Master Password Not Accepted

Ros5e

Gentlefolk … System information, first. We (wife and I) have two computers: an iMac and a MacBook Air … "iM" and "MB" for short. Both are running Mountain Lion ver. 10.6.8. and both are running 1Password ("1P") ver. 4.4.3.

Problem: Middle January, both 1Ps worked fine. At that time, I shut down the iM, pulled the power cord, went away for a month, and took the MB with us. Used the MB-1P all that time; no problems. Returned home a couple days ago, plugged in iM, everything ducky … except … iM-1P not working. It won't accept the master password! The master password is correct … I don't type it in; I copy it from a text file, and paste it into 1P. Both iM-1P and MB-1P get the same master password in the same way from the same master-password text file.

I've tried unsuccessfully to Restore from a 1Password backup. I even tried to restore from older and older 1P backups. No Go. Actually, I tried all the suggestions in the Knowledgebase except for Starting Over. Nothing worked.

I see two ways to make the iM-1P healthy and working again. If there are even better solutions, I'd really like to hear them.

My Solution #1: I would Start Over. After rebooting the iM, I'd launch 1P, and give it the master password I'd been using all the time. I'd also launch the MB-1P, and then restore all my 50 logins and other items by copying them, by hand, from the MB. Simple but boring.

My Solution #2: No Start Over. I hope someone from this discussion group could tell me the names and locations of all the 1P support files. I'd go find them on the MB, and copy them into the iM. I think that would work.

Any suggestions, people?

With 1024 thanks,

           Ros5e

Drew_AG

Hi @Ros5e,

I'm sorry to hear your master password no longer works in 1Password on your iMac! That's very strange and I don't know how that could have happened. Do you sync your 1Password data between both Macs? If so, did you change your master password on your MacBook at some point during the past month? Regardless of how this happened, I think the solution will be much easier than the ones you suggested. (By the way, if you're using 1Password 4, I'm assuming you meant to say your Macs are running OS X 10.8 or 10.9, since version 4 doesn't support OS 10.6.8.)

First, I wanted to mention that we don't recommend keeping your master password in a text file. Ideally, it should exist only in your memory and nowhere else - except of course your wife's memory, if you're sharing your 1Password vault. Having said that, at least we know you're entering the master password correctly, but please make sure you're not including any extra characters or spaces when highlighting it in your text file. It sounds like you've tried the rest of our tips here. One thing you may want to try is to manually type your master password into 1Password, instead of copying/pasting it, since it seems like the only thing you haven't tried yet.

Now assuming that doesn't work, here are the solutions I think will be easiest for you:

Solution #1:

• On your MacBook, set up 1Password 4 to sync with Dropbox.
• On your iMac, follow our starting over steps to reset 1Password.
• After that, when you open 1Password 4 again and go through the setup, choose "I've used 1Password before" and sync your vault from Dropbox (you'll need to be signed into the same Dropbox account on both Macs).

Solution #2:

• On your MacBook, open 1Password 4 and go to the menu for 1Password > Preferences.
• Select the Backup tab, then click the Show Files button to open the folder containing your backups.
• Copy your most recent backup file to your iMac.
• On your iMac, follow our starting over steps to reset 1Password.
• After that, when you open 1Password 4 again and go through the setup, choose "I've used 1Password before" and then restore from your backup file.

If you'd like to keep your 1Password data synced between both Macs on a regular basis, Solution #1 will be your best option. Otherwise, it's really up to you which solution you use. Does this help? If you have questions about any of that, please let us know, thanks!

Ros5e

Hi, Drew! You asked:

Do you sync your 1Password data between both Macs?

Ros5e: No … in fact, I'm not sure what 'syncing' between two computers even means!

(By the way, if you're using 1Password 4, I'm assuming you meant to say your Macs are running OS X 10.8 or 10.9, since version 4 doesn't support OS 10.6.8.)

Ros5e: Apologies! You're right … I'm running OS X 10.8.5 on both the iM and MB.

First, I wanted to mention that we don't recommend keeping your master password in a text file. Ideally, it should exist only in your memory and nowhere else - except of course your wife's memory, if you're sharing your 1Password vault.

**Ros5e: **I ABSOLUTELY agree with you regarding the 'text file' … but, in my case, my 'Master Password text file' is only on an SD chip which I securely hide when it's not being used.

Having said that, at least we know you're entering the master password correctly, but please make sure you're not including any extra characters or spaces when highlighting it in your text file.

Ros5e: Yes … I made that little mistake once – but only once! :-)

It sounds like you've tried the rest of our tips here. One thing you may want to try is to manually type your master password into 1Password, instead of copying/pasting it, since it seems like the only thing you haven't tried yet.

Ros5e: Actually, I did do that but it didn't help. Also, it's a long password containing upper/lower case letters, numerals, and special characters. I used the 1P Password Generator to create it.

