Question about enabling Dropbox sync

switters

My 1Password keychain file resides in a folder in Dropbox, which I access from my Mac Pro and Macbook Pro. I think I set it up this way a long time ago, before 1Password had any official sync capability.

I'd now like to set up Dropbox sync so that I can access my 1Password keychain file from my iPhone (running 1Password 4 and iOS 7). How do I do this? If I go to Preferences > Sync and set up Dropbox sync, won't that create a duplicate version of my keychain? Should I move the original keychain out of the Dropbox to somewhere else on my hard drive?

switters

Anyone?

sjk

Hi, @switters. Sorry for not helping you with this sooner.

Before suggesting how best to configure Dropbox Sync with your setup I'd like to clarify a few things:

Are you already running 1P4 on both your Macs and are they sharing/syncing data with each other? With 1P4, what (if anything) is enabled under Preferences > Sync? If you're still running 1P3, what is the Your Data Stored In path under Preferences > General? And is there 1Password data currently on your iPhone that you want to preserved when configuring Dropbox Sync?

Thanks in advance for that information!

switters

Someone from support contacted me and helped. Thanks.

oshloel

Re: the known issue regarding the syncing multiple vaults via Dropbox and the potential for the iOS app to go astray, and Mike's suggestion in the beta forum to lock the .ws file as a workaround:

I completely reset my iOS app, stopped syncing in 1pw4 & trashed both the .ws file and 1password folder in Dropbox. I then re-enabled Dropbox syncing in 1pw4 and then finally pulled it all down into the iOS app.

Two things I noted from that; 1) the dropbox sync file is significantly smaller, which I attribute to the deletion of 1pw3's icons, etc; and 2) there is no longer a .ws file. It doesn't appear to have been re-created. The Terminal cat command cannot find it and I no longer see it when I view my dropbox account in a browser.

Has the .ws file now been depreciated in 1pw4 (other than the Windows version) and is no longer used by 1pw4 Mac or iOS? I have sync'ed items both directions via dropbox without the .ws file apparently being created.

All this is to ask if I can safely sync a 2nd vault between 2 macs via a different folder within my dropbox account without confusing the iOS 4.3 version or I still need to wait for another iOS update to avoid the problems mentioned in the Known Issues.

Sorry that I inadvertently also posted this in the Beta Forum.

switters

Actually, I am still having a problem. I moved my keychain file to Dropbox > 1Password. Then I tried enabling Dropbox Sync in 1P iOS. When I enter my email and password, it says "Login failed. Please make sure email and password are correct. Error: (null)"

I'm absolutely positive they are correct, because I just logged in to Dropbox.com on the web with them. I've tried this on my iPhone and two iPads with the same result.

MikeT

Hi guys,

@switters:

When I enter my email and password, it says "Login failed. Please make sure email and password are correct. Error: (null)"

That's because you're using the older 1Password 3 for iOS app that is no longer for sale and no longer supports Dropbox. Dropbox have killed the older APIs that 1Password 3 used and we can't update it anymore. Here's the blog post for more information and what you can do.

@oshloel:

Has the .ws file now been depreciated in 1pw4 (other than the Windows version) and is no longer used by 1pw4 Mac or iOS? I have sync'ed items both directions via dropbox without the .ws file apparently being created.

We're slowly phasing it out because it's been problematic for us and our customers. Right now, 1Password 4 for Mac will trash the .ws file if your data file is in the ~/Dropbox/1Password directory. The reason we did this is because all of our 1Password apps are coded to look into that directory as the default if it cannot find the .ws file.

Are you saying that after locking the file, 1Password deleted it? It shouldn't be able to modify it at all. We'll take a look at this and see what's going on.

All this is to ask if I can safely sync a 2nd vault between 2 macs via a different folder within my dropbox account without confusing the iOS 4.3 version or I still need to wait for another iOS update to avoid the problems mentioned in the Known Issues.

Beside Dropbox, do you have any other sync methods you can use? You could theoretically use Folder Sync to sync your data files outside of Dropbox. It could be possible to do this in the iCloud folder on Macs if you have iCloud accounts enabled on both Macs.

oshloel

@MikeT: No, I'm not saying 1pw4 deleted a locked .ws file. I was saying that when I cleaned out Dropbox and re-established 1pw4/iOS4 syncing, a new .ws file was not created; which, I take from your note is intentional in both 1pw4 Mac and 1pw4 iOS. I don't think there is any problem with deletion of a locked file.

My question is regarding the warning to not sync a secondary vault between to two Mac users via Dropbox in the Known Issues Post, which says that syncing multiple vaults via dropbox can cause 1pw iOS 4.x to sync a secondary vault into the primary vault. I presumed that problem could occur due to the secondary vault location being written into the .ws file by 1pw4 Mac or 1pw Windows; hence, your suggested workaround of locking the .ws file in the Known Issues Post.

It would seem that if 1) both the Mac and iOS versions look for the Primary Vault in the default ~/Dropbox/1Password Directory in the absence of a .ws file; 2) that neither the Mac or iOS versions of 1pw4 are writing a .ws file to point at any other location any longer; and 3) 1pw Windows is not in the mix, then 1pw4 iOS would always look to the default location for it's one and only vault.

As such, it would seem that a secondary vault could be synced between two Mac users with separate iCloud accounts by putting the secondary vault into a different shared Dropbox folder without confusing 1pw iOS, since 1pw4 iOS wouldn't know to look anywhere but the default location since there's no .ws folder point to it. If 1pw4 iOS doesn't find the secondary vault, then I would presume it can't inadvertently sync it into the primary vault.

If this will work reliably to share a secondary vault between two mac users, it would seem the only shortcoming is that the current iOS version would have access to only the primary vault until 1pw4 iOS is made multi vault aware.

MikeT

Hi @oshloel,

1) both the Mac and iOS versions look for the Primary Vault in the default ~/Dropbox/1Password Directory in the absence of a .ws file;

They're not aware of what the primary vault is, that's set by using the first vault on the Mac. All 1Password apps are hardcoded to look for 1Password.agilekeychain in the Dropbox folder if the .ws file is missing. So, that's going to be the primary vault.

2) that neither the Mac or iOS versions of 1pw4 are writing a .ws file to point at any other location any longer;

As long as there is the 1Password.agilekeychain file in the Dropbox > 1Password folder, that's correct. Remember that each vault can have its own sync settings, so you could sync the primary vault to iCloud, which wouldn't create the .ws file and then sync the other vault to Dropbox, which could create that file if it is in a different location. So things aren't as simple as that and that's why we're doing the warning, not to do this until iOS app is ready for this.

3) 1pw Windows is not in the mix, then 1pw4 iOS would always look to the default location for it's one and only vault.

Correct.

As such, it would seem that a secondary vault could be synced between two Mac users with separate iCloud accounts by putting the secondary vault into a different shared Dropbox folder without confusing 1pw iOS, since 1pw4 iOS wouldn't know to look anywhere but the default location since there's no .ws folder point to it. If 1pw4 iOS doesn't find the secondary vault, then I would presume it can't inadvertently sync it into the primary vault.

Do you mean separate Dropbox accounts? iCloud accounts aren't factored in this scenario.

If it is two separate Dropbox accounts and both only have 1Password.agilekeychain file in the default 1Password folder, then yes, that's not a problem.