Can’t believe this thread has gone up to 708 posts as we speak. Obviously struck a few nerves.
All I can say is: I plunged, and upgraded my 1Password for Family to version 8.
A day in and I am happy. System resources are in check, the UI has greatly improved and the universal filling of passwords in apps works like a charm. The attachment preview has also improved
No downsides to report as yet. Wouldn’t categorise it as an Electron app at all. I think this is now the password manager to beat
That said: I was already on a subscription with the Family Plan, so took that hurdle long before version 8. I still keep Minimalist as a backup solution.
With your clarifications, @MevetS and @webwalrus, I do not disagree with you. But why are you talking about the past?
Everything I have said applies to the current Mac version of 1Password, the Electron-based version 8 software, that requires a subscription and an online account with no option for local data storage. I thought that is what we have been discussing for some 700+ posts!
I brought it up because the “they have significant costs” justification for subscription fees (mentioned by you recently) feels like a flimsy rationalization to a number of people (and has, since the top of this thread). It very much reads as:
“We know we used to let you store this yourself, but now we’ve decided to not let you do that anymore. Trust us, it’s better this way - even if you don’t want or need it. And oh, look, it costs money for us to provide this service. So we have to charge you to recoup our costs. Sorry, can’t be helped.”
I still have 1PW because it lets me share passwords and such with others. And I don’t begrudge them some revenue for providing that service. But when they moved to subscriptions they had a blog post where they all but claimed it was impossible for them to continue supporting local vaults - and that’s clearly bogus.
From what I’ve observed you are correct that 1PW v8 does not a local vault as before. It does have a local cache of passwords and secure notes, etc which allows it to work offline. But it does not have a local cache of any documents (PDFs, etc).
IMO, functionally it is identical to the current IOS version.
They’ve been saying that problems with local vaults are their #1 support request and they think it’s important to solve the problem of data loss there. They’ve seen a lot more issues with people who regret setting up a local vault than with people who are trying not to use 1Password’s sync. They’ve also said that supporting local vaults and alternate sync methods has a significant opportunity cost of features that benefit more users. Obviously that isn’t good for you, since you don’t make those kinds of mistakes and don’t want the new features, but when you look at all their users and their whole philosophy of improving security via great UX, it starts to seem less bogus.
I actually use online vaults through 1Password currently. The only things I’m actually unhappy about are the requirements and lack of documentation around the Emergency Kit.
I just found the rollout / march to v8 to be disingenuous. I can’t find it right offhand, but I remember reading a blog post where they outright stated that there were technology-driven reasons that they couldn’t support local vaults anymore. Not that it wasn’t feasible economically, not that it was a better use of their time to not do so, but that they couldn’t do it. And that’s definitely bogus.
All the reasons you gave are potentially-valid, user-centric reasons - and make a lot of sense. Had that been the content of the post I read, I would’ve had a different opinion going into the rollout.
I have been among those who have not been entirely happy about 1Password going to Electron for its Mac app. I haven’t been unhappy about the lack of local vaults, because I have been using online vaults for some time (it works better for me for shared vaults and use on multiple devices), and I haven’t been all that worried about performance, because given the functionality of 1Password, I tended to doubt any performance hit from the Electronic underpinnings would be indistinguishable in real world usage (especially on an M1 Max!).
What I was really unhappy about is the fact that the electron-based apps I have used previously have just been ugly compared to native MacOS apps, and that degrades the user experience of being a Mac user.
Tonight for unknown reasons, 1Password 7 refused to launch on my wife’s iMac M1, after a failed attempt at an automatic upgrade. Not sure what happened, but I figured the easiest / quickest fix was just to delete the app and re-download. However, 1PW’s website offered version 8, so I took the plunge.
The UI is clearly different (as is often the case with a version upgrade), but frankly after a short amount of usage, if I did not know it had Electron underneath, I would have just thought it was a new UI design under Mac OS. (I opened the app package to confirm that the electron framework was there; it was that hard to tell otherwise.) I haven’t used it extensively, and perhaps quirks will show up, but from a very early / first impression, at this point I’m going with “well done, 1Password!”
I just installed it as well and it seems pretty quick and easy to use and integrates just as well, if not better, into Safari for the 1/2 dozen sites I quickly tried out
(Disclaimer: not a 1PW user) Hot take, but I think this was one of those things that the Apple community freaked out too much about. Yes, 1PW may have been a bastion of the native Mac app community for a long time, but their move away from that does not necessarily mean they do not care about the Mac.
I have been saying the same thing on Reddit and I get downvoted to oblivion.
1PW 8 is amazing. I used 1PW 7 (since v3!) with Dropbox sync and 1PW 8 w/ 1PW.com is superior in almost every way. It’s faster, nicer interface (IMO), sexy dark mode, and family vaults is incredible.
The only thing I don’t like about 1PW 8 is the mini-advertisement in the app and on the web site. Agilebits needs to stop this right away as it’s really polluting and disgracing their otherwise beautiful design element.
That’s currently the only way to obtain it; they are “evaluating their options to include it in the App Store as well”…
The product (v8) by itself is great (especially Universal AutoFill), but this is another weird move by the company… (probably alienating way more Mac customers than betting on Electron)
