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Comment by atmosx | Hacker News Reader

> As a consumer, I've never had any applications fail to use iCloud effectively, everything I use that actually leverages iCloud just works wonderfully and predictibly.

I had the opposite experience with 1Password. Now if I wanna sync I need to buy the AppStore version. I opted re-enabling my dropbox account and keep only to sync data where iCloud fails + with Dropbox sync I can use 1Password on non-mac related platforms as well (e.g. a chromebook).

Same with another iOs/OSX application called 2Do. The iCloud sync is problematic while the Dropbox sync worked flawlessly.

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thats' fair, iCloud is not meant to be used with non-apple signed binaries. so you fall outside the usecase for iCloud.

personally I keep my mac stuff and my linux stuff very very seperate, 1password doesn't really work on linux so it's a non-problem for me that iCloud doesn't function for the platform.

I'm going to sound like an apple fan-boy here; I promise you I'm not; but you said "fail" which implies it's not working as intended while appearing like it should. Could you provide more information on this? usually if the iCloud option to sync is present it works as intended for me, and I've never had otherwise (unless it's a fault with the mac/iProduct or networking).

> thats' fair, iCloud is not meant to be used with non-apple signed binaries. so you fall outside the usecase for iCloud.

What do you mean with this?

if you're downloading software from outside the app store then you can't be angry that those packages aren't allowed to talk to iCloud- probably (and I'm speculating) each binary is signed when it leaves the app store so it's allowed to talk to iCloud, I imagine this is a seperate mechanism than the one needed for auth.

and using iCloud from non-mac devices is another. I don't expect my Linux machine to be able to access iCloud.

but perhaps I'm underestimating the flexibility, or overestimating the security.

That has basically told me "never use iCloud, it's a proprietary Apple system that you can't get your data out of without their blessing".

I've never claimed otherwise.

this thing is good for syncing data, if you want the data back get it from your programs.

it's designed to be secure and easy for users not easy for hackers/coders.

I can't think of any iCloud data you can't download from the website or that is not already on your machine anyway.

> it's a proprietary Apple system

Yes, that's true.

> that you can't get your data out of without their blessing

No, that is not true.

I genuinely don't know, I develop in Windowsland and what I'm going on is what I read in this thread. A post above said:

and

I don't expect my Linux machine to be able to access iCloud

which suggest that there is something specific about this that locks the user into Apple hardware and software.

Is getting a Linux machine to talk to it just a matter of reverse-engineering the protocol, or is there more to it?

I'm just saying there is a difference between a proprietary system and needing a company's "blessing" to get data out of it.

If I save bookmarks in IE on Windows 8, I can only sync that data with another Windows 8 machine. That doesn't mean I need Microsoft's blessing to do so--just one or more of their products--which anyone can buy on the open market.

Firefox and Chrome will sync my bookmarks to any device I use. Safari and IE will not. I will not buy an iOS or WinRT device.

I don't understand. Why can't I be angry about Apple artificially limiting what apps can use the service, and also indirectly limiting what apps can do if they use the service?

EDIT: Wording of 'dropping support' to 'dropping support for the legacy API'. Also added a link to the 1Password blog.

1Password dropped support for the legacy Dropbox sync API some time ago. I was a bit bogged as well, because it needed me to re-buy 1Password from the Appstore. Previously I had v3, v4 needed to be re-bought. When you were a user of 1Password v3, they made that very transparent and also wrote[1] about it on their blog

That sucked, _but_ I get why they did it. v3 used an API of DB that was legacy and they didn't want to support it anymore, because they had a new implementation around the corner which used iCloud.

And in my experience synching got improved a lot. Yes, re-buying sucks, but that's the developers choice. That's not related to iCloud at all. Plus, the new version works better for me, so kudos to 1Password to improving their product - and charging for it seems to work, I paid them lots of money and still am a happy customer(;

1. http://blog.agilebits.com/2013/08/08/1password-3-dropbox-syn...

Hm, odd, it's still in my preferences as an option?

It is back in the new version, yes. But not anymore with the deprecated API from Dropbox. When you were a user of 1Password v3, they made that very transparent and also wrote[1] about it on their blog.

Also note that 1Password needs you to sync via Dropbox for secondary vaults.

1. http://blog.agilebits.com/2013/08/08/1password-3-dropbox-syn...

1Password dropped support for Dropbox synching of the main vault some time ago.

Wat? Not only is it still supported, but they recently squished a bug that caused Dropbox syncing to get disabled. Does your copy of the app not allow Dropbox syncing? Where did you hear about this?

The OP mentioned that he _had_ to buy the AppStore version. That was back when 1Password switched from v3 to v4. Then, they also disabled the legacy Dropbox support. They made that very transparent and also wrote[1] about it on their blog. Also note that 1Password needs you to sync via Dropbox for secondary vaults.

1. http://blog.agilebits.com/2013/08/08/1password-3-dropbox-syn...

I think you're mistaken about Dropbox sync, I'm still using it as well as several friends and family that I've turned onto 1Password.

I did answer to a similar comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8482497

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