OK for Macs to sync a shared vault to a folder on a USB stick on a local network's router?
I've been reading about Macs sharing a vault over a local network. My router has a port for a storage device with a USB interface. I could have my two Macs Folder Sync their copies of a shared vault to a folder on a USB stick attached to the router. Is there any reason that's a bad idea?
Seems like it would be OK if 1PW only writes to the shared sync folder when a user makes a change to the vault. But I got to wondering if maybe they exchange some sort of handshake or other chit-chat that's not visible to the UI frequently enough to wear a USB stick out?
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Hi @SVanDee
Thanks for the question! Storing your data only on the router is potentially problematic. If your router should go offline or become temporarily unavailable, it could cause your devices to fall out of sync. I'd recommend this:
1) Sync to a folder locally using Folder Sync
2) Use some other tool to sync the data to the network drive when it's availableI hope this helps, but we're here if you have any further questions!
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Folder Syncing the vault on each Mac to a local folder and then syncing those folders across the network manually is what I'm doing now.
Http://learn2.agilebits.com/1Password4/Mac/en/Tutorials/share-vault.html includes a section titled "Folder Sync and Share". I thought this section was saying that, if I Folder Sync'd a non-primary vault on each Mac to the same folder on a local network device they could both access, 1PW would keep the vaults on both Macs sync'd to that shared folder automatically. Have I misunderstood?
If the router (which is also my internet gateway) goes offline, one or both Macs are going to lose sync to the shared folder no matter whether it's stored on a local device or in a Cloud. How is losing access to a shared folder stored on the local network worse than losing access to one stored in a Cloud?
Back to the original question, does 1PW update a shared sync folder routinely so it might wear out a flash device even if the user(s) aren't making changes?
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Hi @SVanDee,
Thanks for the followup questions. While it is indeed possible to folder sync a 1Password.agilekeychain file directly to a USB key attached to your router, we usually recommend against it, as there can often be issues related to file permissions and other such difficulties. If you know what you are doing, however, then this can indeed be a viable solution. Make sure that you make appropriate backups before trying anything like this though, and let us know how it works out!
Regarding your second question, 1Password does not routinely access the 1Password.agilekeychain data file if there is no update. As soon as the file is modified, sync is triggered again - this process should not wear out a USB stick any more than normal use.
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