4.3.2 Perpetually Turning Gears (Bug Report)

The Doctor

I never ran into the previous sync bug that 4.3.1 apparently corrected. However, after noticing that 1P had been updated on my iOS7 devices (iPhone and iPad) I also noticed that the Settings gears were perpetually turning.

If I look at Settings, the orange Syncing icon also continues to spin, however, if I select that, the Dropbox setting indicates a last synced time of XX seconds ago.

This same behavior occurs on both iPhone and iPad, both running iOS 7.0.3.

Dropbox is the only syncing I have enabled. iCloud syncing is not enabled.

Eventually...and inconstantly...1P seems to relaunch a Sync activity (last synched xx second ago replaced with fast moving progress bar). If / when that occurs the gears sometimes stop, but I haven't found rhyme or reason to when/why/if this secondary sync process is activated. Oh...one other thing about this particular "second sync" it only causes the gear and sync symbol to stop if I have the Sync Settings sheet up...if at main window...nada.

I'm sure you guys will track down this bug, but in the meantime, should I be concerned that a background process will be sapping my battery?

much thanks...

hawkmoth

I'm seeing the same constantly spinning gears and the yellow arrows in my installation of version 4.3.2. But I sync with iCloud, not Dropbox.

It seems to stop if I close and reopen within the time where I can enter my quick unlock code, rather than my master password.

The Doctor

Just tried your work-around use case and "no-joy" for me. The gears did "stutter" a bit, but then kept on churning. Looks like this will require a 4.3.3 to correct :-/

The Doctor

Update: it seems this issue appears to be more consistently buggy on iPad than iPhone. The iPhone gear does stop on its own most of the time.

One point of clarification, even though the gears/sync wheel are turning, the actual sync process indicates it was completed xx seconds ago.

Hope this helps...

hawkmoth

I recall seeing this while I was in the beta test for version 4 for the Mac. It stopped somewhere along the line, and at the time I thought the issue was associated with the Mac version, not the iOS version. But my memory of the matter is not very well formed.

I see that if I force syncing by tapping Sync Now, the gears and orange arrows stop spinning after the forced sync completes.

I should also note that right now, I only see this on my iPad, but not on my iPhone.

The Doctor

Yep...force syncing does seem to help for me as well, but only about half the time. Other times it stops the gears for a second or two and then they start on up again.

If this is purely a cosmetic issue then it's just mildly annoying and I'm sure the boys will get it fixed up...my bigger concern is whether its indicative of a larger sync issue AND/OR it's causing a hung process to burn battery...

hawkmoth

Since I wasn't seeing this on my iPhone, I turned off iCloud syncing on my iPad and deleted the app. I downloaded a fresh copy. After it finished its initial sync, the gears stopped spinning. And they no longer continue to spin when I reopen it. So I guess there was some kind of corruption in my setup. For me, this cosmetic issue has disappeared..

The Doctor

I tried the approach you described and it DID fix it for one launch. Oddly, I noticed that the version number when I redownloaded it from the App Store was 4.3.1 NOT 4.3.2, which could explain why the gears stopped.

I force quit and relaunched. 1P then presented itself as 4.3.2 but the gears are back to perpetually spinning...

Can you confirm you are on 4.3.2 (in settings) and that the problem remains fixed for you?

Stephen_C

For me I had semi-perpetually spinning gears even with a sync following manual transfer of the keychain via iTunes. When I checked my iPad hours later, though, the gears were no longer spinning. (I didn't wait and watch them to see how long it would take for them to stop!)

Stephen

The Doctor

Definitely seems isolated to iPad at this point...iPhone sync indicators "seem" to be operating properly now...iPad...not so much :-P

hawkmoth

Well, I am indeed back to spinning gear long after the app reports that it finished syncing. And yes, this is with version 4.3.2.

Edit: I guess this is now intermittent. I just forced it to quit, restarted, and found that the gears spun briefly and then stopped, as you would expect. We need to find the reproducible condition for this. Or try to.

The Doctor

Any thoughts from those within "The Black Tower" :-P

Megan

Hello, Doctor and @hawkmoth and @Stephen_C,

Darn it, I was really hoping that we were completely done with the whole endlessly-spinning gears bug ... but you're right. Something isn't quite behaving here.

Here's what I'm seeing:

• Opening 1Password with Categories open: Settings gears keep spinning.
• Opening 1Password with Settings pane open: Settings gears spin initially, but the Sync icon keeps spinning until I go into 'Sync'.
• Opening 1Password directly to the Sync page: Setting gears behave as expected.

In all cases, going into Sync and pressing 'Sync Now' seems to get the icons behaving properly. How does this compare with what you all are seeing?

As to your concern that this is indicative of a larger sync issue, I've discussed the bug with one of our tech gurus, and she is confident that it is just a simple case of the icon not getting the 'syncing is finished' message.

In any case, a bug report has been filed, and we'll do our best to have it sorted out just as soon as possible! Thanks so much for the detailed reporting.

hawkmoth

@Megan,

I came back to report exactly what you said above about pressing Sync Now correcting the misbehaving gears. Here is what I can do to cause and then correct the issue on my iPhone and iPad:

1. Force quit the application altogether from the multitasking screen.
2. Restart and enter the master password.
3. Wait briefly and the little gears on the main screen begin to spin. Watch while they don't stop.
4. Open preferences by tapping the gears. Note that white arrows are spinning in the orange square for syncing.
5. Tap the orange square to open the sync menu, and see that it has been some seconds or minutes since the last sync happened.
6. Tap Sync Now. The progress bar under iCloud (in my case) moves promptly from left to right and the gears stop spinning.

