync works by 'pairing' a single computer (server) with one or more iOS devices (clients), if you can establish a single Mac for this purpose to serve as the conduit for syncing 1Password data with your employees' iOS devices as needed. And if, for the most part, they just need to have the 1Password data available on iOS devices (with only occasional changes) this shouldn't be too onerous.
3. That's it!

Let me know what you think. :)