FEEDBACK: Confusion about Installations and Updates

arw
arw
Community Member

Guys, my feedback is that you really need to put in some more work to resolve the issue of the conflicts that arise depending on whether 1P is installed from the AgileBits website or the Apple Mac AppStore.

First, let me say that I'm a HIGHLY literate computer scientist, so I am not the average Mac user. so whatever I say you should multiply by 10 or something to realize the full impact on user experience for the average user.

I've been using 1P for a loooooooong time - so long, in fact, that I forgot where I first installed 1P from and how and where I've had to upgrade and where I installed it from.

I first realized that there was an issue perhaps 12-18 months ago when the first "update conflict" arose. I went to your support site and went through the manual process to deconflict the versions, from which I realized that I must have (at some point) downloaded/purchased 1P from the AppStore.

Since then I've had to do it at least three times, and I'm forever having issues with the Browser extensions "disappearing" or having to be reinstalled.

When I take the trouble to re-read the support instructions again, I "remember" why this is a problem and what I have to do to fix it, but my suggestion is that you shoot for a much higher standard: _Make the entire problem go away, please!

After all, if you can so clearly identify the problem via manual instructions, why not write some code to take care of it FOR me?

And then, there's this issue: Why not make it totally transparent to a customer whether they should deal with Apple or AgileBits? Yes, I know there are policies and things that might make it hard to ensure that both distribution channels behave identically, but, again, why don't YOU take this burden on instead of laying the responsibility on the consumer to understand? And, if you think about it, the best scenario is where the consumer could do either and end up with an identical result. Preferably for the same price, too.


Please, I'm not complaining - actually I'm a truly FANATIC supporter of yours. 1P is the most important app I own on my Mac and on my iOS devices, and I think you've done an AWESOME job. Next I'm going to try teams.

So take my feedback as an improvement suggestion and keep up the great work!

Tony


1Password Version: 6.1
Extension Version: 4.5.3
OS Version: 10.11.3
Sync Type: dropbox

Comments

  • littlebobbytables
    littlebobbytables
    1Password Alumni

    Hi @arw,

    There are certainly several areas where improvements can be made and would make a massive difference to certain situations.

    One for example is the fact that the AgileBits Store and Mac App Store versions of 1Password have separate support folders. I won't pretend to claim I understand the technical hurdles here but we do know that if we can have it where both use the same support folder (which also means same vault) that we would remove one massive headache for our users as yes, separate locations is a colossal pain in the rear for those afflicted and for the steps required to resolve it.

    Another good example is 1Password mini and its status as a helper process. Due to limitations how we register this helper process with OS X is as good as it can be right now and as long as there is only one copy of 1Password visible to OS X it's fine. If there are multiple copies though, a common cause being a cloned drive, then it simply becomes an episode of frustration.

    In both instances I believe we know what needs to be done but they're both massive undertakings that will require a lot of time, upheaval and for the most part users will never know or appreciate what was done. Please don't misunderstand, we all know it something needs to be done but big changes that affect the entire application have to be very carefully handled both in terms of development and testing.

    I will always hold my hands up and say we can do better. Should there be a time when we don't say that we're doing something wrong as perfect software doesn't exist - something can always be improved.

    Now that said there are certain issues you seem to be facing that suggest something isn't right at all. Everything above can be experienced by anybody that purchased 1Password for Mac from the Mac App Store and at some point has also downloaded the AgileBits Store version. While I've never accidentally done this it is common and needs addressed. Extensions disappearing from your browser though... that shouldn't ever be happening and suggests there might be an external issue as the extension should simply sit inside your browser and in all but very rare instances should anything disappear unless you explicitly instructed it to. So I would like to better understand what is happening here as I'm not sure it's something that could be addressed in code.

    This would seem to just leave the final comment

    Why not make it totally transparent to a customer whether they should deal with Apple or AgileBits?

    That does indeed sound like a very good idea, you'll get no disagreement from me. I would love to learn more about the confusion you feel currently exists. The fact is except for a very narrow set of issues the answer should always be AgileBits. If the issue is after somebody has successfully downloaded 1Password for Mac from the Mac App Store from the App Store application then I would say we're the people to reach out to. If the issue is downloading or purchasing 1Password from the Mac App Store then while we can offer suggestions and advice based on our own experiences only somebody from Apple would be able to say anything conclusively due to their ability to query their own app store. Of course the easiest thing to do in my own opinion is to reach out to us first and if it's only something Apple can help with then we would explain that this is the case.

    While it doesn't quite fit into the description I have above, a good example is the expired certificate issue that caused a lot of problems for Mac App Store customers a few months ago. Nobody anticipated it and the first us and many other companies were aware was once our customers started reaching out to us. The issue was an expired certificate connected to the Mac App Store was suddenly causing a lot of requests to re-authenticate with the App Store. This probably hit our customers more than other software because it's likely a number of our customers use 1Password to store their Apple ID password. I know I do and should I lose access to my vault from all devices then I'm in a sorry state indeed. While we couldn't resolve this directly for people what we could do is create a post with all the information we had managed to collate so that anybody reaching out to us could find it and resolve the issue on their Mac. In that case you kind of don't care who you reach out to, you want anybody involved to tell you how to fix it.

    All feedback is invaluable, it really is. Even if somebody was to say they're complaining it's down out of a combination of passion and frustration.

    Now I've mentioned two key areas where I know multiple copies of 1Password can cause a huge amount of frustration but if I've missed something you thought was being clearly referenced please do let us know to make sure we're covering every aspect that you've been suffering.

    As I say I would also like to explore the situation you're facing with you browsers as something potentially outside of 1Password's domain may be at play here. As part of my role here at AgileBits I'm constantly removing and installing the extension but I've never had it disappear on me without my explicit actions to do so.

    ref: OPM-588

This discussion has been closed.