How to export or backup iOS 1PW 4 data
The longer story is below, but I need to get the 1PW data out of my iPhone to my Mac for backup and viewing. Can't find how to do that, maybe using the wrong keywords. Found an article about backing up database to move to Windows but there is no Settings > Database option on my iPhone using 1PW 4.3.2. My experience with writing AB support, although I'm a paying customer, is pretty well far below expectations. Well, glacially slow and rotten actually. So I'm appealing to fellow users.
After using 1PW for years and trusting it I blindly upgrade from 3 to 4. The data was quite messed up but I had, ahah! a backup pdf on my Mac of the full data so I thought. However, the data in the pdf is severely messed up with notes data missing and so on. So I can't just do the tedious copy-paste of 1,008 items, but the ahah! plan B was iOS devices. I turned off sync on those to prevent them syncing the fouled up Mac data and losing the good data forever, and have not modified any 1PW entry on iOS.
About 6 months later I've only had the time to open the pdf next to my freshly created 1PW data and the iOS device and copy-paste data for about 1/3 of the entries also looking up each on iOS to fix the missing notes and compare passwords.
This is painful but not quite as painful as the condescending attitude I got by email from AB support over and over. I really had to twist their arms and be very textually forceful to get them to tell how to nuke the Mac data and start fresh while preserving the iOS data. Their instructions were still off. I will be on the lookout for a new password software provider but meantime I need to figure out how to safely backup the good iOS data and ideally be able to open it on the Mac and when I've finished updating the 1k entries (or fewer after weeding out old stuff), update the Mac and iOS 1PW apps.
Please help.
Comments
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Say you sync your iOS device to a clean Dropbox. You could then view your vault in a read-only capacity from within the Dropbox website I believe (it isn't something I do myself). While you could then copy that vault locally to your mac something about running javascript from a file url means all browsers tend to throw a hissy fit if you try that.
Another assumption I'm making is that the iOS version makes all the exact same files as the OS X version does to allow this. I only WiFi sync though so I'm not a massive use to you on the details.
I'm confused though, if you're treating the vault on one device as good and another device as bad why not simply wipe the bad one so when syncing occurs there is only the possibility of the good data being used?
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Thanks for the quick reply LBT; thanks for the ideas, and re the third paragraph, the 1PW on the Mac was useless after upgrade to v4. So I deleted it and started a completely new vault on the Mac in v4. So now, I have on the Mac the 'good, new vault' plus the 'good but flawed pdf of old vault', and on the iOS the 'good, old vault'. Item by item I'm reviewing the pdf and those I want to add to the new Mac vault I copy/paste what I can (even the flawed notes) and then correct it based on the iOS.
In the end I'll have a cleaner fresher vault on all devices. I just would like to move along faster, and having the iOS export will enable quicker copy-paste into the new Mac 1PW vault.
Hope that's still clear...0 -
Okay, so the issue is because of fragmentation and other reasons you're now looking at partial vaults on multiple devices with bad data stopping a simply integration.
You may get a more elegant suggestion from somebody else but here's my thoughts on the matter.
- Sync your mac to a clean Dropbox. That way you have a read only copy of your known good data from the mac.
- Create a new throwaway user account on your mac and log into that.
- Create a new empty vault in 1Password 4 in this account and then WiFi sync your iOS device to it. This profile will now have a copy of all your some good/some bad data.
- Still in this account, follow the instructions for viewing 1Password Anywhere (don't forget, this is a ready only copy) and proceed to delete all the stuff you don't want to keep from the still running copy of 1Password in the throwaway OS X account. At the end, what you should be left with is a vault full of the items you want to keep and to see integrated into your proper vault.
- Export the entire lot in the .1pif format and save it either to a USB stick or the shared folder in OS X. NB. .1pif is an unencrypted form of your vault so this is a temporary stage and it should be deleted afterwards.
- Return to your proper account and import the .1pif file into your real vault.
At this point, having verified all has gone well and everything that you want to keep is now in a single good vault, you can proceed to delete the throwaway OS X user account completely, you can stop synching to Dropbox if you want (from step 1.) and then you can start to wipe the copy of 1Password 4 for iOS so that when you sync your mac to the iOS device it will sync only the clean vault. Also, once done don't forget to delete the .1pif file and ensure it isn't hiding in a trash file - once happy the data is in your real vault you want that file completely gone.
