From Clipperz to Password Safe
Publisert lørdag 21 mai 2011 klokka 00:49
As everyone else I have a lot of accounts on the web, and I know that I shouldn't use the same password everywhere. Seriously, don't do it. So, some years ago I started using password managers. I didn't select one of the many desktop applications - mostly because it would have been hard to keep the password database files in sync between all my computers. I selected Passpack - one of the better online password managers. Because it didn't support HTTP Basic Auth, which I had to use a lot, I switched to Clipperz - another great online password managers.
I have used Clipperz until today - more or less happily. Today I switched to Password Safe - a desktop password manager. I know, moving from the cloud to the desktop is kind of against the trend. However, the reasons I did it now are:
- Easy syncing with Dropbox - even to my phone using the Android Dropbox App.
- The Android Password Safe App is much easier to use than the mobile version of the Clipperz website.
So you could still say I'm using the cloud, but I have switch from the browser to native programs.
Data corruption in Clipperz
You might wonder why I switched from Clipperz - I even made a donation to the clever guys behind Clipperz. The reasons are:
- Data corruption: From time to time one or two cards in your Clipperz database would become corrupted. Since you don't know when it happens and with which cards, you basically need to keep a lot back-ups - one for each time you add a card - so you don't loose any cards. (This is a known problem - check the Clipperz forums.)
- Stalled development: It's a long time since the Gamma version, with it's slick interface, was published. However, it never seems to graduate to Beta ... (The Gamma version is really great - a huge improvement from the default Beta version.)
- Unstable Gamma version: There are several things that is unfinished in the Gamma version, which is expected, but having to login in several times a day (because of "undefined" cards) forces me to switch back to the Beta version every time I try the Gamma version.
The switch
Moving from Clipperz to Password Safe wasn't straight forward. Password Safe can't import the JSON file exported by Clipperz, only a XML file in a format defined by Password Safe. I fixed this by writing a small PHP script, clipperz2passwordsafe.php, that converts from JSON to XML. You can grab the script from my GitHub repository.
2 kommentarer
I’ve been using Clipperz for quite a while now. I used to get the “undefined” card error every now and then on one computer (a very old machine with only 256Mb memory) but otherwise I have found it to be fine. I’ve never had a card get corrupted. Also, I just log in once a day (it’s the first thing I do when I open my browser) and from then on it’s fine. I lock my screen when I’m not at my machine. My Clipperz password is 28 characters long so logging in multiple times would drive me crazy! That said, I’ll look at Password Safe.
David - 24-05-2011 19:33I’m happy that you haven’t had any corrupted cards, but are you sure? There are probably some cards that you haven’t opened for a very long time…
The only way to discover if a card is corrupted, is by opening it. Luckily, you can check all your cards in one go by exporting (to JSON). If the export stops before all cards have been processed you know that a card is corrupted. If you use Clipperz, you should really do this test regularly, for example once a month.
PS! I’m not claiming that Password Safe is the best desktop password manager (with an Android). KeePass is probably more feature rich.
Hans Nordhaug - 25-05-2011 09:18