One of the important features of any password manager is to be accessible on many platforms. Having apps on multiple platforms allows users to easily access their passwords on any platform whenever they need to. One of the issues you can face with multiple instances of a password manager being open is that the password databases are not synchronized perfectly. Sending any change made to the central server and then pushing it to all other devices is battery and network-intensive.
Bitwarden automatically synchronizes the local vault with the cloud vault every few minutes. This is perfectly fine for normal use cases. Suppose you just added a password or edited an entry on one platform, however. In that case, it means it won’t be transferred to the other devices immediately. You may have to wait a few minutes for it to be available. If you’re waiting for the change to push to the web vault or to the browser extension, though, you can manually force the platform to re-synchronize and get the change as soon as possible.
How to Manually Synchronize Your Vault in the Browser Extension
To synchronize the browser extension, open the extension pane by clicking on the Bitwarden icon. Next, in the extension pane, switch to the settings tab, and click “Sync.” On the new page, click “Sync vault now.”
How to Manually Synchronize Your Vault on the Website
Synchronizing the website is really easy. Simply click to one of the different tabs at the top: Send, Tools, or Settings and then click back to the “My vault” tab. When the “My vault” tab loads, it will load the latest version of the database.
If you’re using two instances of your password manager at once, it can take a little bit for the changes to synchronize from one device to another. By following the steps in this guide, you can manually force Bitwarden to synchronize, saving you time.
Paul Temple says
No, it doesn’t help.
I use bitwarden on 3 devices and it was set to auto-sync. My main laptop is where I work. For no apparent reason, Bitwarden on the Main laptop has been emptied of all data. i contains no entries of any type (and I did NOT delete them). this includes all the websites and their associated passwords plus my profile; ALL GONE! Bitwarden on my mobile (cell) phone is fine and has all the entries still present.
BUT, according how I read your info, if I tell the mobile phone’s Bitwarden to “Sync”, it will look for the MOST RECENT data and use that as the data to hold, thereby wiping clean ALL my data in all three Bitwarden images. This is NOT what I need and until you make it clear what to do, I am stuck. I can’t be certain if I can maintain my data and spread it, via sync, to where it was deleted (for no known reason) because you don’t explain.
Please update your descriptions to make the preocess more clear so that the direction of update is clear and explaining if that direction can be forced or not (it needs such an option if there isn’t one).