How does that sound? As I say, don't be shocked if somebody can come up with a more elegant solution. That's just my first idea of how I would do it if I was in your situation.
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Hi LBT; thanks for the thorough reply and giving this so much thought.
Your description makes me think I still haven't explained this right.
Fully good data is only on iOS (iphone, ipad, not synced since v3x 1PW on Mac).
Mac upgrade from 3 to 4 destroyed items and lost items, totally unusable vault.
Removed 1PW from the Mac and reinstalled v4, started a new vault and wanted to copy/paste from a pdf backup made with v3.
Turns out the notes and some other data in the pdf backup was very fouled up, text deleted, duplicated, etc. The pdf feature was messed up.
I just want to get the good data off the iphone/ipad into a readable, copy/paste form.
How about if I sync the iphone to iCloud? will I then be able to 1PW anywhere it and copy/paste? or point a new vault in Mac 1PW to it?
I don't want to just import what's on the iphone, some of it is old and not needed. Part of creating a new vault on the Mac was to start clean with v4, copy the relevant stuff from the old one and have a fresh, clean, trimmed down 1PW on the Mac, then upgrade the ios 1PW's and sync to this new data.
Anyway, thanks again.
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You can't access 1PasswordAnywhere when using iCloud because, at least for the moment, you can't access iCloud like a filesystem.
There could be a breakdown somewhere in the communication chain :-P
Is the goal a partial import from the data within the iOS vault, before the wiping of the iOS vault and syncing with the fresh vault on OS X?
If that is, then the steps I suggested ought to accomplish that. Step 4 was about removing all the un-required items before export so that the .1pif file contains only what you want to keep. Part of what I was trying to accomplish with my suggestion was a set of steps that didn't have you cut and pasting tens or hundreds of entries manually which to me would sound horrific. The use of Dropbox in steps 1 & 4 was so you could easily view what was already in your good OS X vault from within the throwaway account while you cleaned up the imported iOS vault. At no point would you be syncing your real OS X vault with any other vault though, the .1pif import isn't a vault - it's a text file using a particular format more suited to copying 1Password entries than comma delimited is.
If for whatever reasons you're against the importing part then steps 1-4 would still leave you a vault in the throwaway account containing only the entries you're interested in. At that point you could try creating a pdf, exporting everything in tab or comma delimited form (personally I'm suspecting that particular export is pretty knackered based on my few uses). Saying that, having reached the point of step 5, if you went back to your main OS X account you could disable Dropbox syncing and after ensuring that the keychain is deleted from Dropbox, you could pop back to the throwaway account and set up Dropbox syncing there. Then back in your real account you could view the pruned iOS vault in a read-only state and copy and paste from there into your good vault.
Does any of that match up with what you're trying to achieve?
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Thanks again, LBT; this is getting way too complicated and chancy. I'm sorry if I didn't explain it well. Your six steps might just work but are not as simple as I was looking for, like in iOS, Settings > Database > Export to...
Apparently you can't just export the data from iOS to Mac, which is sad.
I'll go back to the system of Mac 1PW v3.x pdf backup with its fouled up notes and other data, the new Mac 1PW 4.x and the iOS open on the side and continue to copy-paste-fix. Might take another 6 or 8 months to catch up but then I will know it is all correct.
Thanks for trying.
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You can share a single item in the iOS version but no, I don't believe there is a way to simply export from the iOS version - sorry. While the steps may seem complicated I'm not sure where the chancy part comes in. As far as I can see the only moment of uncertainty would be when wiping your iOS device in preparation to sync with your fresh OS X vault but you're going to hit that stage at some point anyway.
What it comes down to though is you can only do what you're comfortable with, although I don't envy you if it's 6-8 months of slow manual effort :(
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Hi @davidn,
I'm so sorry to hear that you've been having trouble here, and I sincerely apologize for the delay in response. I was able to track down your previous emails in to our support team (using the email address attached to your forum account), so I'm familiar with the issues that you've been having.
There's a long thread here, so forgive me if I'm misunderstanding things. I'll explain what I think your end goal is and offer a potential solution. If I've missed something, please let me know and we'll re-evaluate.
Situation:
- Data on Mac is incomplete after reinstalling 1Password 4.
- You're working on rebuilding your database, but doing it manually is no fun (I can appreciate that!)
- You have some data on your iOS device that you would like to view on the Mac to determine if it belongs in your master database.
