Why is 1PW syncing to an old keychain on my Macbook since updating to 5?

JCD

I upgraded to 1PW 5 on my Macbook Pro and was forced to switch from iCloud to Dropbox to sync. Since then, it's like 1PW has gone back in time and is missing many new logins and using outdated ones. My iPhone is also syncing to Dropbox but is completely up to date. Are they reading different files? I only see one keychain in my Dropbox account.

Hope you can help.

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1Password Version: 5.0.1
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: Yosemite
Sync Type: Dropbox

littlebobbytables

Hi @JCD,

Were you a 1Password 3 user at all and if you look in the Sync tab of 1Password's preferences is it syncing to ~/Library/Application Support/1Password/1Password.agilekeychain by any chance?

If this sounds right then what has happened is 1Password has found your old vault and gotten confused over what Agile Keychain represents your current and real vault. My suggestion would be as follows. Follow our How do I start over with an empty vault? guide but before rebooting your Mac I would recommend also moving your 1Password folder from ~/Library/Application Support/ out of the way. After a reboot it will mean 1Password should only find the vault in Dropbox. You may also want to take the opportunity to upgrade to 1Password 5.3.2 though as 5.0.1 is out of date now and we've made a lot of bug fixes since then.

Should you have any troubles at all please do let us know.

JCD

Thanks for the quick reply. It's syncing to Dropbox/1Password/1Password.agilekeychain. I just looked in my library folder and found a 1Password 4 folder in Application Support. The keychain in that folder was modified as recently as yesterday. Could that be the confusion?

littlebobbytables

Hi @JCD,

It wasn't what I was thinking of, let me explain why. The 1Password 4 folder is the support folder for both 1Password 4 and 5 when you're an AgileBits Store user. We could have changed the name and it might have helped reduce confusion but given that all the support files and file formats are the same between versions 4 and 5 we opted to just keep using the same folder. Now saying that, we don't normally store an Agile Keychain in that folder so if you're seeing one that's unusual.

Now you say your iOS device is syncing to Dropbox and completely up to date. If that is the case the following would be one approach to trying to sort this out. Please note it will remove the existing vault on your Mac but I'm assuming there is nothing that is just on the Mac if your iOS device is up to date as you say.

1. Launch 1Password for iOS and enter 1Password's Settings (it's the cog in the bottom right hand corner).
2. In there tap where it says Sync.
3. In the next screen the top line should read Sync Service Dropbox > - tap that.
4. I this final screen it should say Dropbox under the current sync method at the top but more importantly it will say exactly where it is syncing to in Dropbox.
5. All of this is to verify where 1Password for iOS is syncing too. If it doesn't say /1Password/1Password.agilekeychain precisely then it turns out there must be two Agile Keychains in your Dropbox folder.
6. If this is the case you will want to delete the one the Mac is pointing to as you say your iOS device is completely up to date. So keep the one 1Password for iOS is syncing to and delete the ~/Dropbox/1Password/1Password.agilekeychain one from your Mac.
7. Still on your Mac, the easiest way forward is to follow our How do I start over with an empty vault? guide and then our 7. 7. Finding existing 1Password data during setup guide. This will allow you to create a new vault on your Mac that uses the correct Agile Keychain that your iOS device is updating.

Now hopefully this resolves everything and you can finally have your iOS device and Mac synchronise. Should you have any questions or doubts at all before starting please do stop and ask :smile:

JCD

Thanks again. This is so weird. I followed all instructions above, including starting over. I synced both Mac and iPhone to Dropbox and both say they're reading from 1Password/1Password.agilekeychain. However...the data is different on each. iPhone logins are current, while Mac logins are a few months old.

Drew_AG

Hi @JCD,

That's definitely strange, although I'm sure we'll be able to figure out what's going on here. When you followed the steps from littlebobbytables, did it turn out there were 2 different 1Password.agilekeychain files in Dropbox? Or just one? If there were two, did you delete the one that was syncing with 1Password on your Mac?

Also, can you confirm you're using the same Dropbox account on your Mac and iPhone? If you're signed into a different Dropbox account on each, that would explain the problem.

Thanks!

JCD

Only one agilekeychain and only one Dropbox account.

