Vaults out of sync after recovery (Macbook <-> Dropbox <-> Win7)

Florian4)

hi all,
I already tried to search the forum but did not get to any helpful answer for my problem.

I recently recovered my Vault (on my Win7 PC), which I'm syncing via Dropbox.
After working at my mac, I discovered that the amount of Logins is not matching up (less on my mac, more on win7).

I checked the location of the agilekeychain to be the same on both computers.
Some how it doesn't sync. Any help? Thanks in advance!

Megan

Hi @Florian4) ,

Thanks for doing a quick search here, I'm sorry that you didn't find the answers you were looking for, but I'd be happy to help you out!

I'm sorry to hear that you're having trouble keeping things synced up lately. I've got a few basic things that we want to check regarding Dropbox first, before we get into the serious troubleshooting:

• Please ensure that Dropbox is installed and running on your computer
• Check that you are logged in with the same account on all computers and devices
• Confirm that Dropbox sync is selected in 1Password > Preferences > Sync on your Mac
• Confirm that Dropbox is selected in Settings > Sync on your PC
• Confirm that both your Mac and PC are reading from the same file path in Dropbox (which it appears that you've already confirmed.)

If all of those items check out, let's run a test and see where things are getting tripped up:

• Create a test entry on your Mac ("Test, Mac") and add some data
• Create a test entry on your PC ("Test, PC") and add some data
• Does "Test for Mac" show up on your PC?
• Does "Test for PC" show up on your Mac?
• Log in to the Dropbox website and click on the 1Password.html file inside your 1Password.agilekeychain folder
• Enter your Master Password
• Do either or any of your test entries show up in your database here?

Please let me know the results of this little experiment - once we have a better idea of where things are going sideways, we should be able to get this straightened out simply for you :)

Florian4)

hi @Megan,
thank you for your fast answer. I can confirm the following:

• Does "Test for Mac" show up on your PC?
  yes

• Does "Test for PC" show up on your Mac?
  yes

• Log in to the Dropbox website and click on the 1Password.html file inside your 1Password.agilekeychain folder

• Do either or any of your test entries show up in your database here?
  Hmm... strange - After logging into the HTML file via dropbox it says that there are zero entries where there should be round about 250.

I did login into the Vault via dropbox yesterday (before posting) and saw that there where entries available.

littlebobbytables

Hi @Florian4),

So just a quick recap.

• New test items showed up on each machine which indicates they are syncing.
• Despite this, 1Password for Windows has more items.
• Viewing the exact same .agilekeychain using 1PasswordAnywhere now shows an empty vault while 1Password for Windows still correctly shows all the items.
• All of this started after you "recovered" your .agilekeychain.

I'm a bit distrustful of the .agilekeychain you have in Dropbox given everything you've described so I'd like to try the sledgehammer approach if you're willing. Basically let's not muck around. What I suggest is review everything below, let it sync in and if you have any questions at all please do ask.

On your Mac

1. Launch 1Password for Mac and enter its preferences.
2. Switch to the Backup tab and click on the Backup Now button.

On your Windows machine

1. Launch 1Password for Windows and open your vault.
2. Select the drop down menu option "File > Export..."
3. Change the Format from "Comma-Delimited Text (CSV)" to "1Password Interchange Format (1PIF)"
4. Save this unencrypted copy of your vault to your Desktop.
5. With your vault still unlock, select the drop down menu option File > Repair 1Password Vault.

After the repairing has finished and syncing occurs on both machines, does this improve matters at all? If it does then great, head down to the final paragraph in this post but if not there's more we can try.

Back on your Windows machine

1. Quit 1Password for Windows via the File > Exit drop down menu option.
2. Move your 1Password.agilekeychain from Dropbox to your Desktop. This way you still have it (I like safety nets).
3. When you launch 1Password you may be presented with a small list of previous vaults (if you have any). If you are click Cancel.
4. If you didn't have any other vaults or after you've clicked Cancel you should be presented with the Welcome to 1Password screen. Click on the I am new to 1Password button.
5. Windows will ask where to save the new vault, point it to your Dropbox folder where the old .agilekeychain was.
6. Finish creating the new .agilekeychain, you can take the opportunity to change your Master Password if you wish but there certainly isn't any requirement and having it match the Mac is what we'd advise.
7. Unlock your new, empty vault.
8. Select the drop down menu option "File > Import..." and select the 1PIF file you made in steps 2-4.
9. You will quickly see a prompt where you are asked "Would you like to import an item named...". For this prompt you want to click "Yes to All" for speed.
10. If you have any items in your vault that have the same title then you will probably see a second prompt but this time it will ask "An item named XXX already exist. Would you like to replace this existing item?". This time click the "No to All" button. This will ensure everything is imported and nothing overwritten.

Back on your Mac

You will need to re-enable Dropbox Sync. When 1Password for Mac opens it will find the .agilekeychain has changed and stop syncing to it as a safety measure. Everything we've gone through though is to create a new .agilekeychain. So point 1Password for Mac at the new .agilekeychain and see if it now merges everything.

Hopefully at this point either through the first set of steps or maybe through the sightly more severe second set you now have a properly syncing vault once again. If you do then please do take a moment to securely delete the 1pif export data as that is an unencrypted copy of your vault so not something you want lying around. You can also then safely remove the old .agilekeychain on your desktop. Worst case scenario is something goes wrong but you still have a copy of the old .agilekeychain on your Desktop that you can pop back into Dropbox (and the backup you made on your Mac). I'm hoping though that you will be reporting an improvement to you situation. Please do let us know either way!

Florian4)

@littlebobbytables - thanks the long procedure helped out and everything is syncing fine now again. I only need to remove the duplicates and everything to normal :-) Thanks!

littlebobbytables

That's great to hear @Florian4) and thank you for letting us know :smile: it was one of those situations where something didn't feel right so it's always nice to hear it had a happy ending. Out of curiosity, was the first set of steps enough or did you have to get more severe?