Syncing is a mess - Mavericks, Dropbox, iOS

Susan8352

I have 1Passwork 4.0.9 on my iMac and MacBook Pro. Both are running Mavericks 10.9. And I've been syncing with Dropbox, but syncing doesn't work now between the two Macs. The file 1Password.agilekeychain in Dropbox shows it is updated, and the MacBook Pro 1Password file says it synced, but it hasn't synced. None of the updates I made on my iMac are reflected.

I've also been trying to sync my iPad. I will start another thread in the appropriate forum for that.

I sure hope you can help.

jochenneese

Hi Susan, I have gone through the same process just some days ago, and I also had a fairly shallow learning curve. The guys at Agilebits should have tested and documented these things a little bit more thorough in my view.

Anyway: Also I had to find out how 1P 4 operates in terms of syncing between two Macs (or between two accounts on the same Mac, which is in my view the same), especially given the new "vaults" feature. On the first Mac's 1P4 you select the vault that should be synced with the other Mac, indicate the respective Dropbox folder for that in the Sync section of the Settings and start syncing. Now you find a Dropbox folder like /Dropbox/1Password/(name of your vault).agilekeychain.

On the other Mac, once you have installed 1P 4 also there, you just double-click on this very vault file (which is really a folder, it only appears to be a file), then 1P asks for the master password for this (!) vault, and you're all set.

Hope this helps.

Susan8352

Hmmm. I don't have a folder in Dropbox, just a file "1Password.agilekeychain" directly in the Dropbox folder. Is that a problem?

columbia

Having the same problem with Mavericks/Dropbox. I don't use multiple vaults either.....any advice appreciated!

hawkmoth

I let 1Password set up my syncing to Dropbox on its own. I'm using Mavericks too. I don't know if this will be helpful, but here is what my local Dropbox folder looks like:

And if I open the 1Password folder inside the local Dropbox directory, I see this:

Susan8352

Hawkmoth,
Thank you - that's a piece of the puzzle. I guess I need to know if I can create a 1Password folder and move the 1Password.agilekeychain file into it.

hawkmoth

@Susan8352, I don't think you need to create or move anything. 1Password handled it all automatically. When I recently moved over to Dropbox from iCloud, I made sure that my Dropbox folder had no signs of 1Password at all. Then I switched off iCloud syncing and turned on Dropbox syncing. The result, without me doing anything myself is as you see in those screen captures.

If you need to start over, you probably want to be sure you know how to restore your data from the most recent local backup. Then turn off Dropbox syncing, delete all signs of 1Password from your local Dropbox folder, restore from your recent complete backup, and turn Dropbox syncing back on. Be sure to wait for awhile - syncing takes time. How much depends on the size of your database.

You might not even need to import a backup. You probably can just turn off Dropbox syncing, clear your local Dropbox folder of all signs of 1Password, and then turn syncing back on. The backups are. Insurance, but I bet you won't actually need to use them.

CAUTION: There might be a better approach than this to get to where you want to be. Maybe @Megan can offer advice. I know I would not want to lose my data!

Megan

Hi @Susan8352,

I'm sorry to hear that you've been having trouble getting Dropbox set up! First of all, I just need to confirm a few simple things:

• Is Dropbox installed and running on all computers and devices?
• Are you logged in with the same Dropbox account everywhere?
• If you open Preferences > Sync on both computers, is the file-path the same?

Susan8352

Hi, Megan,

1) In answer to your questions: Yes, Yes, Yes.

2) I now have updated to 1P4.1 on both my iMac and MacBook Pro. The passwords on my iMac are correct and I want to overwrite the data on my Macbook Pro with that.

3) I don't have any extra vaults in 1P.

Thanks in advance.

Susan
P. S. I was able to sync my iPad via Wifi.

Susan8352

Hawkmoth,

Thank you for those details. Just out of curiosity, why did you move syncing from iCloud to Dropbox?

hawkmoth

@Suasan8352,

I switched because there is a small chance that Apple will decide to keep any applications other than those purchased at the Mac App Store will no longer be allowed to sync via iCloud. I don't want that to happen without notice.

iCloud sync is faster, so I'd rather use it. But until I'm assured I won't be surprised by being disconnected, I've decided to return to Dropbox.

jolipoli

I have just noticed that my new MBP has not been syncing through dropbox. It seems this is also the case with my iPhone and iPad. All three claim to be syncing, but no changes are noted on those three devices when I make changes on my iMac and another MBP. All are running current versions of their respective OS, and on the App Store or Mac App Store versions of 1Password.

