Can I sync my four machines?

Hi @pondball,

I'm happy to hear you're interested in using 1Password on your Macs and iOS devices! Thanks for contacting us with your question. It's probably difficult to find a clear answer about version compatibility & sync options with that specific range of devices & operating systems, but I can definitely explain your options.

So, the short answer is, yes! You can definitely use 1Password on those Macs and iOS devices, and you'll be able to sync your data between them.

Let's start with the Mac version: The latest version of 1Password for Mac is version 5, which requires Mac OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) or 10.11 (El Capitan). So you'll be able to use that on your MacBook Pro. On your iMac which is running OS X 10.9 (Mavericks), you'll be able to use 1Password 4. We have a bit more information here: What are my options if I can’t run the latest version of 1Password?

If you purchase a 1Password 5 for Mac license from our AgileBits Store, you'll receive a license file which also works with 1Password 4. Or, if you purchase 1Password from the Mac App Store, you'll need to do so from your Mac with Yosemite - then, when you try to install it from the Purchased section of the Mac App Store on Mavericks, it will give you the option to install 1Password 4.

As for your iOS devices: The latest version of 1Password for iOS is version 6, which requires iOS 9. So you can install that on your iPad. On your iPhone which is running iOS 7, you can install 1Password 4. First you'll need to install 1Password 6 on your iPad. Then, on your iPhone, open the App Store and go to Updates > Purchased. Find 1Password in your list of purchased apps and try to install it, and it will give you the option to install 1Password 4.

Now for your sync options: Normally I would start by explaining that iCloud sync isn't available in the AgileBits Store version of 1Password for Mac, and that in order to use iCloud sync, you'd need the Mac App Store version. However, the problem is that iCloud sync won't work between version 4 and version 5/6. So you won't be able to use iCloud sync between all four of your devices. We have more information here: Why does iCloud require at least iOS 8, OS X 10.10, and the Mac App Store?

Technically, the Wi-Fi sync option is compatible between the different versions of 1Password you'll be using. However, Wi-Fi sync was designed to work between one Mac, and one or more iOS devices. Since you have 2 Macs, that won't be a good option. (Also, Wi-Fi sync in 1Password 4 for Mac/iOS does not support attachments, and does not work automatically.)

So with your setup, your best option is Dropbox sync. That will work between all the devices, operating systems, and versions of 1Password you'll be using.

Hopefully that answers your questions, but please let us know if you need anything else. We're always happy to help! :)

Hi @pondball,

Those are some great questions! Hopefully I can give you some great answers. :)

• I was hoping to sync using wifi here at home but it looks like that's out due to my having two macs. Is the reason the two physical machines or is it because one is running yosemite and one mavericks. If its the latter I can upgrade the 2009 iMac to yosemite in short order. (fingers crossed).

Unfortunately it's not a simple matter of using different versions of Mac OS X, so upgrading to Yosemite won't help with that. The reason Wi-Fi sync won't work between two Macs is because, when using the Wi-Fi sync option, the Mac is the server, and the iOS device is the client. To use Wi-Fi sync between two Macs, the Mac version of 1Password would need to be able to act as both the server and the client. Technically, that can be done - it would take a significant amount of work for our developers though, so it hasn't been done yet. (I'm not a developer myself, but from what I understand, doing that would be a lot trickier than it probably sounds.)

• if the above does not work, is it possible to still sync using wifi and using my MBPro as the base unit, with iPhone and iPad sync'd by wifi... then sync the iMac via dropbox?... I'm guessing this is mixing apples with oranges and not going to work?

Actually, that will work, as you can have both Wi-Fi sync and Dropbox sync enabled at the same time in 1Password for Mac. However, if you would use Dropbox sync on your Macs, I'm not sure why you wouldn't use Dropbox sync on your iOS devices as well?

• you mention "(Also, Wi-Fi sync in 1Password 4 for Mac/iOS does not support attachments, and does not work automatically.) " I'm not sure the significance of this... could you please expand on how it would affect my setup.

