Sync status / restart / force
Hi,
I'm using 1password account and I noticed that sync process is failing several times when at work.
This is because internet connectivity is lost several times a day, mostly after periods of innactivity.
The problem is that the app doesn't display anywhere the sync status (outside the log/ console), if it failed or not and does not have the option to restart the process, having to restart the app in order to resume.
Could sync status and the option to restart the process be added somewhere? Maybe in the title bar near the lock button or even in the menu where the app update status is.
This is a must for an app that relies on internet sync for those in more restricted environments.
Thanks.
Comments
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The sync status should be displayed already, @AOS. We did make it rather unobtrusive, so it's somewhat easy to miss, but it's a little cloud icon with a slash through it that will show on the title bar any time 1Password isn't able to connect to the server. The decision to make it fairly subtle was actually motivated by folks in a restricted environment. Imagine if you saw a notification pop up every single time you lost connectivity at work. It may seem useful at first, but I think it would get aggravating after a time.
As for forcing a sync, you don't need to restart the app. There are a few different ways to do that. Waiting is enough, actually. Sync fires every hour, so if you don't have a remote change you need right away, hang tight and things will sort themselves out. If you need a more immediate sync, you can either lock and unlock 1Password or make a local change. Both of these will force a fresh sync as well.
Finally, I'd just like to point out that 1Password X tends to be less impacted by restricted network environments. In fact, folks wanting to use their personal 1Password accounts at work was one of the catalysts for our building 1Password X. As a rule, companies just allow browsers a bit more freedom than desktop apps so living in your browser gives 1Password X an advantage over 1Password for Windows. If you're open to it, you might give 1Password X a try and see if it works better for you at work. :chuffed:
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Hi, thanks for the reply. Will look at the cloud icon tomorrow, I totally missed that today... one improvement to that could be to make the cloud icon clickable to force a sync without having to lock/unlock?
After posting this, I found another thread in the forum talking about problems with proxy environments so I think my connection issues/problems/experience might be totally fixed once that issue is finally resolved.
Regarding 1Password X, I'm using it on another device, I still find it a bit more limited than the desktop app (missing tag tree for example).
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We've historically been a bit reluctant to add a "sync now" button, @AOS, but I'll never say never. It is a bit selfish of us, but the reality is that we cannot possibly test every possible network configuration and it is just so valuable to get reports of sync issues from folks in environments like yours where certain proxy configurations might be causing unexpected issues. We'd never know about them but for your reports and the idea of missing out on those because there's a "fix it" button is a bit scary.
That said, I've personally spent a lot of time recently pondering the impacts not having such an option may have on folks. Yes, you can lock and unlock, but that's not very discoverable and may leave some folks feeling stuck. It's not my decision, but I'd love to see us consider something that allows y'all an immediate fix for sync problems but also encourages you to report them and makes it easier to do so. I don't know what that would look like nor can I promise any specific change, but I do get it and it's a discussion I'd love to see us have internally. For now, I wouldn't expect such a button any time soon, but I do appreciate the feedback, have thought about it a fair bit myself, and will be sure to share your thoughts with the team.
Oh, and do let me know if you don't see the cloud icon. If you don't see one, it may be worth a closer look as that could mean something other than a simple connection problem is at the root of your troubles. :+1:
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Hi, I can't see the cloud icon, running 7.3.684... this morning as expected, connection was lost until I logged back in to the system. The errors logged are like this:
WRN:6764 │ 1Password::api:1698 │ 56269041ms │ Network request #94 failed in 101ms, status NameResolutionFailure (The remote name could not be resolved: 'my.1password.com')A restart of the app is required to get it to work again, lock/unlock does not restore connectivity.... clearly the proxy issue I mentioned, however, no indication that the sync or connectivity has failed is visible anywhere outside the console.
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Could you perhaps give some additional detail on what's involved with logging back into the system, @AOS? I don't want to give any false hope, but not all proxies are a problem and I can imagine circumstances where 1Password may be able to deal with your configuration already based on the limited info I have at present. I'd hate to have you dealing with this until a fix for the known proxy issues is out if it's unnecessary.
