Can anyone explain about sync/primary/personal vault to a newbie....it's giving me a headache!

emma_uk

Signed up & downloaded 1Password trial yesterday. It's just for myself - there is no team or family nor will there be.

I downloaded the trial to my Macbook Pro, installed the app and using the browser extension added various items, I could see that these items were being saved to the only vault there was - the Primary vault - all was good.

I now want to sync to my iMac. I eventually figured out I had to create a 1Password account but when I signed in I could not see the Primary vault only an empty Personal vault.

After a few hours frustration trying to understand how this hangs together, I moved all the items from the Primary vault on the macbook to the Personal vault. When I sign in online to my account (on both the macbook & imac) I can see the items in the personal vault but now have an empty Primary vault on my macbook. I assume this is the right setup.

So next I've installed the app onto my iMac, opened it - the options are (1) To create your first vault (2) for families and teams only, sign in to your 1Password account (3) the "already have 1Password data somewhere else" option which offers icloud/dropbox/another device.

So here's where I'm going round in circles. I didn't think I needed to sync to icloud or dropbox - I thought having an account meant I don't need to sync myself. The "other devices" option just goes to a help article that says sign-in to your account.
I've signed in, I can see my passwords - but that's the online service.
How do I setup the app for use on my iMac? which option do I take? 1, 2 or 3?

And am I right to use the personal vault for everything on both machines? What do I do with the Primary vault on the Macbook? Don't understand what it was for and why I couldn't use it.

Is it true that there is a standalone version as well as a subscription version? and does this have something to do with this Primary/Personal vault setup?

I love how easy 1Password is to actually use to setup & save passwords but trying to understand the versions/account/sync thing has been extremely frustrating.

Someone/Anyone can help?? (goes off to find beer!)

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

rickfillion

Hi @emma_uk,

I'm really sorry about the confusion and frustration here. This stuff needs to be a lot clearer, and we're working to do so. Let me see if I can shed some light on all of this for you, and hopefully not add more confusion to the mix.

Up until about a year ago, there was no 1Password Teams, or Families, or 1Password.com at all. The experience of using 1Password was exactly as you got when you first started using it here: you created a new Primary vault, and things went in there. To get your vault data to sync to the iMac, you would have needed to setup syncing on the first Mac to something like iCloud, or Dropbox first.

Fast forward to now... where we have 1Password.com, which allows you to create accounts for individuals, families, and teams. One of the primary benefits of 1Password accounts is that sync is a breeze : you just sign in on a new device and you're done.

Our apps support both 1Password accounts, and the existing model (for various reasons that I won't go into here). The default, as you saw, is the existing non-account path.

So here's how I think you should move forward... I think you should stick with the 1Password.com account that you've created. This would mean doing two and a half things:

1. On the iMac, in the first run screens where we ask you where your data is, click the button to sign in to your 1Password account. It says "for Families and Teams" but what it really means is "for 1Password.com accounts". When we built 1Password for Mac 6.3, there was only Teams and Families, and no accounts for individuals. Our next release fixes up those screens. Upon signing in, you'll see your Personal vault with your items on your iMac and you'll be good there.
2. On the first Mac, you'll want to make sure that you have nothing of consequence left in your Primary vault, because we're about to jettison that.
3. Go into Preferences > Advanced, and you'll want to uncheck the checkbox near the bottom that says "Allow creation of vaults outside of 1Password accounts". Unchecking it will ask you to confirm by typing in a random code. If you happen to be on OS X 10.10, let me know because I'll need to provide you different instructions for this, there's a crash you may run into. We've fixed this in the next release.

Once that's done, both Macs should look the same : only the Personal vault from your account. Adding/modifying any items will automatically sync to the other.

You asked...

Is it true that there is a standalone version as well as a subscription version? and does this have something to do with this Primary/Personal vault setup

Yes to all of this. The existing setup we had is the "standalone" version, which comes with a non-subscription license fee and the Primary vault. Then there's the 1Password accounts has the subscription and the Personal vault.

I really hope that this clears things up. If not, please let us know and and we'll be happy to provide more information.

Hope the beer was a good one.

Rick

emma_uk

Ah I see - all sorted - much clearer now :) :)

Yeah, definitely needs some of the screens/documentation tidying up - thought I was going mad!

As I'm still on the trial, I assume when that runs out I'll be prompted to setup a subscription?

rickfillion

@emma_uk : the trial for the existing system runs a little differently than the 1Password account trial. Luckily things switch between the two automatically. I just checked, and you're on our launch special promotion which is 6 months free (another 183 days). When your trial is about to run out you'll get emailed to add a credit card to the account if you have not already so that it can start being charged accordingly.

I'm hopeful that our next release, 1Password 6.5 will make a lot of this clearer.

Cheers.

Rick

emma_uk

great - thanks :)

Drew_AG

On behalf of Rick, you're very welcome! I'm glad he was able to help clear that up. If you need anything else, be sure to let us know. Cheers! :)