Can I Trust 1Password?

GreywolfComputer
GreywolfComputer
Community Member
edited April 2011 in 1Password 4 for Windows
Not feeling too much confidence in it
Hi folks,

I am a long time user of what is now known as PasswordsMax, and have been happy with it overall.

I have been looking for a way to keep track of one set of passwords, etcetera instead of trying to keep a desktop, netbook, and iPhone synced manually. I had looked at 1Password for the iPhone before; and decided to try the windows version. I downloaded it, tried it, seemed to work... and that's when the "fun" began. So, now that I've seen several issues today, I'm wondering if I can trust 1Password, as it is going to be keeping important passwords/info related to my business.

First.... the ordering. The order page does not display properly in Firefox. I had to switch IETab on in Firefox to place the order. Then, coming here to sign up in the Forums was the same.

There are multiple reasons I don't like to use IE. The forums and ordering should be Firefox compatible.

The real problem I had was in importing my current passwords from PasswordsMax into 1Password. The importing feature is SERIOUSLY FLAWED. Seriously. After spending a few hours, I have gained some insight into the importing process. The major problem with it is that it will skip entries in a random nature. Because of trying the import so many times, I can confirm it is random and not related to the data. I was importing 531 passwords and exported the title, user, password, and location. Upon import, I chose "Yes to All" and it counted through, reporting 270+ imported. But, the list showed 531. Looking through, I noticed groups of entries with missing passwords. Some with no data but the title. At first, I presumed it was some bad data in the CSV file. So, I checked it for errors. I tried again. The second time, it was different missing data while lots of the missed data from the first time was imported correctly. So, I looked at the data again; but couldn't find anything wrong.

About this time, the program crashed 3 times in succession while scrolling through the list to find the missing entries.

I tried different ways of importing. Choosing "Yes To All" seems to be the least reliable and caused the most misses. Choosing to approve each one by hitting "Y" got the best results on one attempt; missing about 30.

So, I finally settled on importing the full 531; deleting the missing entries, editing the CSV file to include only the missing entries, and importing those again. Which finally resulted in a full import. Then I had to go back and manually enter in the "Notes" fields, since the import dialog doesn't have an entry for importing into those fields.

Given the website issues, the importing issues, the crashing issue.... I'm not feeling very confident about the program reliability.

Comments

  • DBrown
    DBrown
    1Password Alumni
    edited April 2011
    Welcome to the forum, GreywolfComputer, and thanks for taking time to post your comments!

    I'll try to answer them, in order...


    First.... the ordering. The order page does not display properly in Firefox. I had to switch IETab on in Firefox to place the order. Then, coming here to sign up in the Forums was the same.

    There are multiple reasons I don't like to use IE. The forums and ordering should be Firefox compatible.

    I hadn't heard of IETab until I read your post, and I've just confirmed that it's not installed in either of my FF 3.6 and FF 4 environments—in both of them, the forum login page and the Agile Web Solutions store pages worked fine for me. I didn't go beyond the product selection and payment pages, just now, but I couldn't see any problem with either the appearance or the behavior of the pages I sampled.

    One thing about 1Password's "philosophy" that may be unfamiliar to you, coming from another product, is that Identity data and Credit Card data are stored in separate items. On a page that needs your name, address, and credit card info, you'll have to invoke 1Password twice to fill the form. That's just the way 1Password works.

    The real problem (and it's a big one) is that the 1Password for Windows extensions for Firefox and Internet Explorer currently don't include the ability to fill Identity info. :eek: The extension for Chrome does, and we hope to get it into the extensions for IE and FF soon, too.

    In the meantime, you can use 1Password for Windows in Chrome to fill Identity data. We apologize for the inconvenience.

    The real problem I had was in importing my current passwords from PasswordsMax into 1Password. The importing feature is SERIOUSLY FLAWED. Seriously.

    I agree, though I'd have said "limited" rather than "flawed." I've been advocating hard for enhancement of the import and export features for quite some time, and I'll continue to do so. We'll get there—1Password for Mac has robust import and export capabilities, so it's just a matter of time.

    That said, the known limitations to importing into 1Password for Windows are in the small number of formats supported and the fact that only Logins are imported; but your problem is with the rate of success at importing Logins in one of the supported formats. We can only ask that you contact us directly (at support@agilewebsolutions.com), so that we can see a "sanitized" version of the data you're trying to import. That way, we'll have a better chance of figuring out what's going wrong for you.

    (You can read about delimited-text import in How do I import data into 1Password for Windows? in the FAQ section of the user's guide.)

