Sharing primary vault with my wife.
Hi. Just want to make sure I'm understanding and setting this up right. I have 1Password4 on my desktop mac at home and my laptop at work. I also have it on my iPhone. I have one primary vault that I want to share with my wife on her iPhone. I want it to sync whenever either of us makes a change, adds or deletes items. Is this possible? Assume she buys her own version of 1Password for her iPhone using her Apple account login, not mine. Then once installed, I can link and sync my primary vault to her iPhone? Thanks for your advice.
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Hi @archerz,
Thanks for asking about syncing/sharing your primary vault between your different systems/devices.
It's not generally recommended to sync/share a primary vault with different people. I've helped undo that configuration after realizations that keeping the primary vault private for each person would be less troublesome in the long run. Secondary vault sharing is documented in this guide:
How to share a non-primary vault
Here are some questions about your current setup:
Which versions of 1Password do you have running on each system/device? Is syncing configured between any of them and is it (or would it be) Dropbox or iCloud syncing? And are different Dropbox accounts and/or iCloud Apple IDs involved?
Thanks in advanced for that information so we can continue helping you get this sorted out. More of it is just to make sure your preferred primary vault sharing configuration is possible than is necessary with secondary vault sharing.
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Thanks for the fast response!
Q: Which versions of 1Password do you have running on each system/device? A: 4.1.2 on iMac desktop computer andMacBook Pro laptop. iPhone 4S 4.3.2
Q: Is syncing configured between any of them and is it (or would it be) Dropbox or iCloud syncing? A: Currently iCloud syncing iMac Desktop computer, MacBook Pro laptop, iPhone4S. Okay with switching to Dropbox if that facilitates sharing of primary vault.
Q: Are different Dropbox accounts and/or iCloud Apple IDs involved? A: I have a Dropbox account but currently using iCloud to sync 1Password across my devices. My wife uses a different Apple ID to sync for her iPhone. She does not currently use Dropbox.
Big fan of 1Password. Thanks.0 -
It sounds like Dropbox sync would be the best method for you. If you sync your primary vault through a single Dropbox account that both you and your wife can use, that will work fine.
Let me know if that will be good for you, or if you need help getting it setup. :)
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@archerz, another Dropbox sync option is to have two Dropbox accounts — each with a shared Dropbox folder in common. Not everyone wants or needs that kind of setup but a side benefit is that if you (as the existing Dropbox account holder) send your wife your referral link from Dropbox to signup with then both you and she will get a larger Dropbox space quota. It's a win-win!
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Very helpful. We synced our primary vault to both of our iPhones via one Dropbox account and everything is working great. In this day and age of zero customer service, this Agilbits forum is a breath of fresh air - personal, smart and human. Thanks for the great advice.
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Similarly to archerz, I want to share the primary vault with my wife (so that we both can access the information without having to switch between primary and secondary vaults). That's what we've wanted to do when we began using 1Password 3. We now both are using 1Password 4 each on our own MacBooks (syncing via DropBox). However, I must have made an error is the initial setup, because, though most logins are present in both, some that one of us created are not shared (while it appears that others are). I'm very puzzled. Presently my thought is to copy all of my wife's 1Password info into a shared vault, then copy all of that into my Primary vault. Then completely delete the info from my wife's MacBook, reinstall 1Password4 on hers (we have a family license) and hope that we'll have the completely shared database of info we want. I do wish the 1Password4 setup info explained how to setup a single shared database. @sjk, I appreciate that you've experienced difficulties with users with shared databases, but for us we've hit the hassle of needing, e.g. to access the other's frequent flyer mile acct and not having access to it. Switching among multiple vaults adds a layer of impediment to my wife using 1Password. I'm seeking transparent access. Thanks very much!
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Hi @tbickley
I'm sorry to hear that you're having trouble keeping 1Password synced up the way you'd like it to.
I do wish the 1Password4 setup info explained how to setup a single shared database.
To set up 1Password as a shared database, all you really need to do is install 1Password on the secondary computer and point it at the already existing datafile (either in Dropbox or iCloud.) It's not much more complicated than if you needed to install 1Password for yourself on multiple machines.
Now, we should be able to get you all synced up without having to reinstall 1Password on your wife's computer.
I've got a few basic things that we want to check regarding Dropbox first, before we get into the more serious troubleshooting:
- Please ensure that Dropbox is installed and running on both your computers
- Check that you are logged in with the same account on all computers and devices
- Confirm that Dropbox sync is selected in 1Password > Preferences > Sync on your Mac
- Confirm that Dropbox is selected in Settings > Sync on any iOS devices
If all of those items check out, let's reset sync:
On your iOS devices, open 1Password 4 for iOS, tap Settings > Sync > Sync Service and choose 'Disable Sync’.
On the Macs, open 1Password 4 for Mac, and click the 1Password menu, then Preferences. Click Sync, and click Change syncing.
Check the box to remove the data from Dropbox and confirm that you want to disable sync.
Restart the Macs and any iOS devices.
Check your Dropbox folder and delete any other 1Password folders or files that the remove data checkbox did not take care of.
On your Mac, go back to the Sync preferences, and click Dropbox. Click Choose vault, then navigate to your Dropbox folder and select Open. This will regenerate a 1Password folder in Dropbox, and that will contain a new 1Password.agilekeychain file.
Allow Dropbox to fully sync.
On your wife's Mac, go back to the Sync preferences, and click Dropbox. Click Choose vault, then navigate to your Dropbox folder and select the existing 1Password.agilekeychain file. 1Password will prompt you to merge the existing data on your wife's computer with the keychain in Dropbox. Enter the Master Password of the keychain to confirm the merge.
Go back into the iOS app and re-enable Dropbox sync.
This should get all of your data synced up. If you have any questions or run into any snags in the process, please let me know and we'll sort through it!
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Hi Megan, I'll try this and let you know. Regarding the helpful list of troubleshooting steps, does "Check that you are logged in with the same account on all computers and devices" mean that we need to be using the same DropBox account on all of the devices (i.e., it's not sufficient to share the "1Password.agilekeychain" file across two different DropBox accounts?)? Thank you for your help!
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And one more question:
On your iOS devices, open 1Password 4 for iOS, tap Settings > Sync > Sync Service and choose 'Disable Sync’.
On the Macs, open 1Password 4 for Mac, and click the 1Password menu, then Preferences. Click Sync, and click Change syncing.
Check the box to remove the data from Dropbox and confirm that you want to disable sync.
Restart the Macs and any iOS devices.
Check your Dropbox folder and delete any other 1Password folders or files that the remove data checkbox did not take care of.
Does this mean that I'm to delete all of our 1Password data? Obviously we don't want to lose all of our logins, pw's, etc.
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Hi @tbickley,
"Check that you are logged in with the same account on all computers and devices" mean that we need to be using the same DropBox account on all of the devices (i.e., it's not sufficient to share the "1Password.agilekeychain" file across two different DropBox accounts?)
If you and your wife have separate Dropbox accounts, what we'll need to do is share the Folder that your 1Password.agilekeychain file lives in. Let's modify those steps just slightly:
On your iOS devices, open 1Password 4 for iOS, tap Settings > Sync > Sync Service and choose 'Disable Sync’.
On the Macs, open 1Password 4 for Mac, and click the 1Password menu, then Preferences. Click Sync, and click Change syncing.
Check the box to remove the data from Dropbox and confirm that you want to disable sync.
Restart the Macs and iOS devices.
Check your Dropbox folder and delete any other 1Password folders or files that the remove data checkbox did not take care of.
On your Mac, go back to the Sync preferences, and click Dropbox. Click Choose vault, then navigate to your Dropbox folder and select Open. This will regenerate a 1Password folder in Dropbox, and that will contain a new 1Password.agilekeychain file.
Allow Dropbox to fully sync.
modified Open a browser window, log in to your Dropbox account and find the 1Password folder that has been created. Please select the 1Password folder, and not the 1Password.agilekeychain itself. Right click and select 'Share this Folder'. Enter your wife's email address.
modified On your wife's Mac, accept the invitation to the Dropbox folder and allow Dropbox to sync
In 1Password, go back to the Sync preferences, and click Dropbox. Click Choose vault, then navigate to your Dropbox folder and select the existing 1Password.agilekeychain file. 1Password will prompt you to merge the existing data on your wife's computer with the keychain in Dropbox. Enter the Master Password of the keychain to confirm the merge.
Go back into the iOS app and re-enable Dropbox sync. That should get everything on the same page for sure.
Does this mean that I'm to delete all of our 1Password data?
You are removing the data from the sync location. In 1Password 4, your data is also stored locally in a default location within the Library. Deleting the sync data simply allows 1Password to re-create a fresh copy there.
I hope this helps, but please let me know if you have any further questions!
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Hi Meagan,
I am very happy to report that your guidance worked well and after a few days of use, the single shared database looks like it's doing what we hoped it would. Thank you for your patience and help!
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Hi @tbickley
Thanks so much for writing in to let us know that you're all sorted out! I'm glad to hear things are working smoothly for you.
If you have any other questions or concerns, don't hesitate to ask - you know where to find us. :)
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