I keep getting the error message: "1Password couldn't complete it's install. Your 1Password folder"

crewchief

"1Password couldn't complete it's install. Your 1Password folder is in use or is read only. Check the permissions of the 1Password directory and close other programs that may be using that folder." I've since deleted the app for Windows (and now it will not install because of this message), the 1Password extension/add-on for Mozilla Firefox, and the extension/add-on for Google Chrome. I attempted to re-download the app for Windows and got the same message. I was able to download the extensions/add-ons. I have Malwarebytes and I disabled it with no luck. Not sure what else to try. Every time I opened the app when installed, it gave me that message and had a red bar on the bottom of the popup window that said the "update wasn't able to install, click here to retry". It showed that the version was up-to-date when I looked, however. This problem started after the last update.

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1Password Version: 7.4.759
Extension Version: 1.18.1
OS Version: OS 18363.720
Sync Type: Not Provided
Referrer: forum-search:read only

debbiej

I have the same problem, came here looking for help. It started after a Windows update. Cannot install 7.4.769 update, and the error message keeps popping up. What will fix this?

crewchief

Mine just resolved. I deleted all forms of 1Password from my laptop (Windows app and browser extensions), installed the latest version of my anti-virus (Malwarebytes),and then went to the 1Password website and performed the Windows download. I no longer get the error message. Can't explain why, but my assumption is that it has something to do with my anti-virus.

debbiej

Thanks @crewchief. Darn - it sounds like a lot of work! But at least I know what to try when I find the time.

bundtkate

You actually shouldn't need to remove anything at all if you're running into the Malwarebytes issue, @debbiej. Just update Malwarebytes, restart your PC and 1Password should update after. @crewchief was absolutely right that there was an issue with Malwarebytes, but they fixed it up in an update and the reboot frees up the locks on those files/folders so just those two steps should fix thing up. :+1:

sguergachi

I don;t have Malwarebytes and I still have this issue

bundtkate

Do you have any other antivirus software, @sguergachi? If so, what version of 1Password are you updating from? Finally, have you tried updating with all web browsers and Explorer windows closed? Sometimes this is as simple as your browser relaunching 1Password before it finished its update so that can sometimes help. :+1:

debbiej

@bundtkate - Thank you for that tip! I updated Malwarebytes, and now 1Password is also updated and no more error messages. That was easy after all. I really appreciate the help!

bundtkate

Thrilled to hear it, @debbiej! Enjoy and if I can do anything else to help, give me a holler. Stay safe out there! :chuffed:

sguergachi

I have the default Windows Defender anti virus that comes with Windows 10

sguergachi

updating from Version 7.4.758

ag_ana

@sguergachi:

Can you make sure there are no updates to the definitions of Windows Defender in Windows Update?

Also, can you please answer this question that my colleague bundtkate asked you previously?

Finally, have you tried updating with all web browsers and Explorer windows closed? Sometimes this is as simple as your browser relaunching 1Password before it finished its update so that can sometimes help. :+1:

sguergachi

That didn't work on both cases, update defender and close browser (Firefox). And the fun thing is when it fails to install 1Password will keep trying forever in an infinite loop to try installing the update and relaunching itself which causes it to check for updates which causes it to automatically attempt to install the update and fail which causes it to restart which causes it to relaunch itself which causes it to check for updates which causes it to automatically attempt to install the update and fail... :'( >_<

sguergachi

Seriously, devs, what am I supposed to do here: https://share.getcloudapp.com/geu2GBvq
This is not the user experience I expect form 1Password. Old school 1Password that used to care about UX would have paid attention to this. This feels like 1Password doesn't care about it's users. If it fails to install don't keep trying! this is basic stuff guys!

sguergachi

I don't want this issue fixed 1Password, I want to know how you will change your internal processes to prevent issues like this. You can fix this like a game of Wac-a-mole, but still build your apps the same broken way. Because the experience of 1Password for windows can be described as death by a thousand paper cuts, most of which I haven't posted about. This one I had to because it is literally user hostile. Which, as a developer myself, would consider a complete and utter embarrassment.

