Given the indifference to the consumers that made them the company that they are (forced subscriptions options, removal of local password stores, and removal of a native Mac app) I would not expect anything more than lip service from AgileBits. They look to be taking a direction that this astute, intelligent and thoughtful group didn’t ask for and don’t want to follow.
Good luck, though. And I would like to be proven wrong.
To be fair to them, the AgileBits employees who participate in their own forums are very helpful. For me, the most annoying thing about 1Password is the folksy e-mails they send out from ‘Dave’. I would rather strangle him than read any more of those.
Does anyone here know if someone on the 1Password 8 development team reads threads like this?
Don’t believe they do…maybe some of them take a passing interest but despite the company’s claims to the contrary…it’s clear that their VC investors are driving the train over there and emphasizing profit over making the product better. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to make a profit or even a bigger profit…but focusing on that to the exclusion of support and features makes their shift to a business and enterprise focused product pretty clear in hindsight. Forced subscription, elimination of outside vault storage locations, non native client on macOS, elimination of backup capabilities except for whatever they’re doing which isn’t explained anywhere that I could find…all aimed at reducing costs. Their support forums are full of complaints about all the same things we are and have been discussing here…and the answers are all corporate speak pablum about how much better it is now, just trust us. As we’ve seen recently with LastPass…and now their parent companies other products…trust us is a bad idea.
You can also search for the category. For example, I type is cred in the search bar, and choose credit cards from the list. The search is what I have as my default screen.
I’m still sorta using 1Password 6, my non-subscription (stand-alone) version, with the vault on my computers and iCloud. My issues with 1Password are (were) several:
So I went on a long search for a replacement. I found a Mac app called “Minimalist” (https://minimalistpassword.com/), which originally could be purchased as a stand-alone program, but now is available subscription only ($30/year). My questions (mostly, why no more stand-alone?) were answered honestly and directly, unlike 1Password support. Converting my vault was trivial (export from 1Password, then import, Minimalist has easy-to-follow instructions for several password managers) and I was up and running in minutes.
Yes, I could stay with 1Password with my setup, but I choose to use a password manager supported by what seems to be honest, polite, direct & plain speaking folks. Customer service wins out with me.
And what was their answer for why they moved to subscription-only?
I still use 1PW6 on my MacPro running Mojave. The browser plugin broke many versions of Safari ago and they did not update it for 1PW6 since 1PW7 was available. I was able to find info on their site at the time explaining the issue.
To use it requires that I do a cut and paste from 1PW6 into the browser – but I don’t worry about the extra few seconds of time and effort this takes.
I also purchased Enpass and found that it works quite well – but I still find myself using 1PW. Old habits, I guess…
Here’s the reply I received in its entirety. I appreciated the candor & honesty, and decided to give Minimalist a go, even as subscription software:
Hello Gary,
Thanks for reaching out and for your interest in Minimalist.
Unfortunately we have decided to remove the One-Time Purchase option. It is, and always was, a completely unsustainable business model. We were hoping we could make it work through increased pricing, but we received feedback that the new higher price was just too much money to spend all at once. Quite frankly, we agree.
Given that we intend to maintain, improve, and support Minimalist indefinitely, we have no choice but to transition to the only sustainable business model available to developers in the App Store… subscriptions.
We fully understand people are not happy about the industry’s transition to subscriptions. In fact, as consumers, we weren’t happy about it at first either. However now that we’re on the developer side of the equation, and it’s our job to keep the business alive, we see the rationale behind the transition.
I know this was not the response you were looking for, but hopefully it helps anyhow.
The candor & honesty of this reply immediately grabbed me and I signed up for their app. I was impressed with the response’s lack of excuses & convoluted reasoning (like I received from 1Password support.) I’m impressed with Minimalist’s ease of use—all my 1Password categories were converted and laid out just like I originally had in 1Password. Copy & paste is the same. Vault in iCloud allows me to use it across devices.
Joe Kissell (@jk1 @joe) discussed 1Password version 8 issues in this MacVoices interview:
He covers:
Thank you for posting the link to the MacVoices video, Nello. As a long-time Joe Kissell fan, I found it to be a welcome breath of fresh air.
Hello, everyone. Thank you for your replies to my note about inviting the 1Password team to check out this thread.
I extended the invitation on February 8, received a reply on February 9 that was clearly an amalgam of pre-prepared responses, replied on February 10 to that e-mail noting the lack of an actual real response, and received an excellent, personalized and detailed response on February 12 (a Sunday!) from “Andrew L. of Customer Support @ 1Password” . I had asked several questions and he provided detailed answers and some useful questions of his own. It’s on me entirely that I have not reported the results here until now or engaged with him further yet. He was prompt in replying… I have not been so prompt in reporting.
In his response Andrew L. wrote:
Some of the feedback in the Tidbits thread you shared was already implemented (the option to disable auto-submit, for example) while others are still being researched and considered. I’ll share a couple resources that address these more broadly, but let me know if there’s something in particular there you’d like to discuss and I’d be happy to share the details!
I take this to mean that the 1Password team is aware of, and is reading, at least some of TidBITS Talk. That seems to be good news to me. It appears that many of you are sour on the 1Password leadership and its team in particular (separate from the product) – I’m not sure why – but it seems only fair to note their interest in what users have to say, even if not everything users demand is reflected in the product.
I’ll continue my engagement with Andrew L. to get comfortable with 1Password 8 again before removing 1Password 7, and (of course!) rely on the TidBITS Talk community for good advice.
Take care, everyone.
Jeff
Thanks for the report.
I don’t know, I’m still totally confused by 1Password family. Seems like I can’t even change my password my master password perhaps because I am not the person who created the account? And then stuff seems to get put in private vaults the other family members cant see. i kind of gave up - still use it though.
No, if Apple could just code a nice front-end to Keychain Access!
Not a good idea. While Keychain Access could use a nice front end, KA is not a good replacement for 1Password, because KA’s passwords are saved in iCloud. Currently, if someone gets your phone after shoulder-surfing your passcode, they can take over your iCloud account and your phone (thank you, Apple, for making it possible to change my iCloud password with nothing more than a phone unlock code). If your banking and other high-value passwords are in iCloud Keychain, your life is p0wned at that point. With high-value passwords in 1P, the criminals have your phone and iCloud, but not access to your financial accounts.
Of course you guys are talking about iCloud Keychain. Keychain Access is the front end to the MacOS keychain (slightly different thing.)