iOS shows large "Receiving" count when syncing with two Macs (Wi-Fi)

jays

I sync my 1Password data over Wi-Fi between two Macs with my iPhone. After I sync with one of the Macs, when I go to sync with the other, the "Receiving" count on the iPhone is very high, I think the same as the entire number of entries. It's as though it's pulling the entire database again.

Sync works, but it's a little time-consuming and seems like an error. Is this expected behavior?

littlebobbytables

@jays I assume you're performing two WiFi syncs are you given your description. Can I just confirm, if you are using WiFI as I suspect you are, is it a reason of privacy or similar that resulted in you choosing WiFi over say Dropbox. I believe WiFi sync was never envisaged to be used in such a way where an iOS device was essentially a bridge although as you are finding it does seem to work; that alone may be the reason though. One thing worth checking, are all the machines keeping fairly synchronised time?

jays

Thanks @littlebobbytables‌. Yes, I'm syncing over Wi-Fi. It's a privacy choice.

As far as I know all the machines have roughly the correct time, although the syncing occurs far apart enough that I wouldn't expect that to be an issue.

Ben

Hi @jays‌

Have you tried reinstalling 1Password on the device that is having this issue (after syncing any changes over)?

jays

Hi @bwoodruff -- No, I'm afraid I haven't. Things seeemed to be working just fine, and I didn't want to jinx that.

However, I've just recently begun noticing that things aren't working as well as I had thought. At least one of my logins (there may be more) is having its latest password overwritten by one specific MacBook, irrespective of the last modified date of the password on my iPhone.

So, for instance, if I update the password on my phone, and then sync with my work MacBook, the new info on the phone is overwritten, rather than being sent to the computer. On my home MacBook, however, updating between computer and phone works just fine; a sync always results in having the most recent revision on each device.

Any suggestions?

Ben

@jays‌

Are the time & timezone settings the same on both devices?

jays

Yes, @bwoodruff.

rickfillion

Hi @jays,

The large receiving count is actually normal. When you disconnect from one mac to sync with the other, all sync context is deleted. That context can only be re-built by fetching all data again and restarting from scratch. It's not recommended to disconnect from sync sources and connect to another on a regular basis. It should usually work, but it basically invokes the code-path that does full conflict resolution every time which is time consuming (every field has to be verified) and requires that the app see the full dataset at the other end again.

As for the data getting overwritten... this could indeed happen too as part of the conflict-resolution. The app does its best to determine which data to keep, but because all sync context has been lost, in some cases it may make the wrong call.

My advice to you would be to configure sync on your devices such that it does not require disconnecting/reconnecting on a regular basis.

I hope this helps.

Rick

jays

Thanks @rickfillion, I was afraid of that answer, but it makes sense. If I don't want to upload any data to the cloud, how would you recommend I sync between two MacBooks that are rarely in the same room?

rickfillion

Hi @jays,

Folder Sync would probably be your best bet there. But there's no great automatic way there... mostly because 1Password won't like it if you set it up to sync directly to a Network Attached Storage device. One way of doing it would be to set it up to sync to a USB thumb drive. 1Password is smart enough to not try to sync when the removable drive is not present. That'd require manually shuttling around the USB thumb drive between the Macs when you want to sync though.

If you're fairly technical and have a shared network storage device, there is another option... You can put an AgileKeychain on a shared network storage device, then setup your own sync system (there are plenty of systems out there built ontop of rsync which every Mac ships with) to sync that AgileKeychain locally to each Mac. Then setup 1Password to sync to that local copy of the sync'ed keychain. So basically your own personal dropbox (minus a bunch of the magic that they do).

I'll go ahead and add a vote for you for the Mac to Mac Wi-Fi syncing feature.

Hope this helps.

Rick