sguergachi

Thank god I know how to use Task Manager. If this was my mom using 1Password, an application which we pay to make password management painless I would be livid.

bundtkate

This shouldn't be happening, @sguergachi, and if it were during beta we'd definitely not have shipped it. How this process works is that we add a marker to your 1Password folder when the update fails. The updater should see that marker and wait 24 hours if its last update failed. Now, you might predict how this could go wrong based on the error – if your 1Password folder is read-only, then it's not like we can write that marker to that folder so the updater doesn't know to calm down. That could be what's happening here.

If I'm right, we do owe you an apology. Finding that these folders could somehow end up read-only was something we didn't see until well after release so we definitely did not design the update process with that in mind. We've already made some improvements that should help – we have updated that dialogue to provide some self-help options that so far have been able to resolve this in all but the edgiest of edge cases – but you do need to get updated to get any benefit from that. We also absolutely should find a way to get the installer to pause when that marker can't be written. I've already had a chat with our development team about it and we'll see what we can do.

With that covered and given what you're seeing, I think I want to try things out of order and assume your folder is read-only. We've seen very little of this, but it makes the most sense given your experience. So, without further ado, let's give it a go:

1. Right-click the 1Password icon in the notification area and select Exit. You may need to click the ^ down by your clock to see it.
2. Open Windows File Explorer and enter %LOCALAPPDATA% in the address bar
3. Go up one directory or click “AppData” in the address bar. You’ll see three folders: Local, LocalLow, and Roaming.
4. Right-click the empty area below the three folders and select Properties.
5. In the General tab, click the box next to Read-only so it is empty.
6. Click Apply, then click OK.
7. Try updating 1Password again.

If that doesn't help, go ahead and attach that diagnostics report to an e-mail sent to support+forum@1password.com so we can take a closer look. We definitely want to get you updated, but even more than that we need to figure out why the installer isn't pausing for you as it should. If it isn't that your 1Password folder is read-only, I'm not sure what might be causing it and it's something we should definitely get fixed up.

When you send that e-mail, you should get an autoreply from BitBot with a support ID number. If you post that here, it will help me find your e-mail so I can take a look. Also, if you'd prefer to continue the conversation here, that's fine – just let me know. I just want the diagnostics to come via e-mail so we're not sharing them with the world. :+1:

debbiej

@bundtkate's explanation rings true with my experience. With 1Password in the infinite loop of trying and failing to update, I first tried to fix the problem myself by removing the "read only" designation on my folders, but that was time-consuming and I kept thinking I shouldn't have to do that. When that didn't help, @bundtkate advised me to update Malwarebytes - and then everything worked.

@sguergachi, I feel your frustration, and I hope the steps above help. @bundtkate, I'm glad to read about the improvements made to avoid such problems going forward. Thanks for talking to the development team!

bundtkate

Thanks for the encouragement, @debbiej! It's tough because in some cases, portion of this problem are out of our control so there's a limit to how much we can do to fix things depending on the root cause as much as we'd love to see the end of these folder locking problems. Thankfully, you at least should have seen the back of them since the issue with Malwarebytes was a one-off. Hopefully we'll make our way towards that being the case for everyone else too. :chuffed:

Funglin

A slightly different error message than the one I got before, but I got out of today's loop by rebooting. I also completed a Malwarebytes update (still the same 4.1.0 version, though) right before rebooting. It would be nice to see this recent, time-consuming aggravation go away at some point.

sguergachi

So I tried removing the read-only attribute, but it didn't stick

after:

retry installation, same issue >_<

sguergachi

how do I send diagnostics?

sguergachi

Just to make it clear: after security, your number 2 priority as a development team should be to have a very robust installation process.
1. You insist on making auto-updating on by default (I assume for security reasons).
2. If all else fails, you should be able to push out an update to fix any issues a previous release introduced. If your installation process fails then this can't happen.
3. At the very very least, make sure the installation process doesn't completely disrupt a user's ability to use your application, which is supposed to be an application that takes care of a very critical job in your users lives. I seriously still don't understand why in the world would pressing the cancel button on a "Hey the installation failed" dialog go ahead and re-launch the setup executable in the first place, marker or not.

