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Why are you locking your loyal users from handling the backup themselves?

concrnd
concrnd
Community Member

So we've been using 1Password for a very long time. Decided to switch to the "membership" last year. Today i've understood it's impossible to backup 1password database to my location.

This is very bad — you guys can go out of business any day. This stuff just happens. AWS could also go down — unlikely, but it totally could.

That seems like a very bad treatment of your loyal users. We need the ability to export backups to our own locations. I know that you could have proper exports using iCloud; but I need Travel Mode.

Can you add the proper local export feature? 1pif export doesn't export attachments — which makes it useless.


1Password Version: 7.2.5
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: Not Provided
Sync Type: Membership

Comments

  • Lars
    Lars
    1Password Alumni
    edited March 2019

    @concrnd - 1pif isn't a backup at any rate (at least, not one we recommend); it's an unencrypted means of transferring your data to another 1Password instance or another password management solution. In standalone 1Password for Mac, backups are made once per day in the .1p4_zip format, which IS encrypted. And yes, you're correct, 1password.com accounts/vaults don't have this option because 1password.com backs up your data on the servers.

    Is it possible AWS could go completely down? Sure, I suppose in theory (though their disaster prevention/response is the best in the industry; I'm told two entire data centers would have to be taken completely offline before user data availability would even start to be affected). But that's a bit beside the point, which is: you already have a local cache of your data in 1Password for Mac. Since version 4, 1Password for Mac has worked from a local SQLite database internally, which would be unaffected by us going out of business or AWS becoming unavailable. Let's say BOTH of those things happened, tomorrow: we vanish off the face of the earth and AWS goes down, leaving 1password.com entirely inaccessible. You open 1Password 7 for Mac in the morning as you always do, and (unbeknownst to you, unless you've read the papers) it behaves as it always does: your Master Password unlocks your data, and you begin your day.

    Later that day, you learn that we're out of business abruptly and AWS is offline. You check 1Password -- huh, your data is still available. Why? Because the only thing that hasn't happened is a sync with the server. But your 1Password data is still as you left it last night when AWS was up and we were still around. Now, you know that the server is offline, and we've disappeared. What can you do? I'd assume you wouldn't want to leave your data in a system whose developer has evaporated and whose server's hosts have gone offline, so you can just use File > Export to save your data in our .1pif export format, and take it with you to any other password manager that suits your fancy.

    Bottom line: neither the function of our 1Password apps nor the integrity/presence of your 1Password data are dependent upon either our continued existence as a company nor on AWS's online availability. If we go "poof," there won't be any more updates or new versions...but whatever's current will still work for some time, just as we still have people using version 6 or even 4 of 1Password. And if Amazon's AWS service goes offline, the overwhelming likelihood is that it will be back quickly...but if not, your access to your data, in the encrypted SQLite file 1Password has as a local cache, remains unaffected. Hope that helps! :)

  • Lars
    Lars
    1Password Alumni

    @concrnd - forgot to add, re: 1pif and attachments: this has always been the case, it's not a function of the difference between standalone and 1Password accounts. You would need to open each item with attachments and download those items individually, then re-upload them whenever you got a new password manager figured out/decided upon.

This discussion has been closed.