Password management with Dropbox and KeePassXC

Samantha Lam
Nowadays we have to handle an enormous quantity of passwords. As it is not desirable to reuse passwords, nor to write down, it is necessary to have a way manage them. My must- and nice-to-have list was:
- Encrypted passwords
- Passwords need to be always available, not depend on cloud storage
- Being able to access them from different OS
- Open-source software for encryption
- Synchronization among unlimited devices
After research and thinking in advantages and drawbacks among the different methods, I came to the solution of using an offline password manager (KeePassXC) and service to synchronize files (Dropbox).
KeePassXC is an open-source cross-platform password manager that has has support for Windows, Linux, macOS. Although the there is not official, KeePassXC uses a database format that can be read and written with other Android and iOS apps.
To set up this password management strategy just:
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Created a database with KeePassXC, and select a strong password for it. This password must be memorable as it should not be stored in any place but in your head.
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Place the KeePassXC database file in a Dropbox folder. This will keep it synchronized in all your Dropbox devices.
This approach has worked very nice in my case, although it presents disadvantages such as:
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If the master password for the database is lost, all the passwords are locked.
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In March 2019, Dropbox put a limit of 3 devices for Basic (free) users, and two different OS in the same computer count as two devices.
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