Nowadays it is possible to save access passwords to sites using one of the many online password management services, which thanks to apps or browser extensions allows you to always have all passwords at hand without having to remember them all ( so as to also avoid using the same password for many sites!). Despite the high security of services that save passwords on the Internet, the risk of password theft due to hackers is always high, thus compromising access to our services. Instead of using online password managers, we propose in this guide a valid "homemade" alternative so as to minimize the risk of hackers: we will see how to configure KeePass to be used on a personal cloud, with access from any PC, smartphone or tablet both Android and iOS.
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Download and configure KeePass
The protagonist of this guide is KeePass, a free program that can save our access credentials in a local database, therefore safe from any hacker.
We can download it from here -> KeePass .
We download version 2.xx and install it on our PC; at the end of the installation we start the program and click on New at the top.
We confirm the creation of a new password database, choosing the location and name for the database and a master password, that is a password that will protect access to the database (we will only have to remember this from now on). At the end of the configuration, the program will be ready to accept all the access credentials that we use for the various sites.
To create a new entry just click on the top on Add Entry, as indicated by the arrow below.
Once all the login credentials that we want to save inside KeePass have been added, click on the top on Save (floppy icon) to save the changes.
We close the program and go to the folder where we placed the database file created by the program, we will need it later.
Configure personal cloud on PC
Now that KeePass is ready, we will have to configure a cloud computing service that will be the basis for synchronizing the newly created database on all the devices we use, so that the changes or additions made on one device are also available on the others.
The best we can use for this purpose is Google Drive, which has a convenient synchronization client that can be installed on a PC; we can download the client from here -> Google Drive Client PC .
We download the Backup and synchronization file and install it on a PC; when requested, enter the login credentials for our Google account (the one used on Android to download apps is also fine). The program will create a folder on the PC synchronized with the cloud: all the files that we will copy or create in here will also be saved on Google Drive! So once the client is configured, all we have to do is move the KeePass database (be careful not to copy, but just move the entire file) just created inside the Google Drive synchronization folder and wait for it to be available on the cloud. We can quickly access the synchronized Google Drive folder by right clicking on the program icon in the system tray and clicking on Open Google Drive folder .
Now all we have to do is configure other devices to use this database on Google Drive.
Use KeePass remotely on other PCs
Accessing the KeePass database saved on Google Drive from other PCs is very simple: we will only have to download the Google Drive Client again, log in with Google credentials and download KeePass to the new PC, so as to have access to all the saved passwords. If we are looking for something integrated in web browsers we can use some extensions to obtain KeePass passwords.
For Mozilla Firefox we recommend downloading the KeePass Tusk extension, available here -> KeePass Tusk .
With this app we will be able to access the Google Drive cloud space (via authorization token) and open the KeePass database, so that we can see the access credentials directly from the extension or use the auto-fill to speed up the access to a site.
If we use the Google Chrome browser instead, we recommend using the CKP extension, available here -> CKP .
Once the extension is installed, open it, select Google Drive, enter Google's login credentials and choose the KeePass database file, so that you can access the saved passwords while browsing, complete with auto-fill.
Use KeePass remotely with Android
We want to access the KeePass password database saved in the cloud from an Android smartphone or tablet "> Keepass2Android Password Safe.
As soon as the app is installed, start it, select Google Drive as the source for the database, allow access to the app on our Google Drive cloud and finally select the KeePass database. At this point, the app will ask for the master password to access the database and we will have all our credentials available, just tap on an item to obtain a username and password.
Alternatively we can access the database by installing Google Drive and downloading the file locally, but in this way we will lose synchronization in case of changes to the database.
We can install Google Drive on Android from here -> Google Drive (Android).
Use KeePass remotely with iPhone
If we use an iPhone or iPad and we want to access the passwords saved on the KeePass database on Drive we will have to install the free MiniKeePass app, available here -> MiniKeePass (disappeared).
With this app it will also be possible to open the database saved on Google Drive and thus obtain (after entering the master password) all the access credentials that we had saved, ready to be used in other apps or on the web browser. Alternatively, as already seen on Android, we can access the database by installing Google Drive for iOS and downloading the file locally, but in this way we will lose synchronization in case of changes to the database.
We can install Google Drive on iPhone and iPad from here -> Google Drive (iOS).
READ ALSO: Best apps to manage passwords on Android and iPhone
