Lost Secure Note!

Crispen

Hi,

I'm really, really, REALLY hoping you can help!

I recently had to "nuke & pave" my iMac because of some issues with it locking up and restarting (kernel panics), etc. that were just making it unusable. So, I clean reinstalled OS X Yosemite and am currently running 10.10.2 with 1P Pro, version 5.1 from the Agile Web Store.

I restored my files & documents (but not my applications) using Migration Assistant from my Time Machine backup. I then noticed that some documents were missing so I decided just to go to my CrashPlan backup to find them again. Unfortunately, my 1P secure note with my CrashPlan 448-bit encryption key is missing! So, I can't retrieve my files (no, I didn't use a password hint)!

I'm also using 1P on my two iPhones and two iPads as well as a MacBook Pro and an older iMac. I sync 1P using Dropbox. I've checked them all, and none of them have the note. The 1P Trash doesn't have it either. I've tried disabling sync on my iMac and then restoring from several old 1P backups that I figured would have the note, but no dice there either.

I'm out of ideas. Can you please help?!?

Thank you!

Drew_AG

Hi @Crispen,

I'm sorry to hear about the problems with your iMac! The issue with the missing Secure Note is very strange, especially since you aren't finding that item on any of your iOS devices or Macs. It sounds like you've covered all the things I would normally have suggested, like checking your other devices, restoring from various 1Password backups, checking the 1Password Trash, etc. Although I don't have any specific troubleshooting steps in mind at the moment, I have some questions which I'm hoping might lead us to figuring this out:

Did you create that Secure Note recently? If so, maybe that explains why it isn't in your 1Password backups? How old were the 1Password backups you restored? Were those backup files restored from your Time Machine backup? How recent was the backup in Time Machine?

What sync method do you use for 1Password on your Macs and iOS devices? Did you make any recent changes in 1Password, and do those changes show up on each device?

Did you create that Secure Note on your iMac, or on one of your other devices? Do you recall if you've ever viewed that Secure Note on any of your other Macs or iOS devices? Or had you only used it on the iMac that had the problems? Do you have a general idea of how long ago you remember seeing that Secure Note in 1Password?

Also (and this is probably a long shot), is it possible you had saved your CrashPlan 448-bit encryption key info in another type of item instead of a Secure Note? Perhaps you put it in the Notes field of a different item, such as a Login? If you use the Search option in 1Password to search for "CrashPlan" does it bring up any results?

Crispen

Hi Drew! Thanks for getting back to me so quickly!

As answer to your questions:

1. I created the secure note approximately 6 months ago.
2. The 1Password backups that I restored ranged from a couple of weeks ago to a couple of years ago (i.e., before I even had CrashPlan installed).
3. The 1P backups were restored from my Dropbox.
4. The Time Machine backup that I used to restore my computer was from late January, 2015.
5. I use Dropbox to sync all of my devices to 1P.
6. Yes, I've made recent changes and they show up on all devices.
7. I created the Secure Note on my iMac (the computer I just "nuke & paved").
8. I don't think I've ever looked for that particular Secure Note on any other device as I don't use CrashPlan on anything other than this iMac.
9. I suspect the last time I saw that particular Secure Note in 1P was a month or two ago.
10. I remember using the Secure Note to store the key. Having said that, I've done a search in 1P using "crash" and even done a manual read of all of my 532 1P items without luck.

Any other thoughts?
Thanks again!

Take care,
Crispen

Drew_AG

Hi @Crispen,

Thanks for the information! That certainly helps to narrow things down a bit - for example, it doesn't sound like this is a sync issue, since other recent changes show up on your other devices. And your Time Machine backup from a few weeks ago should certainly have included that Secure Note, unless for some reason that Secure Note was already missing by that point.

You mentioned that the 1Password backups you restored were from Dropbox. 1Password doesn't automatically save backup files to Dropbox, so I'm wondering if you mean you re-synced your data from the .agilekeychain file/folder in Dropbox? If so, do you have more than one .agilekeychain file/folder in Dropbox? Or did you perhaps manually copy 1Password backup files into your Dropbox account?

