What is the best way to sync between two Macs?
Sorry for the juvenile question. But really... I've read the documentation about the different syncing methods and I don't seem to find any of them working for me. I just want to sync the data between two Macs (laptop and desktop). I do not want to use any cloud syncing methods (including Google Drive, Dropbox, etc) and I'm not using the mobile version so don't care for syncing to those devices.
Being new to v5, first I thought Wi-Fi syncing is the best to go, but that seems to be a solution only between Macs and iOS devices (BUMMER!), so that's no good. Folder syncing... well, that doesn't seem to be syncing to the "other" Mac. That seems to be only syncing to a local folder.
It seems there are two option left:
1. I export the data to a file (File > Export) and AirDrop it to my other Mac, where I will import it.
2. I create a backup and AirDrop that backup file to the other Mac, where I import the backup file.
Which one is a better solution? Exporting and using the exported file, or doing a backup and reimporting the backup? Is there maybe another/better way?
The PW MGR I am using in the past year or so has an issue when exporting/importing the data file. I cannot import the file unless I delete all entries from the app. Otherwise, when the data is being merged, some sort of corruption will occur. Is there any such issue with 1PW?
Thanks.
1Password Version: 5.3.2
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: 10.10.5
Sync Type: none
Referrer: forum-search:disable automatic backup
Comments
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Hi @pentool,
I'm sorry you've had difficulty figuring out a good way to sync your 1Password data between two Macs!
As you already know, Wi-Fi sync won't work between two Macs (it was designed to work between one Mac and one or more iOS devices). You also said you don't want to use one of the cloud sync options (like Dropbox). The two methods you asked about (export/import and backup/restore) would work, but those would be more of a manual process, and they aren't really what I would call "sync" options. There are a couple other options which I think would be better/easier for you than using backup/restore or export/import.
One option is to use the Folder sync option to point to a sync file stored on a USB stick or other removable drive. 1Password can detect when that drive is connected to the Mac, and will sync with it. You would just need to remember to connect the drive to a Mac when you want to sync.
If you happen to have a network volume (like a Time Capsule or other NAS), another option would be to configure Folder sync to point to a local folder on one Mac, and then use a tool such as rsync (or another file copy tool) to copy the contents of the folder to/from the network volume. Then, on the other Mac, use the same tool to copy the files back out of the NAS and into 1Password's local sync folder.
You can find some more information about those options in our Folder sync guide. Settings things up with a NAS and file copy tool takes a little extra work to set up, but syncing to a USB drive is pretty simple and straightforward.
Hopefully this helps, but if you have more questions about that, please let us know! :)
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Thanks for the helpful info, Drew! It seems the 'manual sync' option will work for me.
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"One option is to use the Folder sync option to point to a sync file stored on a USB stick or other removable drive. 1Password can detect when that drive is connected to the Mac, and will sync with it."
I was playing around with Folder Sync. It's actually very neat - with one caveat. As you mentioned above, "...1PW can detect when that drive is connected to the Mac, and will sync with it". That might be the case with external drives. But I'm sure I'm not the only one who has a desktop at home and a laptop at work (or you take our laptop daily back and forth between work and home...whatever...) and don't want to keep carrying an extra USB flash drive just for syncing purposes.
So the issue seems to be, when I'm syncing to a shared folder over a network, is that I keep getting a warning dialog that the network volume is not available. And every time I click "OK" to dismiss the dialog, it just pops right back. This can get annoying quite fast. So this is what I've done as my workflow:
- Create a sync folder on the desktop machine at home. This will work great in itself.
- In the System Prefs, enable File Sharing on the desktop and make sure this folder is shared.
- On the laptop, connect to this server (Finder > Go > Connect to Server) and connect to the desktop Mac
- On the laptop (in 1Password), enable Folder Sync, and sync to the shared folder on the desktop Mac. This works great. As soon as I add an entry on the desktop Mac, it will be immediately synced to the laptop - and vice versa. And now, here comes the issue....
- Quit 1PW on the laptop and also disconnect from the server (your desktop).
- Let's assume now you are at work, and open 1PW trying to add a new entry (or just look at an existing one). Now you will start getting the annoying "server not available" popups (since you are syncing to a folder on a network that is not available). You can click "OK" to dismiss the dialog, but it just pops right back.
To remedy this situation this is what you have to do. Once you setup folder syncing on both machines at home (steps 1-4 above), before quitting 1PW on the laptop...
- Disable folder syncing and choose to keep the data.
- Quit 1PW on the laptop.
- Disconnect from the server (your desktop)
- Now when you open 1PW on the laptop, it won't complain about the shared server, since folder syncing is now disabled.
- So let's say now you are at work with your laptop and open 1PW and add a new entry to it. Now you have a new entry and you'd like to sync it to your desktop at home, so after you arrived home...
- Connect to the server (your desktop)
- Open 1PW and setup folder syncing to your shared folder on the desktop machine
- Ta-Da! Now the data is synced.
You can see that the constant popping up of the "Server not available" dialog, you have to go through all this complicated hoops (e.g. enable/disable folder syncing on the laptop every time you want to use it).
It would be nice if 1PW could just sense that there's no server connected (that you are syncing to), warn maybe once, and that's it. No further warnings needed.
There could be a "Try to Connect Again" or something rather button ... whatever works ... just so you could leave the remotely synced folder in the preferences, and you wouldn't have to keep removing and adding it every time you want to sync.
Hope all this gibberish makes sense and sorry for the lengthy explanation.
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Hi @pentool,
The behaviour with network shares is incredibly annoying and it's why I never recommend it and always suggest the route of the pen drive. We've discussed this with the devs and what their investigations found was that OS X reports back with better information for removable drives than it does network shares. For starters OS X is notified when something is physically removed but with network shares things have to time out. While I haven't used it for a while, I used to see the same issue with ChronoSync where I had several documents and each had to time out as they failed one by one to connect to the same share. Of course it isn't helped by the fact that all the other forms of sync can assume the files are there - both Dropbox and iCloud maintain a copy on the drive so it is always accessible.
Maybe at some point in the future we can improve on this but I don't want to create any false hope by suggesting it would be in the next version. For all these reasons I suggest the pen/flash drive as while it might seem a bit old school it works and also minimises conflicts.
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Ok, thanks for the feedback littlebobbytables!
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On behalf of littlebobbytables, you're very welcome. Have a great weekend! :)
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