What is included in a 1password7 backup and where is it stored?

Sharkez

I have both 1password.com teams vaults (personal and shared) and a "primary" dropbox vault.
1. Where is my backup stored locally?
2. Can I change that backup storage location?
3. What is stored in the backup? All Vaults? I really want to make sure I have a local complete copy that I can use to run 1password if something happens on the cloud.

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1Password Version: 7.2.4
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: 10.13.6
Sync Type: teams and dropbox

Lars

@Sharkez
1. ~/Library/Group Containers/2BUA8C4S2C.com.agilebits/Library/Application Support/1Password/Backups
2. No. This is a fixed location.
3. Local (standalone) vaults only. 1password.com account vaults are backed up on the server and do not have a local backup option included in the backups that are auto-generated by 1Password.

If something happens "on the cloud" - even if we as a company were to simply vanish tomorrow morning (and all our servers as well), you would still have the local copy of your 1password.com vaults right within the local 1Password for Mac app. You could create as many additional standalone (local) vaults as you needed and then just move those items over from your 1password.com account vaults to the local vaults right within 1Password for Mac, and continue on your merry way. There's really no need for additional backups beyond that. The reason we have your local app make backups of standalone vaults is because often people will not be syncing their data anywhere, which means that if something goes wrong with the working copy, there's no recourse if you haven't been making backups...so we do it automatically for you. But in the case of 1password.com, if something goes wrong with your local copy, you can get backups from the server, and if something goes wrong with the server, you can use the procedure I just outlined. Hope that helps! :)

Sharkez

Thank you, that is exactly what I needed to understand.
One additional question then, where is the local copy stored that we'd have if disaster struck on the cloud. Assume someplace close to the backup?

Lars

@Sharkez - yes, it's in the Data file (instead of the Backups file). You'll see two relevant files in there, B5.sqlite and OnePassword.sqlite. The former contains the local copy of your 1password.com account data, and the latter contains the current version of your standalone data. I'd strongly recommend against trying to make backup copies of these files. Due to version control issues, trying to restore from such a thing directly won't work and likely will have unexpected results (in the case of the B5.sqlite file), and isn't required in the case of the standalone data because you'll already have backup copies made via 1Password's automatic daily backup of standalone data.

Sharkez

Ok - but confirm something for me then [I have to admit, I'm interested because I just had my only computer die and I'm literally rebuilding as I type this]: If agilbits/cloud/1password.com disappears and my computer is fried at the same time BUT I have my backups which in my case are 1) Timemachine, 2) an occasional carbon copy cloner full copy, and 3) Backblaze (yes, I cover all my bases), will I be able to use my restored copy of the 1password local files (based on a complete restore of my disk) to create a local vault and keep on going?

I'm saying this because as I rebuild from my current computer disaster based on a complete restore, I'm planning on moving all my useful passwords to the team vault (ie, put everything I depend on in your cloud.)

Lars

@Sharkez - it depends to some extent on what data you've chosen to include in backups. If you're restoring an entire bootable backup, it should restore with the 1password.com portion of things fully intact, even if we've gone "poof" in the meantime. It won't be able to sync with the server, obviously, in such a case, but the data should all be there. I'd waste no time in such an apocalyptic scenario in transferring the data in those 1password.com vaults into local vaults...but it should work.

Then again, a case could be made that if all your devices fry at the same time as we and all our Amazon AWS servers simultaneously go "poof," you may very well have bigger fish to fry than your passwords.

Sharkez

Yah, my doomsday scenario certainly raises other specters, but bad things go through my head as I do a restore...

Lars

@Sharkez - I hear you; it's always a little paranoia-inducing to experience a theft/loss/breach/crash, especially of important data. Amazon AWS is remarkably robust in terms of disaster preparedness/recovery, however, and I'm told that a full two datacenters would have to go down before user availability would start to be affected. In all but the most-apocalyptic of situations, those would be back online at some point, and 1password.com users in the meantime wouldn't even need to worry about taking the local vault transfer option I mentioned. Just keep doing what you do, and your changes will be recorded in the local cache, then the next time you're able to connect with the server, everything will sync once more. That's actually what happens already, if (for example) you're in an area without internet connectivity/WLAN, and you make changes to your data. 1Password just stores up those changes, then syncs when it can.