It appears I've saved the missing software licenses and login credentials, and would like to just wipe it all out and start over- I'd like to try iCloud again, though I wasn't able to get it to work in the Mac beta version in September. Where can I find the best steps of how to start over with one device and populate out from there?

thx.

alexmidd

I am having this same issue as well and I am getting seriously p'd off with 1Password now, which has worked flawlessly until version 4 came out. I changed some passwords on my MacBook Pro and these synced OK with both my Android phone and my iPad. However, they will not sync with 1Password on the iMac, which still stubbornly shows all the old passwords and will not sync. I have tried unlinking with the keychain in Dropbox on both Macs but the problem persists. So, could I get some help with this as well please?

benfdc

I had a bad sync problem a few months ago where my iPhone's keychain would not sync to my Macs and vice versa. Turned out that 1P/iOS on my iPhone was syncing to a different Dropbox account.

Oops!

alexmidd

I have this EXACT SAME ISSUE with syncing between my two Macs, and I also do not have a 1Password folder in Dropbox - I never have. I just have a file called "1Password.agilekeychain" and this same file is selected on both Macs, but changes on one mac do not show up in 1Password on the other Mac. This all worked flawlessly until upgrade to mavericks and 1P4. If it can't be resolved I'm going to have to find another option. I recently heard of other password management tools and I though "no I don;t need to change as I am happy with 1Password", but that doesn't look like being the case for much longer. It's so annoying that they take your money and when there are problems and we say we will have to move it's "yeah OK fine, you do that then". I have trusted 1Password all this time and now it's going to cost me money and a whole load of hassle to start all over again somewhere else. Not happy.

thightower

Hello everyone,

If this syncing issues is entirely exclusive to your 1Password data then the below may not help you. If you however are having issues in general with Dropbox its possible it may help you.

Your friendly Dropbox and AgileBits moderator here. I do want to also mention that this may not be entirely a 1Passwords issue. I have been following several topics over at the Dropbox forums, where users are reporting no syncing between clients. They are sporadic in nature but some are showing up (as always). Thats the nature of a forum we hear from those with issue's. :)

We go over the process, linked to same account etc etc etc. that AgileBits mentions here. Dropbox has a new stable build candidate in the forums http://forums.dropbox.com/ 2.4.8 We (moderators) have had some good results asking folks move to this version but again as always not everyone reports back and so forth. If your interested its stuck to the top of the Dropbox forums.

• Please make sure to use the stable build and not the experimental or beta build.

Please note that moving to this version may require a reindex of all files. It is not a new upload of all your files, but it will compare all the files to those already on the server. If you would not rather try the new stable version you could always try a relink to your computer. At a minimum it will require some time for the comparison to take place and its best to do the update and or relink when you have a stable/reliable connection. The reindex can take time depending on your connection. If you have a large file set it could take hours, or longer, I often suggest leaving the computer on overnight to try and finish up a reindex

• Again Please make sure you choose the stable build thread as there is also a beta thread.

So take that as you will. Its a suggestion I can offer for those of you whom want to try it out. I cannot say for 100% it will solve the issues you have been experiencing.

alexmidd

At last!! I seem to have solved the problem. I followed hawkmoth's instructions, kind of. This is what I did on each Mac.

1) Made sure the local copy of 1Password data was backed up;
2) Paused Dropbox syncing via the Dropbox icon in the Mac toolbar;
3) Stopped syncing with Dropbox via 1Password Preferences;
4) Deleted "1Password.agilekeychain" file in Dropbox folder;
5) Restored latest local data backup to 1Password;
6) Re-enabled syncing to Dropbox folder in 1Password preferences. As there was no existing "agilekeychain" file I just clicked "Open" when in the Dropbox folder and it created the new keychain, but now it was in a folder called 1Password, i.e. different from before;
7) Finally, restarted Dropbox syncing with local Dropbox folder via the Dropbox icon in the Mac toolbar.

Once I had done this on both Macs it now syncs perfectly - if I make a change on one Mac I see it appear on the other within a few seconds. I hope this solution works for other users.

hawkmoth

@Alexmidd, I'm glad that also worked for you. I've made it a habit to do things this way whenever I switch from one syncing host to the other. I've also deleted my data in iCloud before I've returned to using that host. I began doing this during beta testing because I was worried about creating conflicts between current and old data. It just seems cleaner to start everything fresh from the master database.

As a user of the iOS application, I also make sure syncing is turned off on my iDevices until after syncing from the Mac has completed.

alexmidd

Unfortunately this has now broken the most important part of the setup - 1Password on my Android mobile. When I sync first of all it says it can't find the file, then it finds it and all seems OK. However, although all the entires are there, when I go into any of them it says it cannot decrypt the data, please sync again. But no matter how many times I sync it can never decrypt the data. So, I have lost the most important part of the functionality, i.e. the ability to have access to my passwords when I am out. Not happy at all with this disaster. :-(

alexmidd

OK, that's another panic over. I managed to sort it by clearing the app data, deleting the Dropbox folder from the phone and restarting and syncing again, as described here http://discussions.agilebits.com/discussion/18262/updating-to-1password-4-has-rendered-1password-reader-useless#latest. We should really have been warned about these issues before we were advised to upgrade to version 4 though, it would have saved a lot of hassle.