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I used to think like that but syncing files and syncing passwords across multiple devices are different things, mainly because of conflict management. If you ha

I used to think like that but syncing files and syncing passwords across multiple devices are different things, mainly because of conflict management. If you have a conflict on a file which has been modified on two devices, there is not that much do you can do except using the most recent update based on timestamps and keeping the other one as a backup file. Dropbox does that for example. For password entries, it’s possible to be much master and do the same per entry, and even merge the fields within an entry. To do this in a reliable way on a remote file system, I think a file locking or a compare and swap mechanism is required. Another constraint with using a file sync service is this is introducing a kitchen and egg problem when we lose everything. We first need to restore access to the file sync service to then be able to recover the password file. Which means we can’t use the password manager for the file sync service. Not a deal breaker, as it is what I’m currently doing, but I’ve always wondered how it would go after a catastrophe like losing everything in a home fire.

Mister_Snuggles 5y ago
I'm not sure how you'd get that fine-grained when syncing with a normal file syncing service. That said, I'm generally not modifying entries in my password manager on two machines at the same time, nor am I dealing with long periods without connectivity, so I've never found this limitation to be a problem. The bootstrapping problem is an interesting one. Instead of just having a master password for the password manager, you also have to have the file sharing password as well. Like you, I've somewhat accepted this situation. For the home fire scenario, offsite backups are the answer. When you restore your backup (likely with yet another password involved!), the recent-ish local copy of the password database will be restored with it and you can use the passwords stored in that to bootstrap the syncing process. My current offsite backup regime is just a pair of portable USB drives. One is at my office, the other is at home, and I rotate them weekly (COVID messed this up). There are many other ways to do this - cloud services, a NAS sitting at a friend's place, external drives in a bank safe deposit box, etc.

Mister_Snuggles 5y ago

I'm not sure how you'd get that fine-grained when syncing with a normal file syncing service. That said, I'm generally not modifying entries in my password manager on two machines at the same time, nor am I dealing with long periods without connectivity, so I've never found this limitation to be a problem. The bootstrapping problem is an interesting one. Instead of just having a master password for the password manager, you also have to have the file sharing password as well. Like you, I've somewhat accepted this situation. For the home fire scenario, offsite backups are the answer. When you restore your backup (likely with yet another password involved!), the recent-ish local copy of the password database will be restored with it and you can use the passwords stored in that to bootstrap the syncing process. My current offsite backup regime is just a pair of portable USB drives. One is at my office, the other is at home, and I rotate them weekly (COVID messed this up). There are many other ways to do this - cloud services, a NAS sitting at a friend's place, external drives in a bank safe deposit box, etc.