Just passing along the frustrations of a 2 year customer

Greg_C

Hello,

I have been a customer for 2 years and I just want to pass on the frustrations that are pushing me to search for an alternative solution and negative reviewing your product, which at one time I was absolutely in love with.

The ability to sync my password data with my android phone has been impossible for over a year now. I keep watching for updates to your software hoping the issue will eventually be resolved, but today I have given up and accepted defeat. After searching your knowledge base, watching youtube videos, reading blogs and message boards I have come to a conclusion.

WLan server simply refuses to work for me, and direction for this feature are spotty at best. I noticed that you are removing this feature in future versions, which I assume is to put more pressure on your customer to subscribe to your member services to regain the ability to sync to mobile devices. I am a google drive user, but your devs have said repeatedly "not now, and possibly never" when discussing google drive. I do not want to be pushed into installing and setting up another cloud storage service simply to make up for the shortcomings of your software. I feel like you are bullying me into using your partner software or to subscribe to a new member account. In other words, you need more money to enable your software to sync across multiple devices in a world where multiple devices is a standard way of life.

I feel as though you have neglected me as a customer, and now it is time for me to neglect you. I have not found an alternative solution yet, but I am now looking. In my line of work, this is a topic of discussion quite frequently with my clients and I feel that I can no longer recommend your software as a solution.

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1Password Version: 4.6.1.619
Extension Version: 4.6.3.90
OS Version: 6.2.9200
Sync Type: Not Provided

AGAlumB

@Greg_C: First off, thank you for (finally) reaching out! I'm bit disappointed that you've waited so long (over a year?) to get in touch with us since you've been having trouble. Unfortunately there isn't a one-size-fits-all solution to WLAN Server woes that we can give you in an update because it depends heavily on your network environment, and we can only help folks on an individual basis who ask for it. So while I can sympathize with why you might feel that way, I have a hard time feeling like we've "bullied" or "neglected" you given that we had no way of knowing you were out there suffering until today. In that spirit, can you provide some more information about where you've been running into trouble? We'll be glad to help!

Greg_C

I work for a software company and would have reached out had I not seen others reporting the same frustrations and problems. Once I confirmed that the issue had already been reported to your team, I saw no reason to add to the thread just to make more noise.

I would be excited to resolve the issues I am having with WLan, but that would only be a temporary solution since you are removing it from future builds of the software. Once you remove the feature, I will be left with the scenario I mentioned above. Move to a different cloud storage solution that I do not want to use, or subscribe to your member services. Paying an ongoing subscription fee to gain access to one of the most basic needs of this software is no go for me. I would have been more open to the idea had I not felt that you are forcing people down this path. It comes of as greed which has never been a business model that I have supported. It isnt any more ethical that adding in app purchases to your software and charging 0.99 per sync.

As for my current woes, here are my steps to reproduce

1. Open 1Password on my windows 10 desktop
2. Enter master password to unlock/decrypt the vault
3. Navigate to File>WLan Sync..
4. Observe Idle status with secret code
5. Open 1Password on my android phone
6. choose settings>sync
7. WLan is enabled
8. This screen appears to do nothing. There are no computer names or devices listed and nothing to interact with. All that I can do is enable or disable WLan with the toggle.

My desktop is connected directly to my ASUS AC1900 Router through a lan connection
My android is connected to the wireless network which is broadcast by the same router

AGAlumB

I work for a software company and would have reached out had I not seen others reporting the same frustrations and problems. Once I confirmed that the issue had already been reported to your team, I saw no reason to add to the thread just to make more noise.

@Greg_C: While I've certainly had experiences with other companies that made me feel like I was just a bother to them, I'm sincerely sorry if we've said or done anything that's given you the impression that we feel like you or any of the rest of our awesome customers are just noise to us. We love hearing from you, even though it's often not under happy circumstances -- when things are going well, most folks have better things to do than chat with a software company. ;)

I would be excited to resolve the issues I am having with WLan, but that would only be a temporary solution since you are removing it from future builds of the software. Once you remove the feature, I will be left with the scenario I mentioned above. Move to a different cloud storage solution that I do not want to use, or subscribe to your member services.

I'm sorry for the confusion there. That's our fault, for having multiple Windows apps. We don't have any plans to remove features from the standalone version. You'll be able to continue using it for as long as you wish with your current setup. But we definitely need to get the sync issue sorted out for you first for that to seem worthwhile!

Paying an ongoing subscription fee to gain access to one of the most basic needs of this software is no go for me. I would have been more open to the idea had I not felt that you are forcing people down this path. It comes of as greed which has never been a business model that I have supported. It isnt any more ethical that adding in app purchases to your software and charging 0.99 per sync.

I think it's a bit unfair to characterize charging for a product or service that provides a value to people as "greed". Now, you may not personally see a value in 1Password.com and that's fine. We're only asking the people who use it to pay for it, and if you don't need to want it because you prefer what you've already got, that seems pretty reasonable to me. We just need to help you get that sorted out. :)

As for my current woes, here are my steps to reproduce

Thanks for laying that out for me. It sounds like you're on the right track, but 1Password for Android isn't able to see 1Password for Windows on your network for some reason. There are a number of things that can prevent communications between the two, but there are a few main things to check:

1. Do you have Bonjour installed on your PC? 1Password for Windows should prompt you to install this if it is not present, but if you're not seeing it in your installed Programs & Features / Add & Remove Programs, there may be a bug in 1Password which is causing it to not offer this to you. Without Bonjour, 1Password won't be discoverable on your network in order to connect in the first place.
2. Do you have firewall, proxy, VPN, or other "security" software on either device which may be interfering with communications between 1Password client and server? Often it's as simple as setting an exception for 1Password to allow it to work. I've had Windows and other software updates make changes to a working setup in the past without my knowledge, so it never hurts to doublecheck.
3. Do you have similar hardware restrictions (router, network interface, etc.)? If we can allow your devices to "see" each other, you should be home free.

Just keep in mind that WLAN Server doesn't sync automatically. It sounds like you did the right thing on the PC by opening the server there in 1Password, but on Android you'll need to tap the name of the computer (once it's able to be found), enter the secret code shown in 1Password for Windows, and then tap Start Sync. If you're still having trouble, the best thing to do will be to restart the router and both devices, reproduce the same issue, and then generate a diagnostic report immediately so we can look at the logs to determine exactly what is happening:

Sending Diagnostics Reports (Windows)

Sending Diagnostics Reports (Android)

Please send it to support+forums@agilebits.com with a link to this discussion and your username in the email so we can 'connect the dots'. Also, knowing your timezone and the date/time of the incident will help us find it in the logs. Just post the Support ID you receive here and we'll take a look. Thanks for giving us the chance to help! :chuffed:

Greg_C

Brenty,

Thank you for clearing up the issue of there being multiple windows clients. I did not realize that the desktop software would continue to offer WLan support, which makes all of my negative comments about greed and being bullied untrue. You have been really professional while dealing with my negative attitude and it isn't lost on me. Knowing that you will not be removing WLan from the software has changed my perception.

I tried all of the steps in the document you linked and verified the points you mentioned in your post. I still can not get my desktop computer to show up in 1Password for Android when I go to the sync section. Below are the steps I have tried so far.

Disabled windows firewall for private networks
Disabled Avast Antivirus software
Verified Bonjour is installed and visible in my running task list
Restarted all devices

My desktop connects to the router via Lan Port
Android connects via wifi
Desktop has a static IP Address on the Lan

I did notice that when I clicked advanced in the android app, it pops up a free trial has expired message and wants to take me to a store page. Is there an android client that I need to pay for before this will work?

AGAlumB

@Greg_C: Thank you for the kind words. Hopefully we can get to the bottom of this and then we'll both have reason to celebrate. I appreciate your patience and willingness to work with me on this! Honestly, at this point though, if you've exhausted all of the suggestions in the troubleshooting guide (it is pretty exhaust ive, if I do say so myself!) we're really going to be grasping at straws without more detailed information. Could you send the diagnostics as I suggested in my last reply? That should give us a better idea of exactly where the connection is failing, and perhaps why it is. Thanks in advance! :)