So …

Re. your Solution #1, it looks like a fine way to do things, but I don't know what "syncing" is, nor am I even sure what a "Dropbox" is nor how to use it. And alas, I can't take the time, now, to learn these new techniques. I will take your advice, though, and learn these things when things settle down, here.

I read your Solution #2 instructions (below), understood them all, and began executing them. All went well until I "opened 1Password 4 again and started through the setup". I was asked to enter my Master Password, and it was rejected AGAIN! And so, I gave up on doing the job elegantly and simply as you outlined … and just "Started Again". 1Password now takes my Master Password, and I'm slowly and inelegantly restoring all my old logins by hand. Fortunately, they all exist on the MB.

I do thank you for your prompt and excellent advice! I appreciate it greatly. You must be one of the AgileBits staffers that Joe Kissell of Take Control Books praised so highly. (I was reading his 'Take Control of 1Password 1.2.1' book looking for the help you eventually provided).

Most sincerely, and with thanks,
Ros5e

Solution #2:
On your MacBook, open 1Password 4 and go to the menu for 1Password > Preferences.
Select the Backup tab, then click the Show Files button to open the folder containing your backups.
Copy your most recent backup file to your iMac.
On your iMac, follow our starting over steps to reset 1Password.
After that, when you open 1Password 4 again and go through the setup, choose "I've used 1Password before" and then restore from your backup file.

rickfillion

Hi @Ros5e,

It sounds like when you went through the Solution #2 the first time, that you may have missed the Starting Over step. Perhaps you didn't reboot as part of that step? People often assume that the reboot isn't required. It's not too late to finish off Solution #2 though.

If you're up and running with 1Password on the iMac, then you can still go to Preferences > Backups, and use 'Find Backup' to select the backup file you copied from the iMac. Restoring from this backup will make both systems the same.

Maintaining two vaults manually is not only laborious, it's actually going to cause you a bit of pain later when you decide you'd like to sync data automatically between the two (both devices will have duplicates). I do recommend that once you find a half hour of spare time that you go to dropbox.com, create an account, and setup 1Password to connect to it. This way as soon as you add or edit an item on one Machine, the changes will automatically show up on the other.

I hope this helps. Please let us know how this goes.

Rick

Ros5e

Hi, Rick, I was extremely careful to follow the "Solution #2" directions to the T … and the directions were well written. 1PW still didn't accept my password. In exasperation, I gave up with intelligent attempts to bring 1Password to life again, and did a Hari-kari Start Over. I've spent the last good-while restoring my iMac's 1PW from the data in our MacBook entries. Just finished this afternoon, and life and 1PW is good again.

The Dropbox idea you mentioned is attractive, but I have no idea how it would work. The only thing I know about Dropbox is that person 1 has a folder of that name that is 'connected' to person 2's similar folder, and when person 1 drags a file to his Dropbox folder, it immediately appears in person 2's Dropbox folder. Person 2 than drags that file to where it should be. I'll go to dropbox.com, and try to learn how to set such a system up between our two computers. But … what happens then? Would I drag my 1PW's file that contains all my Logins, Secure Notes, Credit Cards, Identities, and Passwords from wherever it lives on my HD over to my Dropbox folder … and then do the reverse procedure with the laptop? This doesn't sound like your statement, "… as soon as you add or edit an item on one Machine, the changes will automatically show up on the other." I'm not understanding something. And the biggest confusion: I don't even know the name of this file nor where it's located! If you'd have the time to clarify all this for me, I'd really appreciate it!

Charlie

littlebobbytables

Hi @Ros5e,

If Dropbox was nothing more than just a service you access via their website its usefulness would be limited. The power starts to become apparent when you install their service on each machine. The service creates a local Dropbox folder and you place items in there. Anything in that folder is copied to Dropbox's servers by the Dropbox service running on your PC. Any other place that you're logged in and running their service will then see the files too. As long as you keep the files in the Dropbox folder then any changes you make in one location are synchronised to the others curtesy of the Dropbox service.

So the way 1Password works with Dropbox is we create a .agilekeychain which you permanently store in Dropbox. 1Password knows this is your sync data so any time you make changes to your local vault it updates this .agilekeychain. The Dropbox service then copies it to its servers and the other machines download the update. Now you need to configure each machine and device once so they all point to the same .agilekeychain but as you are probably beginning to understand now, if the Dropbox service on Mac B pulls down changes to the .agilekeychain the next time you open 1Password it will see the changes and add them to that local copy of your vault.

This way any changes in one vault are synchronised with others.

The instructions for setting up Dropbox syncing can be found in our guide, Sync with Dropbox. This won't explain how Dropbox works on a conceptual level but it will take you through the steps to automate syncing between multiple copies of 1Password.

Now if you have more questions please do ask :smile: