Accessing the attachment of an old secure note

atimoshenko

A bit of a strange question, so I would be very grateful for any advice.

I am trying to access an attachment to a secure note that I created and last accessed probably close to a decade ago.

The attachment is an .rtf (or less likely .txt) but with its extension manually renamed to a random three letters (.blt) before attaching it to the secure note. Currently, TextEdit is complaining that the file cannot be opened on MacOS (though it sees it as .blt.rtf) and 1Password on iOS just states "unsupported file format".

The note, which is empty save for the attachment, was most likely created under 1Password 3(?) and OS X Snow Leopard. The vault was definitely synced via DropBox at some point around that time (or whenever DropBox syncing functionality first became available in 1Password)

1Password 4 was purchased for iOS and maybe OS X as well. Syncing was switched to iCloud probably close to when that became available. The note is marked as last edited in September 2014, and maybe that has to do with switching the syncing mechanism - I am not sure that I actually remember ever accessing the attachment or editing the note after checking that it works/opens at the point of creation.

Since 1Password 5, I am pretty sure that I have been a free user. On several occasions between 1Password 3 and 1Password 7, I definitely must have installed and used its Beta versions.

I have only ever created the one vault, and it was created in 2010. All other items open just fine, but they are almost all logins and credit cards. The only secure note created (with or without attachment) is the one whose attachment I am now trying to access.

I am guessing that I am having trouble because of the renamed file extension, possibly in combination with moving to iCloud syncing and/or not accessing the note attachment through multiple major version upgrades of 1Password itself. Is there any chance the file is not completely borked? Can anyone offer suggestions of other ways of getting the unencrypted file out?

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1Password Version: 7.7 MAS
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: MacOS 11.2 Beta 2
Sync Type: iCloud

ag_tommy

@atimoshenko

One option is you might try downloading the attachment to your computer and renaming it to remove the .blt portion. You may or may not be able to open it with text edit or another app that can read .rtf files.

• Please make sure you work with a copy of the file. Do not work with the original.

A Google search may help you open the file if it's a true .blt file. If it originated as a .blt file, you would rename the file to remove the .rtf portion, and perhaps one of the Google suggestions for opening the file will work for you.

I hope this helps.

atimoshenko

@ag_tommy

Thanks for the suggestion! Probably a bit of a silly question, but how can I get the attachment out as a normal unencrypted file? I tried all the export and share functions I could find in the MacOS version, but they all generate a link, rather than the file. Is that the link to use to download? I figured it was just a way to share it to another vault.

Else, I also got the file to “reveal in finder”, but it shows a 0 byte file, so I’m guessing that it is some placeholder for a still-encrypted file.

ag_tommy

@atimoshenko

The option to show in Finder would indeed be used to show the file. When 1Password is unlocked, and you show the file in the Finder, it will be in an unencrypted state. A 0-byte file, in my experience, is generally not usable. It could be unusable.