Master Password change not sync'd
Hi,
I had previously installed 1Password on my Mac and PC, trialled it and decided not to use it. I have now reached a point where I need a password manager so have purchased a license for Mac and PC.
I installed the Windows version on my PC, it detected an existing vault from my previous installation (in Dropbox). I setup a few passwords and changed the Master Password. I installed the iOS app, which works as expected with the new Master Password. 1Password 5 was already installed on my Mac, but when I launched it it wouldn't take the new password, but does take the old password.
The Mac, PC and iOS apps all seem to use the same vault as I can add items in any of them and they all sync, but the Mac version still uses the old Master Password - how can this be?
Anthony
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Hi @littecharva,
Can I ask, what version of 1Password for Mac are you running? I know we resolved some sync issues relating to this in 1Password 5.1 for Mac and I'm wondering if that might explain your situation.
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5.0.2 - After updating to 5.1 it seems to have resolved the issue. Can you explain how this works for me though? How can two different versions of 1Password open the same vault with two different passwords?
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Hi @littlecharva,
There's no quick way to explain this so please bear with me.
Your Master Password doesn't directly encrypt your vault. The reason is that no matter how well we try, a human created password is always weaker than what a machine would do. Also, the more data you encrypt with a particular key the more information you give somebody to try and break the encryption. So what we do is we create a bunch of random encryption keys and encrypt your vault with these much stronger keys. Where does your Master Password come into it? well something has to secure these encryption keys and that's the role of the Master Password. These encryption keys are significantly smaller in size than the entire contents of your vault so information leakage is minimised.
When you change your Master Password we decrypt these encryption keys and encrypt with the new Master Password. There were a number of reasons why we didn't generate new encryption keys and re-encrypt your entire vault. What it means though is, and this is where the sync bugs came in, the locally stored copy of your encryption keys was used to decrypt your sync data. We've corrected this in 5.1 which is why you saw the change in behaviour in updating.
Let me know if that was clear enough or if you're looking for more detailed information :smile:
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Thanks @littlebobbytables, that makes sense, and thanks for going to the trouble of explaining it. It reassures me that I've made the right decision purchasing a license.
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Glad I could help ease any concerns you might have had @littlecharva. Given the trust that has to be be here between yourself and 1Password we're not just here for troubleshooting but also to help ensure you know how the software works so you can have faith :smile:
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