As for the cloud icon, I had chat with the team to get some clarity on when it should pop up, and the short version is that it'll display when 1Password knows your network is down. That generally means it'll show when Windows states the network is down. If your network is instead pending authentication, Windows may send a different message thus not triggering that icon. This won't help on waking from sleep, but if you disable autostart in Settings > General, that could save some grief when you first boot up. You can sign in to the system and start 1Password after (or allow it to start itself when you open your browser) that way it won't miss its sync because your network will be ready when it first starts. :+1:
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I'm sorry but I don't really know the details about how it's setup. It seems proxy authentication is lost after sometime of inactivity (usually when going out to eat or long meetings) and it does not work again until NLTM auth is forced through a browser.
The main problem is that with the said proxy issue, manually configuring the proxy IP and user/pass ends up failing so after that issue is fixed, this should be fine.
The main hiccup is still the fact that no indication is shown when there's no connectivity, for example when the error "WRN:6764 │ 1Password::api:1698 │ 56269041ms │ Network request #94 failed in 101ms, status NameResolutionFailure (The remote name could not be resolved: 'my.1password.com')" is ocurring.
Maybe this can be escalated to the dev team so they could improve the cloud icon to reflect more cases and not only when network is down?
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@AOS: There's not much development work that can be done to combat a specific problem without knowing the details, I'm afraid. And if you're having to authenticate through a web browser, that's not even within Windows network configuration which we can try to work with. Ultimately there is no way for us to tell a difference between your network being down and something interfering to the point where 1Password simply cannot connect -- like a proxy, firewall, or "security" software that inserts itself in the middle.
If 1Password complained loudly any time someone's device is offline, that would quickly become tiresome for many people -- and I suspect you as well. We're continuing to work on ways to allow 1Password to better work around and recover from connectivity problems, but there is only so much we can do; we don't have control over the connection, and only limited ability to track it, especially without bogging down people's systems in repeated retry attempts. We'll keep working to strike a better balance though. Thanks for your feedback! :)
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Just to clarify, I'm just referring to the addition of a little indicator, somewhere in the app and in a non intrusive format, that just let's you know in a quick look:
"hey, the last sync failed, you should do something if you need your changed passwords on another device right now".
I imagine you can see in an easy way that the sync could not be done on the last attempt, so showing this in the app should not be too difficult.
I think this is an important matter because, if you have been adding or updating entries, if you don't see that the sync failed (the reason does not matter at this point), you are in risk of finding yourself on the move without the required accounts :'(
If you were using something like Dropbox or Google Drive to sync your database, they would tell you that sync failed. But I'm using (and very happy with it :) ) a 1Password membership so...
Not gonna insist much on it tough. I just hope the known proxy issue is fixed soon and maybe then, I will never have a sync issue to worry about again 8-)
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Just to clarify, I'm just referring to the addition of a little indicator, somewhere in the app and in a non intrusive format, that just let's you know in a quick look:
"hey, the last sync failed, you should do something if you need your changed passwords on another device right now".
I imagine you can see in an easy way that the sync could not be done on the last attempt, so showing this in the app should not be too difficult.
I think this is an important matter because, if you have been adding or updating entries, if you don't see that the sync failed (the reason does not matter at this point), you are in risk of finding yourself on the move without the required accounts :'(@AOS: I understand completely, and as mentioned above we'll continue to work to improve it, but as I also mentioned it's not really as simple as you -- or I, frankly -- wish it was. ;)
If you were using something like Dropbox or Google Drive to sync your database, they would tell you that sync failed. But I'm using (and very happy with it :) ) a 1Password membership so...
1Password users -- including me -- have sync'd data with Dropbox for literally a decade, and that's simply not the case. Dropbox doesn't usually give 1Password any feedback (over and above 1Password being able to determine on its own that there's some network issue), and often doesn't give the user any either. We've gotten plenty of messages from users who say, "My data hasn't been syncing for six months, but I didn't know until now! Help!" That is not an exaggeration. :angry:
Not gonna insist much on it tough. I just hope the known proxy issue is fixed soon and maybe then, I will never have a sync issue to worry about again 8-)
Absolutely. I'm sorry to shoot down some of your reasonable suggestions for being infeasible, but we'll keep exploring options to make it more resilient to connection failure. Thank you for your feedback on this! :)
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