At the moment I don't think the spinning gears ever start if I close the app and immediately reopen with the quick access code.

I also think that even if I let enough time elapse so I need to renter the master password, the gears also still behave properly, but I don't know how long the app needs to be closed before the gears act up again. Is this an issue only if enough time has elapsed that a new sync is triggered without user intervention?

Megan

Hi @hawkmoth,

Thanks so much for that - all details will help the tech gurus track this bug down.

I have noticed, while watching the gears spin hypnotically in the Sync screen, that if a sync initiates on its own, the gears will, in fact stop once the sync is finished. So it seems that this is a rather specific bug.

The Doctor

My experience is similar in that a "self initiated sync" stops the gears upon completion at least most of the time. I have not been successful in forcing the gears to stop with a manual initiation of a sync as described by hawkmoth above.

Finally, not sure how to test your workaround Megan. How do you get the iPad version to open directly to the sync page?

Megan

Hi Doctor,

I'm glad to hear that initiating a sync usually stops the gears in their endless spinning. My earlier post was not so much a workaround but merely a record of when I noticed the bug. If I lock 1Password when viewing the sync settings and unlock it again (which shows the same screen), the gears behave properly. This doesn't necessarily mean you should try to have 1Password open to the Sync screen, but it's interesting (and potentially useful for our code gurus) that the gears don't keep spinning on that screen.

hawkmoth

For what it may be worth, I had one incident yesterday where tapping Sync Now did not stop the gears from spinning. A second tap did stop them, and the few times I've tried this since have all stopped the gears from spinning. I'm not a programmer, at least not anytime since the dinosaurs roamed the earth and Fortran ruled, but this exception would worry me if I were trying to track down the cause of the bug.

Megan

Hi @hawkmoth,

I have linked this discussion to the bug report, so I'm sure that the developers will keep an eye on all these various scenarios as they try and track the bug down. All the detail and cases you can provide here are much appreciated. :)

The Doctor

Hi Megan...

Any update on this?

Much thanks...

Megan

Hello Doctor!

You will be happy to note that our technical gurus have managed to fix the issue, and you should see an update soon that fixes this! :)

The Doctor

Awesome...cause I'm really tired of oiling those gears :-P

Megan

Hello Doctor,

Hopefully you won't have to for much longer! :P

elliot

I hope a fix will be out soon. But this is definitely most annoying. I have iCloud and Dropbox. The sync wheel is endless on both iPhone and iPad, until I manually sync, usually 2-3 times. Sometimes the Dropbox freezes with error and I have to turn it off then on again.. Grrrrrrr

hawkmoth

Since I learned that this is only cosmetic and has nothing to do with whether syncing is successful and complete, I've just learned to ignore it. I'll be happy for the fix, but for me, it isn't annoying anymore.

elliot

Thx Hawk. That's reassuring.

snaab

OK, the reason I'm visiting this thread is that, in addition to the neverending gears, the sync operation seems to run 2 to 3 to 4 to 5 times before settling down. Is this part of the issue that should be solved with the upcoming release? Also, should I be able to sync to both iCloud and Dropbox and not just one or the other?

hawkmoth

In the current iOS release, you can sync with both iCloud and Dropbox, but that is not true in the Mac version. There you must pick one or the other, not both. And the developers have given notice that dual syncing will also disappear from the iOS version. In other words, don't count on keeping your data synced to both at the same time in the (near?) future.

I haven't noticed that syncing runs three or four times before settling down. Do mean you need to manually tap the Sync Now several times before the gears stop spinning? I've seen other reports of that behavior, and I've once had it take two tries before the gears stopped, but only that once. Again, though, it's all just cosmetics as far as data integrity is concerned. So I just ignore this and let the gears spin away.

Megan

Hi @snaab,

the sync operation seems to run 2 to 3 to 4 to 5 times before settling down.

I apologize for the confusion here. This is a known issue that our developers are working to improve. The first 'sync' that you see is the actual sync with Dropbox and the second is the import into the local database. Again, this is more of a cosmetic issue than anything misbehaving. There is no danger to your data here.

Also, should I be able to sync to both iCloud and Dropbox and not just one or the other?

Currently, you are able to turn multiple sync sources on at once, but we don't recommend it. We had hoped when we initially released 1Password 4 for iOS that multiple syncs would be possible, but we have had users reporting conflicts and merged databases as a result, so this screen will be changed in the future to make it an either/or decision. :)

snaab

Thanks for the answers, Megan. I eventually would like to see a discussion recommending Dropbox or ICloud as the better solution, and why, from the app developer's point of view. Thanks again.

Megan

Hi @snaab,

I'm not sure that's a question we will be able to answer definitively. We offer both iCloud and Dropbox syncing because we want to give our users options. If we thought that one sync solution held all of the answers, that would be the only solution we offered. :)

Some users prefer iCloud because it is built-in to their Apple devices with no need to download additional programs or sign up for a new account.

Dropbox is a great solution for multiple-platform users who also want access to their data on Windows or Android, or who would like to take advantage of 1Password Anywhere.

So, it really comes down to personal preference - not so much a right or a wrong answer, but what works best for your needs. Please let me know if you have further questions - I'd be happy to help!