Duplicate Finder across vaults

kernol
kernol
Community Member
edited December 5 in Windows

I exited LastPass in a rush a few years back - and failed to first use their really good duplicate finder to clean out duplicates that had accumulated over a decade or more.
So the whole shebang was imported into 1Password - and it fails to find ANY while a manual search finds LOTS.

I have well over 500 websites and apps with login credentials ... and sifting through them manually is a total pain in the nether regions. The difference between many of the duplicates is simply the difference between "http://" and https://" and yet Watchtower can't seem to find them.

I have seen several threads on the topic of "Duplicates" - but it seems no solid built-in solution has been made available as yet. Not looking for an automatic duplicate eliminator - but just one that finds what it thinks may be a duplicate - with a check box to select those ones that need deleting [or archiving to be safe]?

Any hope on the horizon - or must I export everything to Excel spreadsheet - clean up myself and then re-import into 1Password ???

1Password Version: 8.10.54
Extension Version: 8.10.54.22
OS Version: Win 11
Browser: Chrome

Comments

  • Dave_1P
    Dave_1P
    edited December 11

    Hello @kernol! 👋

    I understand that you're seeing duplicate items in 1Password. If the duplicate items are exactly the same and in the same vault then you can also use 1Password's Watchtower tool to clean them up:

    1. Open and unlock 1Password for Mac.
    2. Click on Watchtower in the sidebar.
    3. Click on Show Items under Items with duplicates.

    It sounds like you're already tried this tool and it didn't find everything that you were looking for since the duplicates might be in different vaults or not exactly the same. In that case, you'll need to review the duplicates manually. Here is an example of one workflow that you can use:

    1. Add a tag called "DUPLICATE AUDIT" to all items: Organize with favorites and tags
    2. Choose a vault, perhaps your Private vault, to start with and go down through the list of items searching for duplicates with each item. When you encounter a duplicate, edit the item that you'd like keep and add any missing information from the other copy there. Then delete the duplicate you don't need.
    3. Remove the "DUPLICATE AUDIT" tag from an item once you've verified that no duplicates exist.

    When no items are left with the "DUPLICATE AUDIT" tag, your cleanup is complete. Note that adding tags to items will change their "Last Edited" date. Another option is to sort items by Title to more easily identify similar items. I hope that helps.

    -Dave

    edit: Added more options and clarity.

  • kernol
    kernol
    Community Member

    Hi Dave

    Thanks for taking the time to respond. So - bottom line ... tough it out and find all the duplicates manually. Watchtower does not come up with a single duplicate [with or without your suggested added DUPLICATE AUDIT tag]. Yet there are LOTS of them.

    An export of all the records to a spreadsheet reveals MANY duplicates - and I mean line items with identical username with identical password for identical URLs ... and the ONLY difference in most cases is one may have a tag while the other does not! Clearly these are indeed duplicates - but Watchtower does not find any of them.

    In this day and age of "AI" I would have thought the developers of 1Password could add a little intelligence to their duplicate finder code!

  • kernol
    kernol
    Community Member

    Hi Dave

    As an aside - I should have realised = but didn't ... your suggestion to add the tag "duplicate audit" had an unexpected but unwelcome side-effect ... it refreshed the modified date on every item to the date of adding the tag - so I have lost the benefit of knowing when a particular item was last edited [as in edited in a meaningful way - rather than just adding a tag etc].

    Beginning to wonder whether a return to LastPass may give me more of the functionality I need :-(

  • Dave_1P
    Dave_1P

    @kernol

    An export of all the records to a spreadsheet reveals MANY duplicates - and I mean line items with identical username with identical password for identical URLs ... and the ONLY difference in most cases is one may have a tag while the other does not! Clearly these are indeed duplicates - but Watchtower does not find any of them.

    Watchtower will only flag items that are exact duplicates. That being said, I can see how a smarter duplicate finder that goes beyond exact duplicates to find similar items would be helpful and I've filed a feature request on your behalf.

    As an aside - I should have realised = but didn't ... your suggestion to add the tag "duplicate audit" had an unexpected but unwelcome side-effect ... it refreshed the modified date on every item to the date of adding the tag - so I have lost the benefit of knowing when a particular item was last edited [as in edited in a meaningful way - rather than just adding a tag etc].

    I'm sorry for the confusion. Adding a tag to an item will indeed modify it and change the "Last Edited" date.

    Cleaning up the "duplicate" items manually is the best option at the moment, I'm sorry that I don't have a better option to provide. However, once you've cleaned up the duplicates from LastPass you shouldn't run into issues where duplicates are being created by 1Password because a URL has HTTP or HTTPS.

    -Dave

    ref: PB-45071505