Has support for viewing documents offline been implemented yet for 1PW 8?
In this thread from last year, it was stated that attached documents are not available offline in 1PW 8 because they are not stored locally.
According to this support page, offline viewing seems to have been implemented in the meantime:
1Password lets you securely store your most important files, so they’re always available when you need them.
It would be great, if you could confirm that attached documents are now indeed available offline, or whether that statement is inaccurate.
I'm having a very hard time deciding wether I should migrate from a local vault in 1PW 7 to a cloud-based vault in 1PW 8 or whether I should switch password managers altogether. One big worry I have about switching to the cloud-based vault is loss of control over my data. The idea that my attached documents in 1PW (which are my most important/sensitive documents) would neither be included in my own Time Machine backups nor available without both a working internet connection and the 1PW server being available would represent my worst fears in this area come true.
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As long as you use the desktop client app then any "attached files" would be viewable. You can test this yourself by disconnecting from the internet for a period of time. Then attempting to open the document. The desktop apps keep a copy of your data local to your device. This would be included in your Time Machine backups.
The original poster in the other topic was asking about his iPhone.
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Thank you for the swift reply, @ag_tommy. Since the linked thread was in the Mac subforum and the person had mentioned that they are using Monterey, I had assumed that the Mac version was also affected by this limitation. Thanks for clearing this up!
That said, I think it would be really useful, if the iOS version of 1PW 8 also permanently stored all attached documents locally, so there could never be any surprises when you need to quickly access an attached document but don't have a working internet connection.
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No problem at all. Also, thanks I'll move that ticket to the respective category.
I 100% agree with you on iOS. I've added myself as part of that feature request. I'll gladly do the same for you.
ref: PB-32638242
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I also strongly agree that 1Password iOS should be enhanced with the functionality to store all documents locally, so that they can be accessed while offline. I was not aware of this limitation which, under some circumstances, could be very problematic.
P.S.: Until this is addressed, please consider updating the statement "1Password lets you securely store your most important files, so they’re always available when you need them" to correctly reflect the current situation on iOS.
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So I've been testing this on my device with one of the latest betas and looks like the team is working more and more on this. It appears the items are kept once viewed just like they were in 1Password 7. To try this open 1Password 8, view an attached document, lock 1Password and enter airplane mode. Open and unlock 1Password and the attached item should continue to be viewable. * I am not sure if this is yet possible outside of the beta.
Edit: Correction looks to be in the current release too.
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@ag_tommy, thanks for following up. Unfortunately, I cannot test this myself, because, as I wrote above, I am still using 1PW the original way (i.e., with a local vault and a perpetual license), and I'm very conflicted about whether I should switch to the cloud subscription model or switch password managers altogether. If the Mac version of 1PW 8 had not stored attached documents locally, that would have actually made my decision much, much easier (but don't get me wrong, I'm very glad it does store them locally 😉).
Anyway, back to the actual topic: I think what you are describing might just be temporary caching of viewed documents. I remember reading on some forum about 1PW 8 behaving this way and it then regularly purging this cache at some point later. In fact, reading about this behavior was what alarmed me in the first place and motivated me to investigate further here on the support forums.
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Thank you for raising this @NSPredicate
I just tried to view attachments on my Mac without connection and I could not open the PDFs! this is absolutely shocking!! I need to still be able to have a local copy as I frequently refer to documents when offline. This was never a problem with 1P7.
Is there really no way to force download a copy?0 -
Following up? how do I ensure a copy of my data is stored locally? if not mobile, at least on desktop? what if 1Password were to go down?
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1Password 8 fetches attachments and documents when needed. This is done so that your device doesn't have to download all of your documents and files on each new device which might use up a lot of data on metered connections.
Once you've used the 1Password for Mac app to view a file, such as a PDF, that file will be cached and made available on your Mac even if you're offline or don't have a connection to 1Password.com. You can test this by viewing your PDF once, then disconnecting from WiFi and the Internet and viewing the file when offline. 🙂
-Dave
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1Password 8 fetches attachments and documents when needed.
Well, 1Password 8 tries to fetch the attachments and documents when needed, but if you don't have a working internet connection or the 1PW server is not reachable, you simply can't access the documents. That is the whole point of this thread.
