Where is the best place to store 1Password 4 Backups?

John2718

I store my 1Password file in a Dropbox folder. I recently upgraded to 1Password 4 and noticed that 1Password 4 by default stores its backup files in a deeply buried subfolder on my iMac. Is that the best place to keep the backup files?

If not, does it make sense to also store the backup 1Password files in a Dropbox folder.

Stephen_C

I suspect 1P4's backup location is best—if only because that is presumably the place it will look to if you need to restore from a backup. Obviously, you'll have backups of that folder with your Time Machine backups of your computer too. ;)

Stephen

sjk

Hi, @John2718. Thanks for asking about 1Password 4 backups.

1Password 4 stores its backup files in a specific folder location (relative to the user's home folder):

For the Mac App Store version:

~/Library/Containers/2BUA8C4S2C.com.agilebits.onepassword-osx-helper/Data/Library/Backups

It sounds like that's where yours are. :)

For the web store and beta versions:

~/Library/Application Support/1Password 4/Backups

There are lots of ways to make backups of those backups, including using Time Machine as @Stephen_C mentioned. We highly recommend leaving the originals untouched where they are.

You mentioned:

I store my 1Password file in a Dropbox folder.

Not exactly. :)

Similar to backup files, 1Password 4 stores its vault data in a specific folder location (relative to the user's home folder):

For the Mac App Store version:

~/Library/Containers/2BUA8C4S2C.com.agilebits.onepassword-osx-helper/Data/Library/Data

For the web store and beta versions:

~/Library/Application Support/1Password 4/Data

On your iMac, 1P4 will be configured to use either Dropbox Sync (most likely) or Folder Sync to access the 1Password keychain file you have stored in a Dropbox folder, which you can check by opening Preferences > Sync in the main application.

If you disabled syncing your 1Password data for 1P4 will remain in its current vault location and any changes you make in 1P4 won't update the 1P keychain file in Dropbox. However, other systems/devices can still be configured to sync with that 1P file in Dropbox.

You asked:

… does it make sense to also store the backup 1Password files in a Dropbox folder.

You could copy them there, keeping in mind that Dropbox is primarily a sync service and not a backup service. @danco wrote a nice summary of how those services differ, shorter than this post. :)

I hope that information is helpful. If you have questions about it, or anything else, please ask. Thanks!