    ...
    About this time, the program crashed 3 times in succession while scrolling through the list to find the missing entries.

    Needless to say, crashes aren't standard procedure.

    On any of those crashes, did 1Password launch an e-mail message containing a diagnostics report? The report is the best way to let us know that a crash has occurred and give us a first look at what might've happened.

    ...
    Given the website issues, the importing issues, the crashing issue.... I'm not feeling very confident about the program reliability.

    I understand your concern! No software is perfect, but we aim to make 1Password for Windows at least as great as its big brother, 1Password for Mac. I hope our customers will agree that we respond to reports of problems with enthusiastic effort to track down and solve any problems you might encounter.

    We look forward to hearing more from you, GreywolfComputer!
  • GreywolfComputer
    GreywolfComputer
    Community Member
    DBrown wrote:


    I hadn't heard of IETab until I read your post, and I've just confirmed that it's not installed in either of my FF 3.6 and FF 4 environments—in both of them, the forum login page and the Agile Web Solutions store pages worked fine for me. I didn't go beyond the product selection and payment pages, just now, but I couldn't see any problem with either the appearance or the behavior of the pages I sampled.


    I'll allow for the possibility that one of my plug-ins or extensions might be causing the issue. But, with IETab enabled on the pages, they showed properly from within Firefox.

    DBrown wrote:

    One thing about 1Password's "philosophy" that may be unfamiliar to you, coming from another product, is that Identity data and Credit Card data are stored in separate items. On a page that needs your name, address, and credit card info, you'll have to invoke 1Password twice to fill the form. That's just the way 1Password works.


    I'm not as concerned with the Identity filling, as my experience is that none of them work well. It would be nice to use, but my main focus at this time -- until an identity filler really works for me -- is the password filling/tracking. I would like the identity filler; but it's not something I used in PasswordsMax.

    DBrown wrote:

    I agree, though I'd have said "limited" rather than "flawed." I've been advocating hard for enhancement of the import and export features for quite some time, and I'll continue to do so. We'll get there—1Password for Mac has robust import and export capabilities, so it's just a matter of time.


    Given my experience today; I would stick by my description of "seriously flawed". The fact that the unchanged data from the same file would import with different success rates during different attempts confirmed that for me. If it had been faulty data, then the problem should repeat whenever the faulty data was encountered by the importing process. In this case, however, the missed data was random. Data that failed on one attempt would succeed on the next attempt with no changes to the data. They are simply CSV formatted, four fields, with each field made up of data between quotation marks, separated by commas; one record per line. I will, however, send you the data.

    DBrown wrote:

    On any of those crashes, did 1Password launch an e-mail message containing a diagnostics report? The report is the best way to let us know that a crash has occurred and give us a first look at what might've happened.


    It did for each; and I have sent them. When thinking back on the crashes after I posted, I think what might have been happening in the subsequent crashes is that 1Password wasn't entirely cleared from memory on the first crash and it was attempting to run more than one instance of the program. Not sure, though.

    Another thing that occurred since my post, is that the iPhone version of 1Password crashed after syncing about 125 of the 531 passwords. When I opened it again, it finished the process without incident. I truly want this to work well; because it will simplify my already overloaded daily life.
  • DBrown
    DBrown
    1Password Alumni
    Thanks for the followup, GreywolfComputer, and for contacting us by e-mail.

    We appreciate your assistance as we get this figured out. We truly want it to work well for you, too! :)
  • DBrown
    DBrown
    1Password Alumni
    Update: After an initial success, I've confirmed the failure you describe and reported it to the developer. One of us will reply to you by e-mail as soon as possible.

    Thanks again for bringing this to our attention, GreywolfComputer!
  • svondutch
    svondutch
    1Password Alumni

    The importing feature is SERIOUSLY FLAWED.


    1.0.5.BETA-181 should fix this.
  • Finally! 1Password 1.0.5.177 has finally imported all my passwords from Roboform flawlessly. Wish it could import the Safenotes too!
    Thanks 1Password team, great work! Hope the UI will get more polished like in the Mac version.
    Running to buy my license...

    And what about more shortcut keys for the keyboard maniacs? :)
    How do you simply open 1password with a shortcut key?
  • svondutch
    svondutch
    1Password Alumni
    edited April 2011
    rafi wrote:

    How do you simply open 1password with a shortcut key?


    1. right-click on the 1Password desktop icon
    2. click on the "shortcut" tab
    3. assign something to "shortcut key"
This discussion has been closed.