I get that 99% of the time, this is not an issue and people won't notice this limitation, but in the rare cases when they do run into this limitation, they can be in for a nasty surprise. In a worst case scenario, where Agile Bits is successfully hit by an APT group, a rogue employee, or any unknown event that we currently lack the imagination to anticipate, those documents could even be completely lost forever! Again, I know that this happening is not particularly likely, but I find "trust us, it will probably be fine" just really problematic in the context of secure document storage.
I can understand that for larger Teams who attach many documents, an option to opt-out of local document storage could be useful, but for the vast majority of users -- most of whom are currently blissfully unaware of this risk -- attached documents really should be stored/synced locally. This is even more true in light of the fact that the official support page for attached files does not even contain a small footnote about the fact that "so they’re always available when you need them" is actually not completely true. If you are worried about metered connections, you could simply do what apps such as podcast clients do and only download new and changed attachments when the device is connected to Wi-Fi.
Since (temporary) caching after viewing a document is already working, it seems like you have already done most of the work needed to re-implement reliable local document storage. I really, really hope it will be implemented by the time the "classic" 1PW browser extension stops working. It would not only give peace of mind to people such as myself, who value control over the safety of their data, it would also spare others from unfortunate surprises when they discover that they can't access a document because they are without a working internet connection.
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Thank you for the feedback. Would an option in the 1Password for Mac app to force a download of all document items and file attachments be something that you would find helpful here? I would be happy to file an additional feature request on your behalf for such an option.
In a worst case scenario, where Agile Bits is successfully hit by an APT group, a rogue employee, or any unknown event that we currently lack the imagination to anticipate, those documents could even be completely lost forever!
Our servers are setup to be resistant to attacks of that nature and include data redundancy and disaster recovery features to guard against any data loss. That being said, I do understand your concerns and look forward to hearing if the option that I mentioned above would help you here. 🙂
-Dave
ref: dev/core/core#14463
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Thank you for the swift reply, @Dave_1P. The usefulness of that feature would largely depend on what you specifically mean with "an option in the 1Password for Mac app to force a download of all document items and file attachments":
If you mean a setting in the 1PW for Mac app that, when turned on, forces documents and file attachments to be downloaded to that device (and kept there) whenever they are added or changed, then yes, that would be super helpful. This would ensure that documents and file attachments are always locally available, just like they are in previous versions of 1PW and in many other password managers.
If you just mean a button or a menu command in the app to initiate a one-time download/sync of documents and file attachments, then this feature would be of limited value, because it would not be "set it and forget it". Instead, it would require you to do a lot of micromanaging to make sure your locally saved files are always up-to-date and it would be prone to you forgetting to do so. There is a reason why 1Password does not require you to manually initiate the download of new and changed passwords, secure notes, etc., and the same reason applies to attached documents, because they are just as important as the other pieces of information in your vault. That said, a manual "sync" would, of course, be better than no sync, provided that the downloaded files are actually kept on the device und not regularly purged.
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Thank you for the thoughtful reply. I've passed along your feedback to our product team. 🙂
-Dave
ref: PB-32969143
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+1 for this!
Yesterday I had to open an attachment from a Windows PC, temporarily disconnected from the internet, but the attachment did not open.
Then, I disconnected my Mac to reproduce the same situation, and the attachment did open, because it was uploaded from that machine.
So caching works. But there should be an option (on device or account basis) to instruct 1P to automatically fetch attachments as they are added/modified. As pointed out by others, this issue rarely occurs, but when it does it can create big problems.
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Once the 1Password app on your Windows PC downloads and opens the attachment once, that attachment will be cached and available going forward even if you're offline. The caching feature isn't limited just to the device that uploaded the attachment in the first place.
That being said, I've passed along your request to the team. 🙂
-Dave
ref: 35389825
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A +1 from me on this. I'd like a preference in Settings that would force all documents to have a local copy. This would be useful across platforms too. Even on iOS.
Let's say i'm travelling and i'm midflight (no wi-fi or internet at all) and needed to check a document. Right now, Id open up 1PW, find the item, tap the document, and error, need internet.
If I had this option and it was enabled, I could be 100% sure a copy of the document was on my phone. In this case Id open up 1PW, find the item, tap the document, and woohoo! the document would open.
If someone had the preference disabled, then it would cache previously viewed documents as it does right now but this preference would force download all documents and store them locally.
Surely this sounds logical?
Neil
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Thanks for the great example of how an option to force all documents to be downloaded at once would be useful to you when traveling. I know that this would personally give me peace of mind as well.
While I can't make any promises, I've passed along your example and request to our product team. 🙂
-Dave
ref: 35408995
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