Syncing passwords between Windows, Mac and iPhone

June 14, 2009 3:15 PM

Help me synchronise my passwords across Windows, Mac and iPhone. Preferably without having to re-enter all my existing passwords.

I use Passwordsafe on Windows, and I sync my password.dat file to my Macs using Dropbox, where I use Password Gorilla to open it, as described by Joel Spolsky.

Two problems with this:
(1) Password Gorilla is terribly shoddy, and is probably responsible for some data scrambling (fortunately non-destructive)
(2) I'd also like to sync my passwords to my iPhone

I'm prepared to spend money on software that'll do the trick. What I cannot see myself doing, however, is manually transferring the 100s of passwords in Passwordsafe to the new package. So it'll have to use or import Passwordsafe .dat files.

There are some other threads on AskMeFi related to this, but they don't have an answer.

posted by snarfois to computers & internet (6 comments total)

It looks as if KeePass comes close, in having both Windows and Mac versions, and via 3rd-party plugins, online syncing. Looks like an iPhone version is under development...

Anyone here use it? Is the Mac version any good? (I see it needs Microsoft .NET Framework, which makes me worry a bit.)
posted by snarfois at 3:18 PM on June 14, 2009

Foxmarks (now xmarks) might do the trick. I have used it sync stuff on many different computers - with the constraint that it runs on firefox. It says it will work on iphones (which I assume includes their password syncing functionality but I don't have one so can't confirm).

Presumably you can import all your passwords into firefox and then use xmarks to sync everything together, assuming you are happy with the security of their system.
posted by a womble is an active kind of sloth at 3:22 PM on June 14, 2009

Should have included a description of their password security. It's here
posted by a womble is an active kind of sloth at 3:27 PM on June 14, 2009

KeePassX 0.4.0 works just fine under OS-X. No plug-ins or auto-typing, but no .Net requirement either. Its database is portable.
posted by TruncatedTiller at 4:06 PM on June 14, 2009

I use 1Password on Mac ($$$) and iPhone (free on iPhone, syncs over wifi!) and it works wonderfully.

Of course on the iPhone you can't make "plugins" for the browser, but it at least keeps them together on the same device.

Unfortunately on Windows I just use Keepass and have to do some goofy exporting to get things from 1password.
posted by TimeDoctor at 6:28 PM on June 14, 2009

Keepass is the best I've found so far - and as soon as Apple approves the iPhone app, it will be sweet (updates here: http://ikeepass.de/bl0g/).

I'm using Windows Live Mesh (www.mesh.com) to keep my database in a central location, so it's always up-to-date. Add in Keepass on a USB drive on my keychain (with a local copy of the db) and I'm in password-heaven!
posted by noahv at 7:32 PM on June 14, 2009