1Password 8 removes 1Password 7 during install

Leaving two different versions installed at the same time would be extremely confusing to most users.

I wholeheartedly agree. All I am proposing is telling people about it and not being sneaky.

I even did my research before installing 1Password 8. I read on this forum that both versions could be run alongside each other. The installer did not make any mention of anything being removed. I believe it was reasonable to assume that nothing would be removed.

Generally speaking, removing anything without telling the user is bad practice, no matter how good the intentions.

In general, I don't recommend a "hybrid" setup where you're using both a standalone vault and a 1Password account at the same time since that can create confusion where some vaults are only available on some devices and not others. By only using a 1Password account you guarantee that you see the same items on all of your devices without having to configure sync manually or worry about which devices hold which vaults.

I agree. If I could get rid of all local vaults, I would happily do so.

It creates quite a headache having to sync my mobile devices via WiFi sync while also keeping two machines in line with each other through folder sync via a physical drive.

I would love to see a self-hosted instance, because it would tick all the boxes in terms of data location and unified sync. Understandably though, the demand for something like this has been very low. Not to mention the different kind of complexity that would be introduced through the actual hosting (even containerized deployment would likely be as much a burden on support as WiFi sync is today).

Until either
1. you re-introduce local vaults,
2. offer self-hosted instances, or
3. the requirements change on my side,
I am afraid we will need to proceed "hybrid". However, with sufficient documentation of the limits of such setup, I am hoping to be able to depend on it for long enough to have one of the three conditions above become true :-)