I really really really hope you guys take this experience to heart and seriously take a look at how you can properly design/test against all the edgiest of edgiest of cases, because if someone is going to hit that case it's just the worst, they are completely stuck as I am now, and fixing it is like pulling teeth. And I need 1Password, it has all my passwords! So over investing in a great robust installation process should be a no brainier for you guys.

sguergachi

So I uninstalled and attempted to reinstall to no avail. Then I followed instructions that said to update windows, for some reason that worked. Maybe it wasn't the update, but just a reboot that cleared the read only field, but that probably should be recommended as a way to workaround this issue.

Anyways, the issue seems to be solved now, but I've turned off automatic updates so this doesn't happen in the future, and I recommend everyone does the same.

bundtkate

Pending Windows updates can and do cause trouble, @sguergachi, and beyond 1Password as well. I was just chatting with a teammate about it messing up a git pull. We honestly aren't sure why they do that. These updates shouldn't be doing anything until you reboot and yet there's evidence they are. It's something we'll have to figure out for sure and we'd love to do, but I've got a pending update as we speak and can't reproduce this. It doesn't change the fact that things need fixing for sure, but we absolutely do have to understand why certain behaviors are triggered first and for that, we're probably going to need a hand from y'all. We all use our PCs differently with different settings and different software and every time we find a new way this happens, we are getting closer to having tests for those edgiest of edge cases, but I doubt there's a development team out there able to think of everything. All we can do is our best effort and focus on continually improving so we're catching more of them every day.

To that end, though I'm glad this is sorted for you, it would still be a huge help to take a look at your logs. You can find steps to send those diagnostics here:

https://support.1password.com/diagnostics/?windows

If you're willing to take the time to send those over, it would help a ton towards improving things. :+1:

sguergachi

I've sent the diagnostics.

To your comments, fair to say I've never run into as many frustratingly painful installation problems as I have with 1Password for Windows. Believe it or not this is the second time I've had update installation issues similar (but not the same) as this with 1Password for Windows that prevented me from using it, hopefully you can sympathize with my immense frustration.

This seems to be a solved problem in the industry as far as I'm concerned, I know this is a straw man but I don't understand why is it that all other applications I download (consumer and enterprise grade applications) install flawlessly (99.99% success I would say) but 1Password seems to have all these edge cases that people seem to hit? Is 1Password doing something so special for installation that leads to all these edge cases? Why not use a native solution like msix or some of the shelf thing that most apps seem to use without issue?

DuaneA67

Same issue for days here. I'm stuck in a cycle of clicking on error messages, even though I hit cancel on the dialog that Funglin posted. It is followed by another message that the installer is rolling back changes. Then the above dialog appears again. Only way to stop it is to End Task on it.

Greg

@sguergachi: We have received your diagnostics report. We will take a look and get back to you via email soon.

We are always looking at ways to improve 1Password experience and I once again apologise for this inconvenience with update and installation. Your report and logs will be really helpful and they will help us get better. Thank you!

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@DuaneA67: Are you using any kind of AV/anti-malware software on your computer? Does it happen to be Malwarebytes? Please let us know. Thanks!

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Stay safe,
Greg

ref: XHK-54895-966

DuaneA67

@Greg Yes, MalwareBytes premium.

DuaneA67

@Greg I just turned off all 4 protections in MalwareBytes and updated easily to 7.4.763.

ag_ana

@DuaneA67:

Thank you for the update! I am glad to hear this :)

Please make sure that you update MalwareBytes to the latest version, they released an update that resolved this interference, so you can enable it again and it should not see this happen again.