Separate but identical iCloud and DropBox vaults

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rgbworld
rgbworld
Community Member
in Mac

I am in the process of migrating from DropBox to iCloud Drive for my personal cloud storage. I have updated all but one of my devices to use iCloud for storage of my 1Password vault. Unfortunately, I would like to support 1 Mac (my work PC) that is running OS X 10.7.5 and therefore needs to still use DropBox sync. All other devices have been migrated to use iCloud.

So, I am wondering:

1) Can 1 computer be set to use DropBox and all other devices be set to use iCloud with the understanding that the iCloud devices will be sync'd but that the DropBox and iCloud vaults are not Sync'd with each other? Basically 2 separate vaults.

2) Can 1Password store the vault in iCloud Drive so that it would be accessible to an automated process on a Mac?

3) If #1 and #2 are possible, I would like to automate a process that copies the vault from iCloud Drive to DropBox on a schedule (say at 2am).

That would provide a "relatively current" read-only version of the vault that could be accessed from my work PC that still uses DropBox. IS this or some other option available to occasionally update the DropBox vault from the iCloud vault?

Thanks for any replies or alternative solutions.

Comments

  • rickfillion
    rickfillion
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    Hi @rgbworld,

    Number 1 is possible, but Number 2 is not possible. The only thing that can touch the data in CloudKit (the specific technology we're using in the iCloud umbrella) is 1Password itself. Unless an app has both our identifier and has been code-signed by Apple for the App Stores, it will not be allowed to talk to CloudKit at all.

    I can't think of an automated way of accomplishing what you'd like here. The manual way would be to periodically disconnect one of the newer Macs from iCloud and connect it to Dropbox for sync. Then connect it back to iCloud. This would work, but would force full conflict-resolution on all items in the database when connecting to Dropbox, and then again to iCloud. This works, but can end up with surprises as we try to be super cautious when doing conflict resolution (i.e. if an item is only deleted on one side of the fence, we bring it back to life on both sides). This would make item deletions difficult in this scenario.

    I think your best bet until that work Mac can get upgraded is to keep using Dropbox everywhere.

    Rick

  • rgbworld
    rgbworld
    Community Member
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    Thanks for your detailed reply. I agree that I should just stick with DropBox everywhere until all my devices can take advantage of iCloud.

    The minimum Mac OS requirement for 1Password 5 (and thus iCloud syncing) is OS 10.10 correct?

  • littlebobbytables
    littlebobbytables
    1Password Alumni
    edited February 2015
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    Hi @rgbworld,

    If you haven't upgraded to iCloud Drive yet and if you run 1Password 4 on all machines then you can still make use of the old iCloud sync. Now the old one is incompatible with the newer version so it's either all 1Password 5 (which requires Yosemite, AKA OS X 10.10 or iOS 8) or you run 1Password 4 everywhere. Of course sticking with 1Password 4 means missing out on all the improvements and bug fixes we've made since we first released 1Password 5.

    If you're upgraded to iCloud Drive then just to let you know that's an irreversible action. Due to the difficulty in testing all I can say is I don't believe you can use the old iCloud Sync once you've made that move.

    If you need to use a mixture of OS X versions then Dropbox is the best way forward.

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