Solution:
I think the best option here is to get the data on your iOS device into a secondary vault on your Mac. This will maintain the integrity of both your databases and you can easily move the relevant items into the primary vault on your Mac. You mentioned iCloud earlier, but unfortunately, secondary vaults can only be synced via Dropbox at this time (due to a limitation in iCloud's API) so we'll need to use Dropbox for this solution, at least temporarily. Once your data is organized the way you'd like it, you can certainly sync your primary vault using iCloud if you'd prefer.
Here's what we'll do:
- Follow the directions to set up Dropbox sync on your iOS device.
- Allow Dropbox to fully sync to your Mac (you'll notice that Dropbox's blue box icon has a green checkmark next to it when sync is finished.)
- Open a Finder window to your Dropbox account and locate the 1Password folder and your 1Password.agilekeychain file.
- Double-click on this 1Password.agilekeychain file.
- 1Password will open and prompt you for the Master Password that you are using on your iOS device.
- Once you enter it, 1Password will load your iOS data into a secondary vault.
Now you can test and verify that these Logins are still valid and up-to-date. For the ones that are, simply use Item > Share > Primary vault > Move.
I hope this helps, but if you have any further questions or concerns, we're here for you! :)
ref: FSA-53841-954
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I would just like to say for the record that I believe there is technically nothing wrong with what I suggested and @Megan where were you several posts earlier? :P
Hers is undoubtedly a more elegant solution than the ones I was offering up. I don't think I would have ever suggested it either as I deal with secondary vaults so rarely and don't know all the tricks. That's probably a handy one to know for the future, double clicking an agilekeychain will result in a secondary vault. Cheers Megan.
Good luck with whatever you end up trying @davidn I'm going to keep quiet now :P
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As always, your help in the forums is MUCH appreciated. Again, I apologize for the delay in responding here - I was being a complete slacker and having a weekend away from work, ;) although there is usually another team member who is able to watch these forums in the weekend, so I'm honestly not sure how this thread got skipped.
The steps you provided sound like a good alternative. Clever idea of using 1PasswordAnywhere to view the existing contents of the Mac vault while reviewing the contents of the iOS vault in a clear user account. If multiple vaults weren't available, that would likely be the way to do things.
Thanks again for taking the time to help out here - no need to keep quiet! :)
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Absolutely, LBT I was not saying your solution was not correct, just that it was too far over my comfort level.
What I was hoping to find was from the app, Settings > Database > Export to .... something like that. But it appears the data on the ios device is locked in there, only sync-able to an existing database, so I've gone down a 'no outlet' street and no way to turn around! Thanks Agile!@Megan; thanks for the tips, I only mentioned iCloud since it would be an alternate conduit that would give me confidence that the new, fresh database on the Mac was not going to get fouled up, again!! in which case I would go back to paper and pencil for password management instead of taking more months to re do it item by item as I have time. Apple has access to enough of my data already, so I don't mind using Dropbox and they've been pretty reliable over the years.
I'm concerned about the steps you list:
1. Follow the directions to set up Dropbox sync on your iOS device.
Ah, won't this then sync what's on the ios device with the data on dropbox? If so, it's a no-go, I will not mingle the data on the ios, it's the only 'good, old' data I have, since apparently the answer is 'no, you can't export the 1PW data from ios'.
2. Allow Dropbox to fully sync to your Mac (you'll notice that Dropbox's blue box icon has a green checkmark next to it when sync is finished.)
got it, do this every day so the data on the Mac is backed up in the ether
3. Open a Finder window to your Dropbox account and locate the 1Password folder and your 1Password.agilekeychain file.
4. Double-click on this 1Password.agilekeychain file.
5. 1Password will open and prompt you for the Master Password that you are using on your iOS device.why is that, if it doesn't know there is a second device and a secondary vault has not yet been set up?
6. Once you enter it, 1Password will load your iOS data into a secondary vault.
this seems backwards to me, shouldn't I create a secondary vault first, then direct 1PW to put the ios data into it?
I'm very concerned about this procedure. there is no going back if it doesn't work, which is why I turned it off so long ago and have not sync'd it. both ios and Mac will be fouled up and seriously, I will delete 1PW and never use it again. It will be paper and pen, which will make notebook and pen and ink makers happy. I really want to use 1PW but if a thousand items get fouled up again.... it would be a disaster for me.
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oh, sorry about that formatting! I used double greater than's to highlight my comments and the site put it in those fancy gray boxes.
