Bug: Export/Import errors
Hi all,
I've experienced a very strange situation today… this is definitely a bug behind what happened but it's going to be a tough one to reproduce.
Initially, I had a single vault on OSX, shared via DropBox for the iOS clients.
Since I've converted my wife to 1Password, I upgraded my single license to a family one and installed the OSX app on her laptop. I then created a separate "Family" vault with common logins and stuff. I have been able to populate the Family vault with a single "export selected elements" and import in the new vault.
After that (I know, I should have read the docs), I found out that shared vaults are not supported in the iOS apps, and that synching multiple vaults on DropBox is a known issue. So I started to backtrack and delete the family vault until the functionality is added to the iOS apps. (hint to the devs: when releasing 1Password 4 on different platforms, make sure the main new features are supported everywhere… or do not use the same major versions… but that's not the problem here).
I exported all the elements in the family vault and exported them. I then imported them in my main vault.
At this point, all the imported entries were incomplete. For example, for each site I had the URL but not the username and password. I tried several times to do the operation export+import with the same result.
I then tried to copy/paste the username/passwords from the family vault to my main vault (basically, merging everything by hand) by editing the incomplete entries and adding the info but those entries could not be edited. I was able to enter the edition mode and modify the content but when I would press "save" the modifications were lost.
I then tried to use the sharing feature, sharing the entries from the family vault to the main vault but the result was the same.
I then tried to export only a subset of the entries that I needed to move, hoping that I would be able to move everything in two or three operations instead of one. Some of the export/import worked and some not. I've finally made it with about 10 different export/import operations.
I love 1Password, and I've been writing about it on my site, talking about it to friends… this is by far the best password manager I've seen, but this kind of bugs is really not something that I expect from such a great piece of software. I'm ready to give all the info that is needed to help you find this bug… do not hesitate to ask if some details are missing!
Sébastien
Comments
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Hi Sébastien ( @sebpennec ),
Thank you for the detailed description of the trouble you had with exporting and importing data between vaults in 1Password 4. I'm so sorry it caused you this much difficulty.
About these missing item details after importing:
At this point, all the imported entries were incomplete. For example, for each site I had the URL but not the username and password.
We have reproduced a bug with this symptom, a report is filed in our system, and I've included your comments. I'll also mention your experience directly to our developers, so they're are aware of the impact this can have and ask if they'd like any other information to help get it resolved.
If you open the exported 1PIF data in a text editor you should see all your data is there. And importing it a second time right after the first import fails to import everything should populate what was initially missing.
Again, I do apologize for the inconvenience of this problem and will be doing the aforementioned followup on it.
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Hi sjk,
Thanks for the fast reply!
It's great that you got to reproduce the problem… I was afraid it would be a tricky one! During my tests, I wondered if the types of entries being exported might have an impact, because it seemed like the operation was working better with only one type of entry. (I had two types: banking accounts and website logins).
I finally got everything in place after quite a lot of tries, so I'm good… but do not hesitate to ask if you need more tests, logs, or any other info that might help.
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You're welcome, Sébastien ( @sebpennec ).
My current understanding is that it's entirely an issue with importing, although I'm sure the developers will consider the possibility of exporting also being a factor. Perhaps exporting alone may not make a difference but in some quirky combination with importing may unexpectedly matter and influence results.
I appreciate your offering extra assistance with this and will let you know if there's anything. Thanks!
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