Import has limited categories

TinaSoprano
TinaSoprano
Community Member

It looks like Import only supports Logins, Credit Cards, and Notes. Please tell me I am missing something. I have hundreds of records to import.

I considered importing as Logins or as Notes, to be patched up after the import, but it appears the category is immutable. How can I import other categories? My driver's license, for example.

I'm trying out the free trial. This could be a deal breaker.


1Password Version: 8.7.3
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: macOS 12.4
Browser:_ Chrome

Comments

  • MrC
    MrC
    Volunteer Moderator

    @TinaSoprano ,

    Are you coming from existing password manager? If so, which one?

  • TinaSoprano
    TinaSoprano
    Community Member

    From SplashID, so I used a CSV.

  • MrC
    MrC
    Volunteer Moderator

    @TinaSoprano

    You could downgrade temporarily to version 7 of 1Password, and use the splashid converter in the converter suite. It will cover the various SplashID stock categories. If you've customized any of them, I can help provide you with an adjusted converter to better conform to your data.

  • TinaSoprano
    TinaSoprano
    Community Member

    @MrC, thank you. Where can I get the V7 installation kit? Is that in mrc-converter-suite.zip?

    I assume that after I get the data all settled into V7, I can simply install V8 on top of it.

    Thanks.

  • MrC
    MrC
    Volunteer Moderator

    @TinaSoprano

    Search for Using an Older Computer on this page.

  • TinaSoprano
    TinaSoprano
    Community Member

    @MrC, I appreciate the usefulness of your converter suite, but this isn't working out for me. The suite requires an older version of SplashID, which requires downgrading my OS. I'm running MacOS 12.4 and would need to go back to 10.14.x, or older. That's not happening.

    Thank you for your help. If you (or anyone) has any ideas, please let me know. The best I can think of is to import logins and credit cards, then manually create all my other records.

    SplashID is quite frustrating, but I'm not sure this transition is worth it. The inability to import other record types makes 1Password seem, well, not good. Incomplete. It makes me wonder what else is missing.

    Again, thank you.

  • MrC
    MrC
    Volunteer Moderator

    @TinaSoprano

    I believe beyond SplashID 8.0.4.899 the export is encrypted, so there's not much any password manager could do to import such a file short of reverse engineering their encryption scheme.

  • TinaSoprano
    TinaSoprano
    Community Member

    @MrC, SplashID exports unencrypted CSV, and 1Password happily consumes CSV to import logins, credit cards, and notes. There is no technical barrier against 1Password importing more types, like licenses and bank accounts.

  • MrC
    MrC
    Volunteer Moderator
    edited July 2022

    @TinaSoprano ,

    Then SplashID was changed, again, to export unencrypted CSV.

    What version do you have? I can take a look at the converter if something is wrong. What was the issue you had?

    Unfortunately, doing almost anything in SplashID now requires a subscription, so I can no longer export a file to review the contents. So I'll need your feedback as to what the issues are.

  • TinaSoprano
    TinaSoprano
    Community Member

    @MrC, since the converter I have SplashID Safe Mac 8.3.6. I have 349 records of 18 various types. Type is the first column of the exported CSV, which is not encrypted.

    I'm back to the newer 1Password Mac 8.7.3. Starting from the desktop app, which brings up the webapp. SplashID is not one of the import options, so I choose Other and select the CSV. I see a UI which shows all my rows of data, with a drop down on each row for assigning a 1Password record type to each of the rows. Problem is that only 3 record types are supported. See this picture.

  • MrC
    MrC
    Volunteer Moderator

    Hi @TinaSoprano

    I wish this were more straightforward for you.

    SplashID has made it rather difficult for users wishing to leave their platform. They've changed their export format a few times, eliminated the option to export in an unencrypted format (which apparently they have restored), their export was not traditionally a CSV file, but CSV-like with their own encoding that isn't readily usable by any spreadsheet program, their data encoding has had bugs making it lossy and problematic, and worst of all, when your subscription expires, you can't even export your own data. That's shameful.

    I can't speak to the limitations of 1Password.com's importer, but will only guess that the 1Password folks decided to focus on the handling the bulk of the export data which would be Logins, Secure Notes and Credit Cards from CSV files. As you're aware, SplashID stock types can be customized, and user-defined types can be created. Mapping the stock types of various password manager's records into 1Password is challenging enough; customized types makes it even more difficult. Combined, this makes it a non-trivial task to create an import UI and tool that is effective, does not exhaust a user's patience, is error resilient in practice, and is actually meaningful to a user at the time of import (and a large list of types and fields and mappings to select would not be).

    I have only limited SplashID CSV export data. You may be able to use the csv converter in the converter suite, but you'll need to isolate each of your record types into individual CSV files (e.g. one type per CSV file). I realize this is non-trivial.

    I'd also be happy to help create a customized version of that converter for the types that you'd like handled specially. The converter is easily modified to accommodate this; you'd just have to help me understand what you need. This undertaking is really only beneficial if you have a fair number of records of a certain type. For only a few records, it is quicker to just copy / paste the data into new 1Password entries.

  • TinaSoprano
    TinaSoprano
    Community Member

    Hi @MrC,
    You have been so generous with your time.
    I imported my logins and credit cards easily, then I did about 100 other records manually. Unfortunately, 1Password doesn't support many categories I want (insurance policies? Vehicle VINS? several others), so I am making secure notes and organizing with tags. Not great, so I will look for a better product when I get some time.
    Thanks.

  • MrC
    MrC
    Volunteer Moderator
    edited July 2022

    Hello @TinaSoprano ,

    You're welcome. Ultimately, you'll have to select the tool that works best for your needs.

    I'll end this with something that you may want to consider. Users often clamor for predefined categories of many types. Over the past decade, I've seen thousands of requests for hundreds of different types of categories. There is one password manager that has nearly 100 different categories, and that is entirely ridiculous (a users spends too much time trying to figure out which one to use, and determine the difference between category X and category Y).

    So stepping back... a Category offers two things: 1) a template that includes a set of sections and accompanying fields within those sections, and 2) a "name" that acts like a Tag, which seems to make some people feel more at ease (hmm, "Insurance Policy" feels better than "Secure Note").

    But predefined categories are almost always too limiting for users of certain regions or with other needs. The Credit Card "type" is a great example, of a fixed, predefined template with only a few choices of card type. It works very poorly outside the US / Canada and a few other regions, and doesn't support Debit cards (in an obvious way). Predefined templates are restrictive - they are like a pair of One-size Fits All socks.

    Regarding (1) above - you can create a basic template entry of you own, with the fields that you want, personalized to your needs, and just duplicate that entry when you need a new one. Here's an example of an Insurance Policy created by the converter suite:

    Regarding (2) above - they key point is one's ability to quickly find desired information. Some may really like to only use the Categories sidebar, and if "Insurance Policy" or "Vehicle VINs" is not listed in that grouping, there's a bit of a panic. But in almost all cases, there are better ways to find what you're really after at the moment of use, than using the category sidebar (which is really just a flat set of pre-defined tags, many of which might contain a single item).

    In the 10 years I've been using 1Password, I've rarely used the Category sidebar , and when I do, its only for converter testing. Instead, search is much faster, and Tags are more powerful.

    Anyway, just so food for thought.
    Best wishes in whatever you choose.

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