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Turns out the greater than symbol is what the forum uses to designate something as a quote so what you probably wanted to do was reverse the usage so the instructions appeared as quotes instead.
I should clarify, I was just joking with Megan, or at least trying to ;) when I defended my posts but I suspect I didn't quite get it right. I've learnt a lot from Megan and continue to do so :) and I know you weren't trying to suggest my posts were somehow wrong.
As for your queries regarding Megan's instructions. 1Password 4 for OS X is the program associated with the .agilekeychain extension so when you double click on the file in Dropbox it's passed to 1Password. Before 1Password can do anything with it it would have to be unlocked hence why Megan is saying you need to enter the password for your iOS vault as that's the vault this .agilekeychain represents. The next bit Megan will have to reassure you about though. It seems 1Password's behaviour is to import a keychain into a new vault rather than merging into the primary but I have limited experience at this stage.
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Hi @davidn,
But it appears the data on the ios device is locked in there, only sync-able to an existing database
I apologize if I wasn't clear, but this is not the case at all. My steps above will create a separate, secondary vault inside 1Password for the data that is on your iOS device. Our support guide about Multiple Vaults should explain how this feature works if you are unsure. This process will not foul up your existing database on the Mac.
If you are concerned, please use File > Backup before you follow my steps. This will ensure that you have a fresh backup of your existing database to restore to if things don't work out exactly as you hope.
Ah, won't this then sync what's on the ios device with the data on dropbox? If so, it's a no-go, I will not mingle the data on the ios, it's the only 'good, old' data I have, since apparently the answer is 'no, you can't export the 1PW data from iOS'.
You mentioned in an earlier post that you had disabled sync on your Mac to ensure that there was no corruption of your database. Is your Mac currently synced to Dropbox, or do you have any 1Password data in Dropbox that needs to be preserved?
this seems backwards to me, shouldn't I create a secondary vault first, then direct 1PW to put the ios data into it?
1Password's multiple vault feature was set up so that adding a secondary vault is as easy as possible. We could do it the other way (create a secondary vault and then set up sync to the existing keychain in Dropbox), but frankly, double-clicking and having 1Password do all the work for you seems a lot simpler. ;)
I'm very concerned about this procedure. there is no going back if it doesn't work, which is why I turned it off so long ago and have not sync'd it.
As I mentioned above, you can back up your 1Password data on your Mac prior to trying this so there is a way to go back if things don't work out. I don't anticipate any problems though. Importing your iOS data into a secondary vault is a simple enough process and since we're not syncing the data from the iOS device directly into the existing Mac database there's very little room for things to get fouled up.
Please do let me know if you have any further questions though - we'll get you sorted out!
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Unfortunately, I found an easier answer after spending about 10 hours finishing up the manual transfer of data from the old pdf file and the iPhone, cleaning up and skipping the cruft, and got my new 1PW data all set. Backed up, 'printed' a pdf, (which still has problems handling the Notes field and must be considered unreliable at best), and went to review/research before upgrading to v5.
You won't believe it but there's an even easier way to do this, thanks to my re-skimming Take Control of 1Password 1.2.1 by Joe Kissell, and one of Megan's steps above:
•connect iPhone to computer
•open iTunes
•in [Device] > Apps tab, scroll down to File Sharing, select 1PW app, select the agilekeychain file, and the Save To... button
•save it somewhere
•go to that somewhere and double-click the agilekeychain file, and 1PW asks for the Master Password for that keychain then loads it into a new vault.
Note: don't create a new vault in 1PW and try to Import the agilekeychain file since it will only import pif files. Just double-click. Like the good old days.
Wondering why the aces at Agile didn't think of this. Must be way overtasked. Maybe you can consider suggesting an adaptation of these steps in future to others in the same situation.0 -
Hi @davidn,
I'm so glad you were able to get things sorted out! I'm not quite sure how my steps are much different (or much more complex) than the steps you found in Joe Kissell's book though. He suggests using iTunes File Sharing to create a fresh 1Password.agilekeychain file, while I suggested creating that same keychain using Dropbox.
It is important to note as well that these steps also only apply to earlier versions of 1Password 4 for iOS, as the iTunes File Sharing feature has been changed into a backup feature more akin to the backup and restore feature that is available on Mac.
