Using more than one Keychain

ScooterNash

Here is the senerio: I have a wife who is technically illeterate (by stubborn will, not lack of intelligence). She has a copy of 1password that she barely can use if I set it all up for her. She has her own seperate dropbox account and everything. Occationally, I'd like to open her keychain with my copy of 1Password on my computer. Is that possible?



Note: I am kind of a power user, have my own dropbox account and use a single keychain on many devices. I don't want to mess up what I have, or my automatic backups or anything. I just one to be able to close my chain and open hers long enough to enter a new password or updade something, then close it an go back mine without any bumps, corruptions, or data merges. Can this be done?

antipole

Possible (assuming she gives you access to the passwords) - but it involves signing out of your DropBox account and into hers and waiting for everything to re-synchronise.



Much simpler would be to sign in to her account and work from there. Or if that is inappropriate, create a special use account that signs into her DropBox account and use 1PassWord from there. That way you do not need to delete your own DropBox files on your computer.

ScooterNash

I just realized there is the worlds simplest solution right in front of my eyes. Open with her 1PasswordAnywhere. Or is that read only? It won't work if I can't keep her bank passwords up to date.

khad

1Password is not really designed for swapping data files "on the fly". It sounds like you are already aware of some of the moving parts that complicate this: device syncing, browser extension data, backups, etc. can all be affected if you open a different data file.



The simplest solution would be to just set things up on the computer where she will be using 1Password.



If you need to share some specific data with her, importing and exporting 1Password Interchange Files is a great way to transfer information between different installations of 1Password ([b]File > Export[/b]). It is not automated, but for my purposes it works well since I am not constantly changing the passwords I share with others. This way you and your wife can each have private 1Password data (and master passwords) and import only the items needed from the other.



[i]Please be aware that the 1PIF information is not encrypted and should be handled with care while in transit and securely deleted once the information is safely imported into an encrypted 1Password data file.[/i]



Additionally, once things are set up, there isn't really any reason to keep tinkering with everything (i.e. constantly changing all her — or your own — passwords). Advice to change passwords regularly presupposes password reuse. If you are using 1Password's built-in generator to create [i][b]unique[/b][/i] passwords for [i][b]each[/b][/i] site, such advice does not really apply. It is like changing the oil in your car every week. It may not really hurt, but it is a hassle and isn't necessary. <img src='http://forum.agilebits.com/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />



If we can be of further assistance, please let us know. We are always here to help!

ScooterNash

Ok. Sounds like I can't really do what I wanted. Some of her passwords were not, great. I wanted to fix thoses, but I can get on he machine as a 'project' one day and get them all done. I was just hopeing to do it piecemeal at my own pace. Thanks for the info.

khad

The concept of sharing and multiple data files within 1Password has been suggested a number of times and it's certainly a very interesting and useful idea! We are considering this for the future, but it is quite a substantial change to how 1Password works right now which means a lot of time and testing is required to add this feature.



So with that said, I really can't make any promises on a time frame for when we may be able to bring this to 1Password, but that doesn't mean we won't. We've always believed in trying to be as honest and realistic with our users as possible rather than making lots of empty promises.



I'm sorry I can't give you a more positive answer right now, but thank you so much for letting us know that you would find this useful. We do take the number of users who request a feature into consideration when we decide on our feature lists.



Cheers!

benfdc

ScooterNash—

I provide frequent tech support to a 1Password-using relative. I created a dedicated user account on my Mac that is configured to connect to her Dropbox account (which I also set up for her). I have full access to her keychain once Dropbox finishes syncing.

Would something like this work for you?

[hmm, this is probably the same thing that antipole was suggesting above.]

I understand that switching keychains isn't as problematic in 1Password for iOS as it is in the desktop apps, so that might be another line of attack.

I also help maintain some friends' and relatives' LastPass vaults. It's simpler in the sense that I don't need to set up a separate user account with Dropbox on my machine in order to access their data remotely. I much prefer 1Password to LastPass for my own stuff (my 1Password keychain now exceeds 1,100 items), but they're both good tools and each has its place in my workflow.

Khad—I don't care for how my avatar is being clipped in the new Vanilla forums. Any suggestions?

MikeT

Hi Ben,

You can change your avatar in your profile, click on the image to change it. There isn't a way to remove the clipping for now but we'll ask our designers to consider it.

Thanks for sharing your workflow here.