Icon in system tray disappears when closing 1Password

JohanvL

When I have a 1Password window open (the 'big' 1Password window) and close that, the icon in the system tray disappears and I cannot get it back by clicking on the 1Password icon in my programs list. (from what I can see it only comes back when I restart my computer). Is there a setting for this or anything to get the icon back? (I do not want to go to my browser all the time to start 1Password.. I mean, I can, but I'm used to also go to the program in my system tray)

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1Password Version: 7.3.657
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: Windows 10
Sync Type: Not Provided

bundtkate

Hey, @JohanvL! I love the system tray icon. I'm so sorry it's not cooperating with you. When you close 1Password, are you choosing 1Password > Exit or just clicking the X? The former will quit 1Password (thus removing the icon), while the latter will just hide it (so icon stays). If you're clicking the X, does using Ctrl + Shift + \ to open the main 1Password app still work? It might be that the main app is quitting when it shouldn't be, but knowing whether that keyboard shortcut works will let me know if it's the main app quitting or an issue isolated to your system tray. Thanks!

JohanvL

Hi @bundtkate , I think (if I remember correctly), that I just click the x to close it.. but I guess I'll have to pay attention next time my computer reboots. The keyboard shortcut works, yes, thank you.. I hope I can remember that though...

bundtkate

I'm still working on remembering that shortcut even though I prefer my keyboard when possible, @JohanvL, so I definitely feel ya there. Adjusting to a new workflow, even when it's one that I personally find better, is always tough. Habits are tough to break. :chuffed:

Definitely do pay attention to how you close 1Password and if you are just clicking the X, check for errors in Event Viewer next time the icon disappears:

https://support.1password.com/cs/windows-crash-report/

Send that via e-mail to us at support@1password.com and I'll take a peek. To be safe, include any recent errors, even if they don't appear 1Password-related at a glance. It'll help me make sure there's not a sneaky crash going on here and I'm more than happy to sift through the unrelated stuff. Sometimes it's tough to tell what's relevant, too, so casting a wider net is not only okay, but preferred in these cases. :+1:

Spoon25

Same issue here (Windows 10 Pro with all the updates, using 1Password 7.3.657).
On boot the icon is in the system tray, if I don't open the main app itself but just use browsers plugins the icons is always there.
As soon as I open the main app and close it with the "X" or also when choosing "1Password" > "Lock" the icon isn't anymore in the system tray.
I need to go back to my apps and run the app again. But the app wasn't really closed because if I didn't lock it, it just open without asking any password or anything. Therefore it's just the icon disappearing from the system tray while the app is still running "somewhere" (in the background).
Nothing visible in the Event Viewer.

bundtkate

We did make some changes that impacted the notification area icon when we updated the installer for 7.3, @Spoon25, but at present we're not aware of any universal issues with the icon itself and certainly nothing we're able to reproduce. It may be there is something related in Event Viewer, but it just isn't terribly clear. Again, though, this is likely to be something specific to either your PC or settings, so it's best to first look at some logs and see if we can narrow some things down. For now, I'd like to ask you to create a diagnostics report from your Windows PC:

Sending Diagnostics Reports (Windows)

Attach the diagnostics to an email message addressed to support+forum@agilebits.com.

Include a link to this thread in your e-mail so we know where it came from.

You should receive an automated reply from our BitBot assistant with a Support ID number.  If you post that number here, I can track down the diagnostics more quickly. I'll take a peek, see if anything jumps out at me, and if not, give you some things to try in an effort to pin things down. Thanks! :chuffed:

Spoon25

Done

Support ID: [#BGN-77639-423]

Greg

Hi @Spoon25,

Got it! We will take a closer look and get back to you soon. Thanks! :+1:

++
Greg

ref: BGN-77639-423

Spoon25

Hi @Greg ,
Sadly I can't seem to make it disappear anymore (never knew how I did that anyway).
As I rarely use the icon I only noticed it when I wanted to use it, therefore can also be something random or related to something else.
Will keep an eye on it and see if I can manage to make it disappear again.

Greg

Hi @Spoon25,

Thanks for the info! If you even bump into this issue again, please let us know. We will investigate further.

Cheers,
Greg

JohanvL

Hi @bundtkate I've been without issues for a while now, so.. we're good! Icon doesn't disappear anymore. Thank you for your time! :)

bundtkate

Glad to hear it, @JohanvL! Fingers crossed it keeps up and all remains well with the world. :chuffed:

rikkyde

Same problem here; I just re-installed 1Password on a new hard drive. When it closes, there is no icon in the tray. I close (with the X). Cntl-Shift-\ does work when "closed" to bring it forward again, but I prefer to use a mouse.

UPDATE: needed to reboot - problem now went away. Let's see what happens over time.

AGAlumB

Thanks for the update! Glad that all is well now, but we're here if you need us. :)

ArcanePhoenix

I have the same problem here across multiple computers and multiple re-installations of Windows. I use it several times a day and there is at least one instance each day that I go to find the icon and it is missing. There are no events in the Event Viewer that are related to 1Password. What I noticed the last time that the icon is missing is that 1Password was still running under background processes in Task Manager. If I re-launch the 1Password program, the icon does not return. I can use the keyboard shortcut to open 1Password Mini when this happens. If I force that background process to close and re-open the 1Password client, the icon re-appears and all is fine. I will bookmark this thread and provide a diagnostic report when it happens next.

AGAlumB

@ArcanePhoenix: Thanks for chiming in. That's very strange indeed. You wouldn't be looking for something from 1Password in Event Viewer, because 1Password isn't going to be killing its own notification tray icon. It's going to be something else. So I'm not sure that a diagnostics report will tell us more than that it is getting killed and when, but we can definitely take a look. :)

twamey

I have had this issue for some time. Same details as the rest: if I use the 'mini' by clicking on the icon, or I use the browser plugins, the icon remains. If I open the 'app' and close it with the 'X' - the icon will often disappear. The App is still running in the background and accessible via the shortcut keys, but the only way to get the icon back is to either: 1) reboot or 2) forcibly close the App and relaunch from Start. I see this on 2 computers consistently (both Windows 10, latest updates all around).

bundtkate

I don't know that I have much more to add to this than what Brenty has already said, @twamey – nothing 1Password does is going to remove that icon unless and until its process is terminated. I don't suppose there's any chance the icon remains and somehow gets punted into the overflow menu? I drag mine out personally, but by default, it lives behind that ^ down by your clock and perhaps something is "tidying" and demoting it back to the default position under certain circumstances?

twamey

Unfortunately you are incorrect. I am attaching a screen capture wherein you will see 1Passwords processes running, no tray icon, either on the main screen where mine is set to live - or buried under the ^.

There is a bug - and it's been there for a long time.

bundtkate

I've asked our development team to confirm this for me, @twamey, but my understanding is that 1Password itself can't remove that tray icon. Windows controls what icons are shown so we ask Windows to add one and it does. Windows will remove it when that app's process is terminated. If I'm wrong, of course, I'll definitely let you know, but this is how that process works based on everything I've seen. Now, there are other things that can remove that icon. For example, I know restarting Explorer will remove it. Relaunching, in that case, we re-add it because we ask for it to be added every time 1Password starts, but removal is handled wholly by Windows. Another oddity this can cause is what I call "ghost icons". If 1Password crashes, for example, the icon will persist until moused over because Windows doesn't recognize the process is no longer running until it tries to show you something on that mouseover action and sees the process is gone. We've definitely considered ways to exert more control over that icon so that it can come back after Explorer is restarted, but this technically isn't a bug. It's working as designed, it's just that we don't have a ton of control over that icon in the system designed so it can lead to losing it under the right circumstances.

twamey

I follow your logic here, and it sounds tight to me... but the end results do not align with that understanding. No other system tray icon on my system disappears without me force-closing it - just 1Password. And as my screenshot indicates, the applications processes are still running - despite the icon not being there. You'll notice I have a healthy number of icons: two VPNs, my endpoint protection application, OneDrive Personal, OneDrive Business, Chrome, Bluetooth, Slack, OneNote, as well as USB, Battery, Networking, and Sound. None of them ever disappear if the program is still running. 1Password disappears every week while never terminating. Something else is amiss, and given the handful of results when searching for this issue - I am not alone in the experience. I can safely say that just closing the program does not, every time, cause the icon to disappear. I have yet to work-out the sequence that causes it... but if I can find any additional data, I will certainly let you know. For now, I will kill the process when I discover the icon missing, then re-launch, as that always puts it back.

bundtkate

I'm not sure how you'd genuinely check for this, @twamey, but my inclination would be to believe Explorer is restarting for some reason as a best guess here. This is a scenario where our icon will disappear and others may well not. As I touched on earlier, restarting Explorer definitely kills it and we should be resurrecting it after, but we're not as yet. Others may already be properly bringing their icons back after an Explorer restart thus making it look like closing 1Password is triggering only our icon to be removed when in fact the cause is a bit more complicated. I can say that we've made several efforts to reproduce this issue and, outside of restarting Explorer, I'm not aware of any that have yielded results, but there must be a first for everything.