Drew_AG

Thanks @JCD,

So just to make sure I understand, it sounds like you found only one 1Password.agilekeychain file in Dropbox, and both your Mac and iPhone were set up to sync with that same file. Then, as part of the steps from littlebobbytables, you deleted that 1Password.agilekeychain file from Dropbox, and reset 1Password on your Mac by following our guide to start over with a new vault. Presumably, you re-enabled Dropbox sync in 1Password on your iPhone at this point (in order to create a new 1Password.agilekeychain file in Dropbox), and then chose to sync your vault from Dropbox when setting up 1Password for Mac. However, the data that repopulated 1Password on your Mac was still the old data, while your iPhone still shows all the newer data.

Does that all describe the steps you took, in the same order? If not, please correct me where I'm wrong. I'm sorry if it sounds like I'm being overly-picky about the details, but something doesn't seem to be matching up quite right here, so I want to be sure we understand everything that happened on your end, in case it makes a difference. Thanks, I do appreciate it! :)

Also, before doing anything else, please make a backup of the 1Password data on your iPhone. You can do that by following the steps in this knowledgebase article. You'll want to save that backup from your iPhone to your Mac via iTunes file sharing, as described in those steps.

Once you've done that, you can actually use that backup file to restore the data in 1Password on your Mac so you at least have all the same data as on your iPhone. Open 1Password on your Mac and go to File > Restore, then click the Find Backup button. Choose the backup file you saved from your iPhone and follow the steps to complete the restore. If all goes well, you should have all your up-to-date info on your Mac as well as your iPhone. The next step would be to figure out if the sync is working at all, but please let us know how it all goes up to this point, and we'll continue from there. Thanks!

JCD

Thanks Drew_AG,

So just to make sure I understand, it sounds like you found only one 1Password.agilekeychain file in Dropbox, and both your Mac and iPhone were set up to sync with that same file.

• Yes.

Then, as part of the steps from littlebobbytables, you deleted that 1Password.agilekeychain file from Dropbox

• No - I moved the 1PW 4 files (folder, plists) to my desktop then started over by re-enabling sync to Dropbox. I did not delete the keychain in Dropbox.

However, the data that repopulated 1Password on your Mac was still the old data, while your iPhone still shows all the newer data.

• Exactly.

My only uninformed suspicion is that it had something to do with decoupling from iCloud. It's almost like iOS is still reading iCloud (which would be the most updated data) and OS is reading the old Dropbox keychain. When I was forced to go back to syncing with Dropbox in 1PW5, how would the newest data from iCloud have gotten into Dropbox?

I'll do the backup and restore and see how that goes.

Drew_AG

Hi @JCD,

Thanks for clarifying that! Hopefully the backup & restore goes well, so you'll have the latest data on your Mac. After restoring from the backup, you'll need to re-enable Dropbox sync in 1Password on your Mac:

• Open 1Password on your Mac and go to 1Password > Preferences in the menu.
• Choose the Sync tab, then select Dropbox from the “Sync vault with” pop-up menu.
• Click the Choose button and select the 1Password.agilekeychain file in Dropbox/1Password/ (then click Open).
• Click Merge with Existing to start syncing (enter your master password if prompted).

If all goes well up to this point, the next step is to see if the sync actually works. An easy way to do that is to create a new Secure Note in 1Password on your Mac and name it Test from Mac, then create a new Secure Note in 1Password on your iPhone and name it Test from iPhone. After you create those, check your Mac and iPhone to see if each new Secure Note synced from one to the other. Please let us know how that all goes!

My only uninformed suspicion is that it had something to do with decoupling from iCloud. It's almost like iOS is still reading iCloud (which would be the most updated data) and OS is reading the old Dropbox keychain.

Actually, the 1Password apps on Mac and iOS don't read data directly from iCloud or Dropbox. Each device has its own local copy of your 1Password vault (so you can use 1Password even if sync is completely disabled). When you enable Dropbox or iCloud sync, it makes a copy of your vault in your Dropbox or iCloud account. Then, when you make a change on one device, it copies that change from the local vault to the vault in Dropbox or iCloud. On another device, 1Password copies that change from Dropbox or iCloud to the local vault. So, the data in the cloud is only used for syncing changes.

When I was forced to go back to syncing with Dropbox in 1PW5, how would the newest data from iCloud have gotten into Dropbox?

All your latest data is stored locally in 1Password on your iPhone. When you re-enabled Dropbox sync on your iPhone, it would (or should) have copied all that data from your iPhone to Dropbox.

Looking forward to hearing how it goes with the sync test! :)