In any case, I'm glad that your data is all back where it should be! If you have any further questions or concerns, we're here to help. :)
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Megan;
the steps you suggested made me uncomfortable. It sounded like, syncing the Mac, then turning on sync on the phone, would have resulted in the merging of old and new data, which I expressly wanted to avoid. Also the file is about 45mb and that would have taken a while to upload on my slow dsl connection. It took less than a minute using a usb cable and iTunes. Much faster and gave me the confidence that the data in both keychains would not commingle. But yes, your steps are comparable, just not explained in a way that gave me confidence about data integrity and as noted this data is extremely important in my life and has been extremely time consuming to repair after the 3 to 4 upgrade débâcle.
Don't know what you mean about " iTunes File Sharing feature has been changed into a backup feature ". It was never elegant, but it's like a manual file transfer. Has nothing to do with backup and restore, has to do with moving data in and out of apps on the iOS device.
Hopefully other ABits folks will note this option for other users in the same dilemma.
Thanks to you and LBT for taking so much time to try to help on this. Hopefully since this is on the forum the value will increase in future if anyone else reads it and benefits.0 -
I haven't played about much with it but what Megan is referring to is at some point in the evolution of 1Password for iOS, you can't simply copy the keychain via iTunes backwards and forwards. I'm sure somebody from AgileBits can state specifically which version first introduced this change.
From this version onwards you can create a zip file that is a backup of your iOS vault from within the iOS app. That can then be copied from your iOS device using a USB cable or WiFi - cable should be optional. This is a new(isn) feature currently being developed so how far along the rest of the procedure for restoring and desktop versions being able to read it - I don't know. Heck it may all work now, I just remember when it was first introduced and because I sync I've never paid too much attention to it. My mac uses Time Machine and 1Password for Mac is constantly doing backups in the background as well. I could wipe my phone and not be bothered - obviously a different setup though.
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Thanks for the follow up LBT; Maybe the use of iTunes File Sharing was discontinued after 1PW iOS 4.3.2. Moving files in and out of apps is what iTunes File Sharing is for. So I'm not sure why it wouldn't work with 1PW. I haven't looked since upgrading to 1PW 5 to see if you can still copy the keychain that way or not.
In this case it did work, I just opened up the File Sharing window, selected 1PW and copied the agilekeychain item to my local disc.
This issue is pretty much resolved, I've done the work to update the vault and upgrade to 1PW 5 on the iOS devices. Of course that was problematic too, as I'm now also finding out too late in this support forum, if you install the new 1PW from iTunes the restore purchases in Pro features doesn't always work so you have to get the 1PW 5 from the iOS device itself in the App Store. Go figure. I'll skip another rant but I continue to be less and less impressed with AgileBits. (Admins, close this thread any time...)0 -
Hi @davidn,
@littlebobbytables is right, iTunes File Sharing was removed in version 4.5 of 1Password 4 for iOS in favour of a backup/restore function. I'm glad to hear that File Sharing did what you needed it to do in 4.3.2 though!
I hope that you enjoy 1Password 5 for iOS, but of course, if you hit any snags, you know where to find us. :)
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This seriously depresses me. I have been a great fan of 1Password but v4 is a pain so I wanted to export my data from my IOS 8.1 phone.
Is the conclusion of this thread that you cannot export the data from 1Password4 IOS to use with another app in future unless you pay for the Mac version? I still have 1Password3 IOS - can I export the data there? Otherwise I'm so cross I will just do it manually password by password. When things work (v3) please don't break them with "upgrades" that are less functional. I paid for a good app that I used all the time. What I now have is ghastly. I really don't want to spend my weekend laboriously copying passwords but if I have to I will since lack of export function will tell me all I need to know about how Agilebits now views its customers (without respect).
Thanks for any reply
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Hi @Imogen,
I'm sorry that 1Password 4 on your iPhone hasn't worked out and that you're having trouble exporting your data. Since you're running iOS 8.1, have you upgraded to and tried 1Password 5?
You can download 1Password for Mac from the AgileBits Downloads page and use it free for 30 days:
The application downloaded from our website will remain fully functional for the first 30 days after you install it. After this initial trial period, you will need to purchase a license to continue using without restrictions.
Then you can sync with Dropbox or sync over Wi-Fi to transfer your data from your iiPhone to the Mac, Or use iTunes Backups to save a backup of your data that can be restored on your Mac. Once your data is in 1Password for Mac you'll be able to export it from there.
I hope this helps. If you have any questions please let us know.
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