Export, merge, and de-dupe two separate vaults

mdh98368

Hello, I am a long time user (in fact, my whole family is) and love the app on all its platforms.

Here is a use case I'm hoping you can help me figure out.

Both my wife and I have separate instances of 1Password and therefore separate vaults. We both sync to our own vaults using Dropbox across our various devices.

We are a very trusting couple and there are no passwords that either of us have that we wouldn't want the other to have, but after years of separate use, there are now lots of passwords that only one of us have that we would like both of us to have.

I know I can export the vaults to your interchange file format. But then, how would I go about merging those two exported vaults and efficiently de-duplicating that merged version? Both of us started with lots of overlapping passwords so there will be lots of duplicates. (Obviously, for ones where we've both made changes over the years, I will have to resolve conflicts somehow.)

Assuming I am able to actually create a "clean" unified file, what would be the best way to subsequently keep things "in sync?" I haven't played with the "shared vault" functionality so I'm not sure if that helps. Conversely, if the solution for the above use case isn't too onerous, I could potentially just undertake that exercise a few times a year, or something, so that things don't drift too badly.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

Michael

MrC

Hi @mdh98368,

There currently is no record de-duping in 1Password.

I'm reviewing the details required to add two new features to my convert_to_1p4 utility: the first is an output to CSV (for printing) feature, and the second is your request, a de-dup feature. But I'm working on my laptop currently, and my main Mac is offline until the HD gets replaced and restored (should be a few more days).

I think the de-dup feature would be a conversion like any others, but using a 1PIF converter, and you'd give the converter a list of 1PIFs and provide an option such as --nodups or --dedup. It would have the ability to ignore certain fields, some of which would be enabled by default (e.g. certain internal bookkeeping values, modified and creation dates, etc.). I don't know yet how it will handle Folders (haven't explored that fully yet).

I believe the solution to your second question, keeping the vaults in sync, is for you to both use the same dropbox-based vault.

littlebobbytables

Hi @mdh98368,

I can't comment on any de-dupe feature @MrC has planned (very cool btw).

In general if we connect all the various copies of 1Password to the same .agilekeychain then it will merge the two vaults. It won't help with the de-duping though.

If you want to merge the vaults and manually work through the merged vault we can help with that. To stop the steps getting out of control it would help to know if you have a Dropbox account each or if you share one. If you share where do you keep your separate vaults?

I did start writing out a sequence of steps but the accounting for one or two Dropbox accounts meant it was getting messy.

mdh98368

Thanks, LittleBobbyTables. Currently, we both have separate Dropbox accounts and separate agilekeychains.

What I'm actually thinking might work best for us is to simply create a shared vault, and then copy items from our respective personal vaults to that shared vault for things we want us both to have access to. We will just have to have the discipline to remember that if we change a particular password, say, that we both use, that we need to update the version that's stored in the shared vault as well.

I haven't really tried to size yet what percentage of items we have in our respective personal vaults that we would want to share, so I'm not sure how much of an effort the above approach would become.

If you have any insights, that would be great to hear.

Thanks,
Michael

littlebobbytables

Hi @mdh98368,

There is certainly a level of flexibility here and it's really what works best for you.

Many partners keep two vaults, their primary one for their own items and a secondary for the shared items. With this approach we usually would recommend you only keep an item in one of the vaults rather than a copy in each. The reason is to avoid the situation that you've covered already, where an item may be updated in one vault but not the other given the two items aren't linked. This approach would mean a certain amount of swapping between vaults depending on what site you want to log into. Now I don't share a secondary vault myself but I do use them as a logical divide between personal and work items so I go through this vault switching scenario myself as part of my normal routine. I find the keyboard shortcuts ⌘1...⌘9 great here as it allows you to easily switch between vaults in both the main 1Password window or 1Password mini.

The other approach is still valid too of course. With the knowledge that you have .agilekeychain in your own individual Dropbox accounts we can refine the sequence of steps and show you how to have all copies of 1Password synchronise to a single .agilekeychain. This would merge your two vaults completely and leave you a single vault between you.

Both approaches would require a certain amount of manual effort to eliminate duplicates but there are ways to sort a single vault to highlight this. For example if you sort by Website it would group together all Amazon related items and so on.

This of course assumes the two items were created completely separately. If you shared an item they would have the same UUID. In those instances 1Password will actually merge the contents as they represent the same item. The manual removal of duplicates would only be if you both created items in your own vaults separately.

The other thing is you could always start with a shared secondary vault and if you decide a single vault between you is actually more practical we can show you how to move everything from the secondary to one of your primary vaults and then how to merge your primaries.

There really isn't a right or wrong approach, we see both of these and it really does come down to how you would like to use it. Some people want to share a single vault because it's easier, some people want the separate vaults and 1Password can accommodate both.

Now we know your Dropbox situation we'll be in a much better place to direct your regardless of what you decide. If you've made your decision let us know and we'll go through the steps or if you have more questions about anything just ask :smile: