Why isn't Sync'ing between Macs over WLAN as easy as it is on iOS
Why is it so convoluted to sync vaults amongst Macs over WLAN when its trivial to do so over iOS? My iOS device can see all the Mac to choose to sync from, but from a Mac I have to sync over a network file share and then ensure that that Mac is syncing to the local drive. Lots of failure modes and when you have 4 Macs as I do (2 for work, 2 for personal) its a frustrating sink of time on something that should be simple.
1Password Version: 6.3.2
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: 10.11.6
Sync Type: WLAN
Comments
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@leisurehound: I'm sorry for the confusion and frustration! 1Password's WLAN Server feature uses a client/server model for syncing. This is actually rather similar to Dropbox and iCloud, but in this case your Mac is the sync server. Just like you wouldn't want multiple cloud servers arguing over who has the "correct" data set and mangling your data, 1Password is meant to sync between a single WLAN Server and one or more mobile devices. We may be able to add "client" support to the desktop apps in the future, but for now they only have "server" logic. But it's asking a lot for an app to negotiate all of this the way a dedicated server does, so it isn't something we'll do unless we can do it well and also make it user-friendly.
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As a user I'm disappointed by your response. Its really not 'asking a lot' to have common functionally across platforms from the same product. It seems that the WLAN sync is a wholly neglected feature for those who don't want to use cloud solutions. Different cloud or mac's don't have to 'argue' over who's data is correct if transaction logging is implemented (it appears you already keep history of passwords created for each item with timestamp order, why couldn't the sync on either side merge the records by timestamp now that 99.9% of all macs/phones are using internet time).
It feels like you're punting on the feature because of something other than technical reasons, IMO. If you wanted to make it work, you could and it could be user friendly but every support question about WLAN syncing is always responded to drawing a conclusion that its the neglected step child. Disappointing, to say the least.
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@leisurehound: I'm sorry that you found my honest response to be disappointing. I just don't think anything else is particularly helpful. I know it isn't the answer you want, but this is the WLAN Server feature we have. It's possible that we will design a new one in the future, but that isn't something I can promise you right now.
And you're right: we could almost certainly make WLAN Server work the way you want it to. But frankly, WLAN Server has never been particularly popular, and we need to put our resources into things that bring the most benefit to the greatest number of people. Doing one thing means not doing another, after all. This is something we're constantly evaluating though, so the balance may shift down the road, due in large part to folks like you who are passionate about this feature. Thanks for letting us know this is important to you! :blush:
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This has now regressed making it even more annoying and difficult to sync password values across Macs when not using iCloud or DropBox (via WLAN). Previously, you could sync the value across the network shares via AFP, get the sync done, and then turn off syncing and go off network. Got the job done but obviously more work than necessary, as described above.
But now, when I turn off the network sync and go off network, at 1password launch I get repeated alerts that the network share is no longer available (duh, I turned it off). While these repeated dismissals are annoying, in the end I can get through it after every unlock.
But when I go into preferences to turn syncing from off to local folder to make it stop, I get an infinite loop of connectivity alerts that require dismissing that can only be terminated by logging off and back in (or reboot). Even force quitting 1password won't stop the network issues.
Please please make syncing across WLAN easy and just work, you know, like most products on OSX.
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Hi @leisurehound,
Thank you for your feedback about the WLAN Server feature! Although I can't make any promises about if/when we might add 'client' support to 1Password for Mac in the future, I can certainly send your request & feedback to our developers to let them know.
As for the problem you're experiencing, we'll be happy to help you solve that:
...when I turn off the network sync and go off network, at 1password launch I get repeated alerts that the network share is no longer available...
That's very strange, because (as you said) you already disabled the Folder sync option in 1Password. If you changed the sync setting from Folder to None, 1Password shouldn't be trying to connect to / sync with that network share at all.
Are you certain you had manually changed the sync setting to None? The error message you described is something you would normally see if the network share became unavailable while Folder sync was still enabled (and pointing directly to the network share). Is it possible that's what happened? If so, that would explain why the sync setting now shows None but gives more errors when you try to change it. (My understanding is that there's no Apple API to notify 1Password when a network drive is no longer available, so that causes problems for 1Password when it tries to sync to that location but can't find it.)
Alternately, do you happen to have multiple vaults in 1Password? If so, is it possible Folder sync is still enabled for one of the other vaults? Each local vault has its own sync settings, so if you changed one vault to None but another vault is still trying to sync to a network share it can't find, that might also explain the problem.
...when I go into preferences to turn syncing from off to local folder to make it stop, I get an infinite loop of connectivity alerts that require dismissing that can only be terminated by logging off and back in (or reboot).
If/when you get stuck in a loop like that, there's a workaround which might be easier for you:
- Open 1Password and go to File > Backup from the menu.
- In the Backup preferences window, select the new backup you just created and click the Restore button (follow the steps to complete the restore).
Restoring from a backup doesn't restore your sync settings, so 1Password will no longer try to connect to the network share. It's not ideal to have to do this of course, but it might be better than having to reboot your Mac.
Because pointing Folder sync directly to the network share can cause problems, we recommend setting it up to point to a local folder on each Mac, and then have a sync utility / file copy tool (such as Chronosync, rsync, SuperDuper, etc) to copy the contents of the folder to/from the network share. 1Password would still be able to write to the local sync file on the Mac even when the network share isn't available, so aside from the initial setup, that would be an easier sync solution.
Hopefully we can make improvements to WLAN Server in the future, but for now, I hope these suggestions help. Cheers! :)
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"Are you certain you had manually changed the sync setting to None? "
Yes, the preferences pane for sync shows none, but the errors still arise. This is a recent regression from an update (not sure which, perhaps a week or so ago but unclear when I actually installed it across all my machines. I can readily reproduce this by setting up WLAN sync to a folder over AFP, sync to the file on the network, turn off folder sync, close preferences, close 1Password, turn off wifi, restart 1Password, get network share not accessible modal message box. Note I'm on El Capitan 10.11.x, not Sierra yet.
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@leisurehound: I think the confusion here may be caused by conflating two very different things: Folder Sync and WLAN Server. These are two very different, separate features, and we haven't made changes to either recently.
While you keep referencing WLAN Server (which works between a single computer and one or more mobile devices), from your description it sounds like you're actually using Folder Sync with a network share. macOS networking uses AFP, but it's been deprecated by Apple. 1Password does not use AFP at all; it simple writes the data to a location you specify and macOS handles the networking. It reads and writes data when it needs to, and if the location is unavailable at that time, macOS will report the error. And, as noted, only local drives are supported for this reason:
However, are you also getting WLAN Server sync errors on your Mac or iOS devices? It may be that this is enabled in 1Password Preferences > WLAN Server. Definitely something to check since that's entirely separate from the Sync preferences.
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