Sure! As an example, let's say you set up Wi-Fi sync between your MacBook Pro (with 1Password 5), your iPad (with 1Password 6) and your iPhone (with 1Password 4). If you add attachments to any of your items in 1Password 5 on your Mac, those attachments will sync to 1Password 6 on your iPad, but they will not sync to 1Password 4 on your iPhone (the items will sync, but not any files that might be attached to those items). Also, when you open 1Password 5/6 on both your MacBook Pro and iPad, Wi-Fi sync will happen automatically (after you enable it the first time, of course). But every time you want to sync 1Password 4 on your iPhone, you would need to go to the Wi-Fi sync settings and tap a button to tell it to sync.

On the other hand, if you set up Wi-Fi sync between your iMac (with 1Password 4) and your iOS devices, attachments won't sync to either iOS device, and Wi-Fi sync won't happen automatically with either iOS device.

• if none of the above are a go, would you recommend:
a) dumping my iPhone from 1P family and syncing iMac, MBPro and ipad2 using iCloud (and iCloudDrive) then when the time comes to go with a newer iPhone just add it to the family

No, that wouldn't actually help you, because iCloud sync also won't work with 1Password 4 on your iMac. To be more specific, you'll see an iCloud sync option in 1Password 4 for Mac, but it's not compatible with CloudKit (which is Apple's technology that was introduced in iOS 8 and Mac OS X Yosemite last year), which is what we use for iCloud sync in 1Password 5/6. So you'll only be able to use iCloud sync between your MacBook Pro (1Password 5) and iPad (1Password 6). If you also want to use iCloud sync with 1Password on your iMac, you'd need to update that iMac to Yosemite or El Capitan, and 1Password 5.

You also mentioned "using iCloud (and iCloudDrive)", so I just wanted to explain that iCloud Drive isn't actually involved with iCloud sync in 1Password. iCloud Drive needs to be enabled in order for CloudKit to work, but otherwise they are very separate iCloud services.

b) sync all 4 units with DropBox... but... can I switch to sync using iCloud at a later date even though I would have purchased 1P from agilebits directly at the start

No, because the AgileBits Store version doesn't have iCloud sync. Currently, only the Mac App Store version of 1Password 5 for Mac has iCloud sync, because it uses Apple's CloudKit technology, which can currently only be used by apps sold through Apple's App Store. We'd absolutely love to be able to include that in the AgileBits Store version of 1Password as well, but unfortunately that's not currently possible. In case you haven't already seen it, we explain this in more detail here: Why does iCloud require iOS 8, OS X 10.10, and the Mac App Store?

Unfortunately Apple doesn't currently provide a way to convert a license for the AgileBits Store version of 1Password to the Mac App Store version. So if you think you will want to use iCloud at some point when your devices all support it, you should buy 1Password for Mac from the Mac App Store. Even if things change in the future and we can put iCloud sync back in the AgileBits Store version at some point, there's no guarantee if/when that would happen.

Last one... dropbox seems pretty open technology... in terms of security I would have ranked the three options: 1 - wifi, 2 - iCloud, 3 - dropbox... is this a fair evaluation?

Not really. 1Password is secure by design and your 1Password data is end-to-end encrypted, so with regard to security there's no difference between syncing 1Password data with Dropbox or iCloud. 1Password simply doesn't depend on the security of either to protect your data. Now, some people prefer Wi-Fi sync because it doesn't use any cloud storage services at all, but using a cloud service to sync your 1Password data doesn't make it less secure. We explain more about that here: Is it safe to sync my data over the cloud?

I should mention that many of us here have always used Dropbox to sync our 1Password data. Dropbox also has the advantage that it can be used to sync secondary vaults, and also share vaults with friends, family, and co-workers (it's not currently possible to share anything between iCloud accounts). And it's the only sync solution that works across all platforms supported by 1Password: Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android.

That's a lot of information to digest, but if you have more questions, please let us know! :)