WiFi Syncing w/ iPhone Between Two Macs

lc3user
lc3user
Community Member

iPhone
iOS 8.2

iOS 1Password
5.2.1

OSX
10.10.2

OSX 1Password
5.1

I just upgraded to iOS 8 and OS X 10.10 after holding out for a whiles. 1Password for iOS forced me to upgrade with iOS 8 so I did the same for the OS X version.

1Password was my everyday app, a life saver, and I had a WiFi sync workflow that was perfect but now after the upgrade something has changed and my workflow is broken.

I have MacA and iPhoneA that always travel with me. I also have MacB and iPhoneB that stay at home. I typically work from MacA and iPhoneA, but when I return home I would used Wifi Sync to move changes stored in iPhoneA back to MacB, then from MacB back to iPhoneB.

With this above I could sync back and forth from MacB to iPhoneA, or iPhoneB to MacB, then move any changes on MacB to iPhoneA then back to MacA allow over Wifi sync.

The iPhoneA was the master, and updates and changes would get pushed to the Macs.

This worked very well in 1Password 4.

Now in 1Password 5, the Mac (either A or B) always overrides the data in the iPhone. If I only sync with iPhoneA and MacA the changes and updates work in both directions from the Mac to the phone and / or from the iPhone to the Mac. But as soon as I then try to sync from iPhoneA to MacB, the data from the MacB overwrites iPhoneA, even if the last record changes were on iPhoneA, MacB still wins.

I have some 400 records in 1Password, each time I sync with a second Mac, 1Password on iOS notes that 400 records are getting pushed to the iPhone. The second time I sync with this Mac, only the one or two record changes from the iPhone get pushed to the Mac. When I move back to sync with the first Mac, all 400 records all get pushed back to iPhone, overweighting all records again.

What broke? Why for the past two years was I able to use the iPhone as the go between two Macs? This workflow is the best option as I can easily explain how to use it to my spouse and no additional knowledge is needed for setting up networking shares, and no third party cloud sync is needed.

Am I missing something? Why is this broke? How can we get this working again?

Comments

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni
    edited March 2015

    @lc3user: Oh dear! Yeah, I am not sure what happened there. 1Password 5 actually uses the same Wi-Fi Sync engine that was rewritten for 1Password 4.

    It's possible that at least part of the problem might be related to trying to essentially have two masters, but not in the way that you think. Wi-Fi Sync is designed to sync 1Password data between a single computer (Mac or PC) and one or more iOS devices -- not multiple computers. This was the case with 1Password 4 as well, which is why there is a spot to enter a single Secret (from 1Password on either a Mac or Windows PC) in 1Password on each iOS device. In order to enter a new Secret from a computer into an iOS device sync must be disabled completely, because you are then setting up a new sync connection from scratch.

    So for me the question isn't "Why doesn't it work" so much as "How was it working in the first place?" It sounds like you may have actually lost some data in all the switching back and forth, and I can't even begin to tell you how sorry I am to hear that. :(

    Unfortunately Wi-Fi Sync just wasn't designed to work in the way you describe, and the best option for your particular situation would be to use Dropbox Sync (or iCloud Sync, provided you are using the Mac App Store version of 1Password). As you mentioned, Dropbox is a cloud-based service, but it is important to note a few things:

    1. Your 1Password data is encrypted before it ever leaves your device, so even if someone were to gain access to your Dropbox account they would need your Master Password to decrypt it.
    2. Dropbox syncs automatically in the background, so there is no need for you or your wife to have to manage it once it is set up.
    3. Dropbox offers a free version of their service which is more than adequate for storing (all but the most unwieldy) 1Password vaults.

    I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any questions!

  • lc3user
    lc3user
    Community Member

    No trust me it worked great, flawlessly before. One iPhone two Macs. Yes I saw different secret keys, one unique for each Mac, but the iPhone remembered the key for each mack and it would always sync on MacA, make changes, sync on MacA to iPhoneA then sync on MacB to iPhoneA and it work work again pushing the most recent changes. I regularly jumped from MacA to MacB and always had the same secret key paired with the same Mac.

    I never lost ANY data, until 1Password 5, but I was testing this same step on purpose just to be sure and only lost a test record when I found this BUG. Yes BUG! It worked great the other way!

    I much prefer local sync or WiFi sync. Don't get me wrong cloud sync has its place but not for the core passwords. I am gong to try the Folder sync but that is less desirable, and from the limited how to, and with some other "Team Member" comments in the forums, I am not certain Folder Sync is really set up to work between two computers where records are changing on both sides.....

    Yes really, please make it work like version 4, or I would be happy with the Mac to Mac local sync or WiFi sync I have seen discussed elsewhere.

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni
    edited March 2015

    @lc3user: I don't doubt you! I am more astonished than anything, since Wi-Fi Sync isn't designed to use an iOS device as a 'bridge' between two computers.

    What happens is that 1Password stores a lot of information for sync context when you 'pair' a computer and an iOS device for Wi-Fi Sync, so that it can keep track of what's been sync'd, what's changed since the last sync, etc. When you disable sync it throws out this contextual information, because it applies to the previous 'pairing' and its sync history and status, not to the new relationship. 1Password does not track multiple sync relationships because that becomes exponentially complex and error-prone. Not errors as in 'data-loss' necessarily, but of state, which necessitate those 'sync conflict' popups we used to get a lot in older versions, even with Dropbox Sync. And it's just sort of a drag to have to manually go through and resolve these by saying, "Okay, that's the one I updated on the phone. I want to keep that. But I definitely need to keep the Mac's copy of this other one..." You get the picture.

    The best way to think of this, in my opinion, is encapsulated in Steve Jobs' iCloud introduction: "The truth is in the cloud!" With iCloud and Dropbox, we have truth: the server tracks all changes across clients and reconciles them to its master database. With Wi-Fi Sync and 'multiple masters', 1Password is doing this all itself, and there is no clear 'truth'; which is why with Wi-Fi Sync we designed it to sync one or more clients (iOS devices) with a single server (literally, enabled in 1Password Preferences) which is the master -- the truth. So if there's a bug here, it would be that you were able to have two versions of the truth and not lose any data. ;)

    But in all seriousness, we would love to be able to offer exactly what you desire: a local, flexible sync solution. And we know that you are not alone in this! We may yet come up with a solution and add it in a future version, but it would have to be built from the ground up. And we would have to make sure it's reliable.

    I know this isn't what you want to hear, but I hope that this helps answer some of your questions. Fortunately we do have other sync solutions that at least will work for to get you the results you want until we add additional options. And most importantly, we really do appreciate the feedback! Knowing how you actually use 1Password (or would like to) helps us prioritize and focus our efforts going forward. Thank you! :)

This discussion has been closed.