Dropbox sync runs over and over, though no changes made in 1Password

jthornes

Subject says it all. I'm on OS X 10.10.3 and iOS8. Have 3 macs and a few iDevices syncing. I'm seeing dozens of keys syncing along with content.js every few minutes. Wasting a ton of CPU cycles and driving me nuts.

littlebobbytables

Hi @jthornes,

It might be that the .agilekeychain has been mangled a little bit and causing started an endless cycle of syncing between the various copies of 1Password. It's uncommon but it can happen. In many instances like this what we would suggest is disabling sync and deleting the broken .agilekeychain. When you re-enable sync it will create a brand new .agilekeychain to work with and normal syncing behaviour returns.

Now the bad news is deleting the .agilekeychain from one machine will mean you have to set up syncing on all your machines and devices again. When they see the original keychain is missing they'll disable sync and force you to merge the local vault with the new .agilekeychain. Now given all the devices were in sync the use of the word merge is a bit misleading as there won't be many differences at all.

Depending on your level of comfort we can take you through all of these steps but you may be quite happy with what needs to be done. Either way though, I'm confident that essentially reinitialising the sync data will resolve this cycle of sync.

If you'd like the steps just a quick post saying yes and we'll get right on that :smile:

jthornes

Thanks @littlebobbytables

I've identified the computer that has the vault causing the sync issues, so I'd like to follow your directions with it. However, had one question first. I have a typical dropbox sync install... all my computers store the main vault as ~/Dropbox/Apps/1Password/1Password.agilekeychain

You seem to be recommending that I disable sync in 1Password and then delete that file. That will cause dropbox to propagate the delete to all other computers. But... isn't that destroying my password vault? Is there another one floating around in the Library folders or something that I don't know about, so that when I turn sync back on it will recreate the file?

thanks,
Jay

Vee_AG

Hi @jthornes,

But... isn't that destroying my password vault?

No, it's destroying the Dropbox copy of your vault.

Is there another one floating around in the Library folders or something that I don't know about, so that when I turn sync back on it will recreate the file?

In short: Yes, exactly. :)

Here's an article specifying all the filepaths where 1Password 5 for Mac stores all its relevant files and data on your computer.

When you activate sync, it creates 1Password.agilekeychain, which is a copy of your data that can be stored on Dropbox's servers (or iCloud, or wherever you're syncing to) so that you can access it from other devices. But even when you don't have sync enabled, you still have your local vault database, which is a file called OnePassword.sqlite.

We would definitely not advise you to destroy your only vault file without a very explicit warning. But good on you for being protective of your vault! Can't be too careful when it comes to secure data. :)

jthornes

@littlebobbytables and @Vee

That did it. Turned off sync on all the macs and then deleted the dropbox copy. Let the dropbox sync settle down, and then turned sync back on (on a single mac). Let dropbox sync the new agilekeychain file/folder across all macs, then turned sync back on for the remaining macs. Problem resolved.

Thanks!

littlebobbytables

Sorry you had to go through that @jthornes but great to hear it resolved it. Sometimes the sync container (your .agilekeychain) can get messed up and the quickest and easiest way to resolve is to ditch it and start again. On Mac and iOS devices you risk nothing because your vault is locally stored in an encrypted .sqlite database file while this advice doesn't hold true if you're just a Windows user as the .agilekeychain is still the vault.

Hopefully it'll be smooth syncing going forward :smile: