Hard drive failed. Password for TimeMachine is stored in 1Pass, which hadn't synced. Any hope?

niwskah

I have licences for 1Password 4 on Mac & Windows, purchased from the AgileBits website. I almost exclusively use 1Password on my MacBook Pro running OS X Mavericks.

My hard drive failed and I had to get a new one. I have a time machine backup on an external Hard Drive. But that Hard Drive is protected by a password, which I stored in 1Pass (on the mac). Perhaps that was a rookie mistake. But I didn't realize until reading these forums now that there is no way to access the 1pass login info if it gets lost. I have it installed on my iPhone, but the last sync was before I added the password to time machine.

I thought that opening 1password from my Windows machine would connect me to the passwords, but my only option is to open an existing vault, which I don't have. I've been using 1Pass (and loving it)) for over 1 year, and I assumed there was cloud backup somehow.

Is there any hope at getting access to my 1password info, so that i can re-install from Time Machine?

Drew_AG

Hi @niwskah,

I'm sorry to hear about the hard drive failure on your Mac!

Storing your Time Machine password in 1Password is a good idea as long as you have access to your 1Password data from somewhere other than just the one Mac that is being backed up, in case something like this happens. It sounds like you had previously been syncing your 1Password data between your Mac and iPhone, but unfortunately the password for Time Machine was added after the last time you synced.

1Password never sends your password data to us. By default, all your 1Password data is stored locally on a device. That data isn't synced to the cloud unless you setup the iCloud or Dropbox sync option (or use Folder sync with another cloud sync service). There is also the Wi-Fi sync option which can be used to sync your data directly to/from an iOS device. 1Password for Mac automatically creates backups of your data, but those backups are also stored locally on your Mac.

You said you have some of your data in 1Password on your iPhone, so at some point you had used a sync option. Had you been using iCloud or Dropbox sync? Or did you use the Wi-Fi sync option? If 1Password for Mac was syncing with iCloud or Dropbox before the hard drive failure, your data should still be in your iCloud or Dropbox account, so you should be able to get your password for the Time Machine backup.

You also have a copy of 1Password for Windows, but from your description, it sounds like you hadn't set it up? If you had been using Dropbox sync, or Folder sync with another cloud sync service, you'll be able to set up 1Password for Windows to sync your data.

Please let us know if you had been using any sync option, and we'll see if there's anything we can do to help get that password back again. Thanks!

niwskah

Nope, I had it set to sync via WiFi on my phone, and last sync was 14 weeks ago. I remembered getting error messages when trying to sync over wifi, so I guess I just stopped doing it (big mistake obviously). I'd never set it up on Windows, either. So no, no sync to cloud nor to dropbox.

I realize this is my mistake, but I wish I'd understood-- or been reminded -- that an extra step is required to keep data synced. I loved 1Password because it was "set it and forget it", but since I missed that crucial step of setting up to sync via an external service, I'm no longer in love with it :( I know, user error and whatnot, and I should have read the manual, written down my password in a place other than 1Pass, gotten help when I had those earlier errors for sync via wifi, etc. I certainly messed up here. But I can't help but wish I'd received an email tip or reminder every now and again to encourage me to set up an auto-sync option. It took me months of hearing good things about 1Password until I actually got off my bum and installed it. Perhaps a series of email encouragements would have eventually gotten me to take that extra step. Maybe that would be a good thing to implement in the future, for those of us not so technical & security-minded.

Many thanks for your reply though.

Vee_AG

Hi @niwskah,

We're so sorry you lost access to your data. That's a total bummer. :(

It sounds like you're going to need to start over with an empty vault... and be sure to enable sync. Sorry again, I know it's no fun to start over.

But thank you very much for your suggestion--if it would have saved you in this situation, then it's worth exploring the idea of having some kind of prompt or reminder in 1Password when sync is not enabled. I've created an issue in our issue tracker based on your suggestion, and our developers will consider the feasibility of implementing this in future versions of 1Password.

ref: OPM-3082

niwskah

Thanks for your response, Vee. I totally appreciate the 1Pass team's responsiveness via these forums.

Vee_AG

You're most welcome, @niwskah! We're lucky to have responsive users like you to help us constantly improve. :) And we'll be here to help you if anything else comes up.