Login username and password missing on Macs using Dropbox Syncing

asmetana

This started happening last week... 4 Macs running 10.10.3 Yosemite and several stored logins are now missing username and password entires for Logins within 1Password. I tried a restore to the most recent previous version on the backup and that worked last week but it started happening again today. On many sites I'm prompted to save my login as new when it's pre-populated by Safari and/or Firefox. Gratefully several have been stored in those because I've been letting 1Password generate many of my passwords so I have no other means of knowing what those passwords are.

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1Password Version: 5.3
Extension Version: 4.3.1
OS Version: OS X 10.10.3
Sync Type: Dropbox

littlebobbytables

Hi @asmetana,

Can you clarify something for me please. Is it complete Login items are disappearing or are you saying that the items still exist but now no longer contain the relevant data in their username and password fields? Both are bad but I just want to narrow down what is happening.

I don't know if it is related or not but have you had any sync related issues at all? I'm wondering if one Mac is somehow misbehaving and overwriting sync data with what it believes is correct and causing damage that way.

Hopefully we can get to the bottom of what is happening.

asmetana

The item exists in title only but there is no content. Of course in going to the other Macs I find the same thing for those computers. It's been running successfully for over a year this way. About 3 weeks ago I added 1Password to my Windows desktop but the problem just started late last week.

I've never had any sync issues before.

littlebobbytables

Hi @asmetana,

The following applies to the scenario where you have a single Primary vault that you're sharing over all four Macs and the new Windows machine. If any of your machines have secondary vaults then these steps would see the secondary vault(s) disappear. The instructions can easily be adapted if you have more vaults but to proceed it would be very helpful if you can tell us what vaults you have and where so the instructions fit.

Assuming you have a single Primary vault though, this might help.

These steps are about keeping a copy of anything that has changed since the backup you restored (and want to keep).

1. With All Items selected in the Sidebar, order your items by Date Modified in the Item List.
2. Using the date of the backup you previously restored, check each item that has been modified since then, noting which you want to keep as they've been explicitly modified by you.
3. Select those you want to keep using the standard OS X selection techniques i.e. holding down the ⌘ key while clicking on items adds/removes them from the current selection.
4. Use the File > Export > Selected Items... drop down menu option and enter your Master Password when requested.
5. Save the items in the 1Password Interchange Format (.1pif) and save it to your Desktop. Please note this is an unencrypted version of these items so once you're done you will want to securely delete the .1pif folder.

Having created a copy of anything you want to keep I recommend restoring the previous backup once again to restore all the damaged items. Having done so you can import the items from above using the File > Import... drop down menu option. If you are running the Mac App Store version of 1Password for Mac you may find the Import window doesn't respond to the mouse. Instead after selecting the import folder on your Desktop press the enter key to replicate clicking on the Open button or the esc key to replicate clicking on Cancel.

Now all of this you know well enough. Given the problem reoccured what's to stop it happening again? If it's a specific Mac that is causing the issue then I believe the problem will reoccur. That's why I now suggest the following.

1. Remove your 1Password.agilekeychain from your Dropbox folder.
2. Recreate the 1Password.agilekeychain on the Mac that you restored the 1Password backup on. This Mac will not have sync set up as it's disabled as part of the restore process. Again, you probably know this already. As you removed the old .agilekeychain though in step 1. this will create fresh sync data.
3. On the other 3 Macs I recommend following our guide, How do I start over with an empty vault? so that if one of them was causing the issue they can't simply repeat the damage again. With 1Password in a clean, never been run before state, you can use our Finding existing 1Password data during setup guide. You should find 1Password on each Mac instantly finds the new 1Password.agilekeychain in Dropbox.

What we've done here is not just restore a backup but make sure that each copy of 1Password only knows what is in that backup and isn't carrying any baggage that may (or may not) have been at fault. My suspicion is something has been corrupted and one copy of 1Password is to blame. This should take care of it by resetting all four. As 1Password for Windows works directly on the .agilekeychain it won't care about any of this.

Now you may have many questions after reading all of this. If you please ask before proceeding. Hopefully though this will eliminate whatever was to blame and you can return to a better 1Password experience going forward. Please do keep us updated :smile:

asmetana

I found and setup one good vault and skimmed through as many entries as I could (over 1,400) and the ones that should have login info seemed to. I exported that to a temporary location and then wiped everything else (after making backups from each of the computers). I then created a new vault on one, setup Dropbox syncing, and imported the entries. All went smoothly and without fuss. I checked several and all appeared to be intact with the correct creation/modified dates and then setup the other computers. So far everything seems to be syncing well. I'll run for a few days, making sure I use each of the machines a few times before I purge the exported file but so far so good. I think I have one to use at work and one laptop to use at home so I should get around to it by the middle of the week. Used 3 computers and phone and iPad so far and all is working as expected!

Thanks for your help and guidance, nicely explained and it all made perfect sense.

Drew_AG

That's great news @asmetana, thanks for letting us know how it all went! On behalf of littlebobbytables, you're very welcome. I do hope everything continues to work well for you, but if you run into more trouble, please let us know. We're here for you! :)