1Password creates its own backup files on your Mac, so you can try restoring from one of those backups (which should have been restored from Time Machine). Open the main 1Password app and go to 1Password > Preferences > Backup. Does that show backups from prior to the "nuke & pave"? (Great term, by the way!) If so, click the Backup Now button to make a fresh backup, then choose one of the backups and click Restore. After it restores, check for the Secure Note, and if it's not there, you can try again with another backup file.

If you happen to find your Secure Note in one of the backups, you can select it and go to File > Export > Selected Items. Save it in the .1pif format to somewhere on your Mac where you can easily find it. Then restore 1Password from the most recent backup, and import that item (File > Import).

Let us know how it goes with the 1Password backups. Hopefully you'll have some luck with that!

danco

Many of us don't bother to empty the 1PW trash. Is it possible that you somehow deleted that secure note without intending to? If so, it is likely to be in the 1PW trash.

Just a thought, as it sounds as though you need to try various possibilities hoping to find one that works.

littlebobbytables

Well it's worth a try but I'd consider that a long shot danco (sometimes long shots do pay off though). In this particular instance I'd hold out a little more hope that Drew_AG's suggestion will yield success.

@Crispen, if Time Machine is working well enough that you can restore a full copy of 1Password's folders then I would hope there are a good few month's worth of backups in there, that's what Drew_AG is referring to.

Crispen

Thanks again @Drew_AG, @littlebobbytables & @danco !

1. I made a mistake earlier when I said I restored backups from Dropbox. I actually did it through the 1Password > Preferences > Backup as you suggested. (I guess I assumed those were stored in Dropbox. Now I understand that they were likely coming from my Time Machine backups.) Anyhoo, I have many backups there dating back to 2013 and I have tried all of the ones since I installed CrashPlan (and a few from before that even), which was back in March, 2014. None of them had the missing Secure Note.
2. Having said all of that, I do happen to have 3 different .agilekeychain files in my 1Password folder in my Dropbox. I'm not sure how I managed to get these multiples. Clearly there's something I've done that I don't quite understand, since it seems that I shouldn't have more than one. When I sync with one of those, 1Password tells me it's merging those entries with my existing ones. I haven't been able to locate the Secure Note after doing that either.
3. @danco : I checked my trash per @Drew_AG's suggestion and the missing Secure Note wasn't in there. Thanks for the suggestion, though!
   :o)

If you folks have any other thoughts, I'm all ears!
Thanks again for taking the time to try to help me!

littlebobbytables

Hi @Crispen,

This is a really crappy position to be in and I do feel for you. I'm genuinely perplexed here; the backup we make is a copy of the .sqlite database file so if you had a Secure Note that you know existed for any period of time I can't understand how it isn't present in one of these backups - it's very strange.

Can you remember where you created this Secure Note, was it on one of the other machines? I know you said you've checked the other copies of 1Password but if you happen to remember where you created it I'm wondering if there would be any value into delving into that copy's backups. As you're probably aware, this is a long shot.

This question may seem pretty dumb, again I'm just trying to think of any possibility, but are you positive you added the key as a Secure Note and maybe not in the Note field of a Login item or Password item? Every person's usage is different but as way of example I keep my PGP key as a Password item and my private key both as an attachment and as a note in the Password item due to a now fixed bug where attachments on certain item types weren't visible on iOS. Could it be worth searching a vault on any unique piece of text it might have had, remembering to click on the Expand Search to All Fields button that will be at the bottom of the results list.

I'm sorry I can't think of anything better to suggest, I just can't understand how the Secure Note isn't present in a backup if it existed for any reasonable period of time on that machine.

Do keep us informed.

Crispen

Thanks @littlebobbytables !

I'm likewise dumbfounded. I've tried your suggestions to no avail so far. All I can think is that I've messed up somehow in one (or more) of my assumptions, so I'm going to start from scratch and look back again from the beginning. I really appreciate your attempts to help and I'll let you know if I figure it out.

:o)

littlebobbytables

Fingers crossed and I hope we hear good news!