Losing data/passwords with "New Login" Blank Entries [Caused by unsupported use of Dropbox/GDrive]
Hello, I'm a long time user of 1Password for Windows (+IOS+Android). I'm using Dropbox to sync across my 2 windows devices, 1 iPad, and 1 Android phone.
I am having an issue where I am losing my login information (username, password, even the name of the entry itself). It appears as though it happens when I create an entry on either of my Windows machines. It appears as though it works, but a few days later I look back and the entry has changed. The title of the entry is "New Login" and all data is gone. The only thing that sometimes survives is the site icon (but not the web site name).
It doesn't happen all the time, but it has happened more than 25 times over the past few months. I cannot explain what triggers it.
This is obviously a serious problem since I'm losing data. Please help me resolve it.
Thanks,
David
1Password Version: 4.5.0.575
Extension Version: (I don't use the browser extension)
OS Version: Windows 8.1
Sync Type: Dropbox
Comments
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Hi there!
This is indeed a potentially serious issue. It's also something that I don't think we've heard about before.
I have a couple of questions related to this:
1. Does the same thing happen when you create a new item in the iOS or Android apps?
2. Are you syncing the Windows PCs with Dropbox directly?
3. Once you create a new item on one of the PCs, does this item show up correctly in the iOS or Android apps?0 -
Alex,
Thanks for the response. Here are the best answers I can provide.
1) I really haven't been able to pin it down since it doesn't happen right away. The best I can tell you is that it happens frequently when an entry is created on Windows. I do not know if it happens when an entry is created on IOS or Android.
2) One Windows PC has Dropbox installed. Both Windows PCs have Google Drive. I use a hard link (i.e. a junction) in Windows to make the Google Drive directory point to the Dropbox directory. Google Drive does the sync between both PCs. I do this so that I do not have to run Dropbox on the second Windows PC (where 1Password would be my only use of Dropbox). I have been under the impression that this is not the problem because the symptom would be missing entries - not entries that are missing data. But I'll be interested to hear your thoughts.
3) Most of the time yes; however, when the error occurs, the "New Login" entry does show up on both IOS and Android.I did some additional testing by creating a new login on each of my four devices, and I found a Google Drive problem. Apparently Google Drive is no longer seeing the "junction" and syncing new files. That means entries that are created on my desktop, IOS, & Android are not making it to my laptop. Entries that are created on my laptop are making it to my desktop. It also means that the "contents" file is being edited at different times at different places. That clearly seems like it could create some problem, but you'll have to tell me what the symptoms would be. I'm under the impression that 1Password works by creating a new and separate file for each login, so I don't know the impact of having a file sync conflict with the "contents" file.
Separate from the above problem, none of the entries I were saved as "New Login" and so far I haven't lost any data. As I mentioned, sometimes the problem doesn't show up right away, so I'll keep watching.
Let me know your thoughts. Thanks!
David
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I decided to take the #2 variable out of the equation - now both Windows devices are sync'ing direct to my Dropbox folder.
Since we'll have to wait to see if the problem with "New Login" entries reoccurs, could we concentrate on trying to recover the "New Login" entries that I already have?
David
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Hi @wdthomas,
2) One Windows PC has Dropbox installed. Both Windows PCs have Google Drive. I use a hard link (i.e. a junction) in Windows to make the Google Drive directory point to the Dropbox directory. Google Drive does the sync between both PCs. I do this so that I do not have to run Dropbox on the second Windows PC (where 1Password would be my only use of Dropbox). I have been under the impression that this is not the problem because the symptom would be missing entries - not entries that are missing data. But I'll be interested to hear your thoughts.
The main question is how Google Drive or Dropbox (or any service or sync tool) handle junction points, they have to explicitly support them properly. We had issues in the past with sync services and local sync tools not respecting the metadata/resource links and symlinks/junction points and in the end, the data was corrupted.
Not only that, you have two separate services syncing and overwriting files at random times, we simply cannot recommend using more than one sync service for the same vault as long as there is only one copy of the data.
That's why we're careful to constantly back up your data daily on the computers as long as there are changes made to your data, plus we ensure this can't work on the mobile devices to support more than one sync service per vault.
That clearly seems like it could create some problem, but you'll have to tell me what the symptoms would be.
The short answer is data corruption. The long answer for what symptoms, it can have various symptoms depending on where the corruption occurs but the main point is that your setup is not supported nor recommended. You have to manually copy the data between both folders to keep them in sync but the other problem is the same reason that we've dropped support for supporting multiple sync services per vault in the iOS application, their schedule for syncing is not consistent and can corrupt the data.
Based on what you said, it sounds like either Dropbox or Google synced or overwritten the items with the older copy that had zero content in it.
I'm under the impression that 1Password works by creating a new and separate file for each login, so I don't know the impact of having a file sync conflict with the "contents" file.
For the older agilekeychain format, yes it has a separate .1password file for each item you have in the database. Contents.js is basically a summary of your database but it is not vital, it can be rebuilt by reading your database at once.
, could we concentrate on trying to recover the "New Login" entries that I already have?
First, go to the main 1Password program on the Windows computer and use the File Menu > Repair 1Password Vault to see if it helps.
If not, unfortunately, you have to restore from an early backup that was created on the computer before the corruption. Or if you have an device that has all the data retained, use that to generate a new file to push to your computers and other device.
Can you tell me if you have one computer or device with all data retained?
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Just wanted to thank you for the help. I've moved both PCs to work directly with Dropbox and I restored 8 of 9 of the missing passwords by using various backup files. I'll be sure to let you know if the "New Login" issue continues.
Thanks,
David
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