Way, way behind on sync with wife. What's the best way to catch up?

themank

In the past my wife and I shared 1Password which was purchased through my Apple account. We each have a login on a desktop Mac running 1Password, and each have our own iPhone and iPad.

An embarrassingly long time ago 1Password changed their direction; we procrastinated and didn't make the switch, and we just stumbled along as she lost the ability to sync through 'my' iCloud. Anyway, by now she has made a an undetermined number of personal password changes, but my 1Password is still the 'master' record of our shared account passwords.

I/we do have a Dropbox account. Plus, we did create a shared iCloud account in order to share our contact book in Apple. (which is pretty lame, Apple). That iCloud is not associated with any purchases, however. It exists solely to sync the contacts.

We need to get up to date! I would like the latest thinking on how to accomplish this. Can we print out her Mac login 1Password, wipe it, and transition to Dropbox? Stick with iCloud? Buy a different license? Use Family vs Team?

On a superficial level, it seems easy to stick with Apple, but who knows. All I know is we can't lose the 'master' data and it would be nice, at minimum, to get a printout to input her newer data. It's just the 2 of us and we can share a single 1Password.

I'm a 7.4 on the 1-10 digital IT skill scale, so as long as I get pointed in the right direction I can usually follow through successfully. If I need to migrate away from Apple or buy a new license or upgrade, it's fine. We just need to bite the bullet and get it done.

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1Password Version: 1Password Version 6.8 (680014) Mac App Store
Extension Version: 4.6.6
OS Version: 10.12.6
Sync Type: iCloud

AGAlumB

@themank: Thanks for reaching out! You've posted in the 1Password Families category of the forums, but it sounds like you're not using that. However, that would easily be the best solution to this, since it makes syncing and sharing data securely with your loved ones seamless (along with many other benefits. If you'd like to go that route, shoot us an email at support@1password.com and post the Support ID you receive here and I'll be happy to help you make the transition.

However, if you'd rather continue syncing local vaults yourself, there are a few things to keep in mind:

1. As it sounds like you're aware, iCloud does not support sharing/syncing data between accounts, and also only works with a single vault. I'd recommend against doing that since it's relatively inflexible and not designed for that use case — and frankly easy to mess up, especially when setting up new devices.
2. You'll can use Dropbox to share local vaults using either a single Dropbox account or between separate ones. But that does require a separate login for each one, and individual sync settings for vaults on each device.
3. In all cases except for 1Password for Windows version 4, 1Password keeps its own internal database even when syncing to a folder or external service, so it's relatively easy to merge data in multiple vaults. Definitely be sure to backup your data beforehand, but all you need to do is disable sync on each device, and then setup each with the same vault (in Dropbox, for example) and tell 1Password to merge the different databases when prompted.
4. Contrary to 1Password.com, this scenario will mean that you're using the same Master Password as your wife. It doesn't sound like that will be a problem for you, but I did want to mention it in case it helps you or anyone else.

I'm not sure I understand what you're referring to when you said this though:

An embarrassingly long time ago 1Password changed their direction; we procrastinated and didn't make the switch, and we just stumbled along as she lost the ability to sync through 'my' iCloud.

So if it's significant, please let me know. Anyway, I hope this helps. Be sure to let me know if you have any other questions! :)

ref: NZE-84441-217