One thing a teammate brought up when we were discussing this issue too that I thought worth a mention – if you choose 1Password > Exit and actually quit 1Password, that will remove the icon. Clicking the X to just close it, of course, will not. If you do so happen to be using 1Password > Exit, though, it could be that you're quitting the app, the icon is (properly) being removed, but it's being relaunched by your extension because a browser is open or something of that sort and what's happening is that the icon isn't being re-added on app start as it should. Just another possible scenario. If you're not exiting, that's not gonna be it, but figured it was worth bringing up in case. :+1:

twamey

Thanks for the reply - I'll address this in reverse order:
1. To be clear - I am not forcing the App closed via 'quit' when the icon goes away... I am using the X in the upper right corner - this is confirmed above by the fact that I have screen shots showing the 1Password processes running - even though the icon has disappeared.

2. After reading what you wrote I am 100% certain it is the restarting of Explorer that is behind the disappearance. 1Password, however, is the cause for the lack of re-appearance (as noted, every other App that has a system tray icon re-appears without issue across two machines in the test group). I am not 100% certain I know why Explorer.exe is restarting from time to time, but it happens on both my Lenovo AIO and my Surface Pro 6. The problem is easily reproduced - kill Explorer, it will restart, the icon is now gone... only way to get it back is to force 1Password to exit (either with the quit menu or via Taskmanager), then re-launch 1Password. As noted, there are roughly 15 icons in my tray - only one cannot sustain its presence through an Explorer restart. Can we get that on the docket for a fix (or you can call it a feature if you like)?

bundtkate

As I mentioned, @twamey, the issue with restarting Explorer is one we're aware of and we're already considering options to improve there. As a rule, though, Explorer shouldn't be restarting. We know folks who are doing so intentionally for their own reasons so we do want to resolve the issue with that icon not coming back, but Explorer restarting when you're not actively telling it to do so is not something I'd view as normal and may be worth investigating independently. Although the primary symptom you're seeing is with 1Password's icon and that we can fix, the underlying problem is likely to remain even if we do resolve that issue and it could be causing other problems that aren't quite so obvious.

neonb

Hiya – exactly the same problem and circumstances as @twamey here. I have no idea why my Explorer would be restarting, but it looks like it does, and the tray icon for 1Password disappears. I've got a pretty barebones W10 installation too, no tools or services or customizations that would affect Windows processes.

ag_ana

Thank you for sharing your experience with us as well @neonb :+1: I think the last post from my colleague bundtkate should address your scenario too.

neonb

@ag_ana No problem. The post by bundtkate indeed addresses my problem, but doesn't really help me with it. The disappearing 1Password icon is the only symptom I've experienced of Explorer restarting. I've never actually noticed it restart by itself either. And I don't know of any means of troubleshooting that specific underlying issue – which, mind you, doesn't cause problems with any other app from what I've seen.

It's a minor issue on a long backlog for sure, but its impact is greater than zero. :)

MikeT

Hi @neonb,

The only thing we can suggest is looking at Windows' reliability monitor, it's a built-in tool that can show you issues. You can find it by searching for it in the start menu.

1Password has to listen to explorer.exe terminating and then when it comes back online, we have to manually re-attach the icon. It's not something any app should be doing but we don't have this code right now in 7.3.

We did add this support in 1Password 7.4 beta builds, so it is working in there now. You can expect this to work in the next major stable update.

neonb

Thanks for the update @MikeT! I'll see if I can find anything interesting with the reliability monitor.

MikeT

You're welcome.

twamey

Doth mine eyes deceive me or did a recent 1Password update fix this issue? I just restarted Explorer.exe (to deal with the scaling issues that Windows still struggles with when using portable devices and moving from a 3 screen desk setup to a single screen - and back) and viola... 1Password remains in the tray. I was so shocked that I did it again. It's still there. Just like the rest of my tray icons, it doesn't go away! Woohoo.