Data missing from Desktop version

Dellalan

Hi, I have iPassword on my Windows Desktop at work and I also use it at home on my Mac Book.

When I logged in this morning on Windows Desktop, I noticed that I seemed to have lost a lot of my logins. Currently it shows 25 logins out of 206.

On my Mac Book, all the information is still there.

I have done a Backup on my Mac Book and I can see the Backup file in the Vault. I have tried to copy this backup file to my Desktop Windows but it wont recognise the file when I try to restore on Windows.

Any suggestions. Regards, Alan

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1Password Version: Not Provided
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: Not Provided
Sync Type: Not Provided
Referrer: forum-search:Data missing from Desktop version

Dellalan

A couple of other bits of information:

Windows Desktop version of iPassword is 4.6.0.585
Sync Type is Dropbox

AGAlumB

@Dellalan: Thanks for the followup post. Sync would have been my first question, and my second would have been if you were using an old version of 1Password! ;)

So, first and foremost, the backup file from your Mac simply isn't compatible with the Windows version. And besides, if you restored a backup (or manually copied the vault over), it would have the same effect as if you restored the backup on the Mac and the data sync'd.

So the question becomes, what happened? Is Dropbox sync broken? Were items removed from the vault stored in Dropbox? I'm leaning toward the latter.

Now, this may not sound like it makes sense at first, but I assure you it does. Just bear with me. If sync was broken, well...you'd still have the same data in 1Password for Windows that you had yesterday. But what's probably happened is that Dropbox has sync'd the changes — which will include not only creation and modification, but deletion as well. Did you perhaps delete something yesterday (or use a 'cleaner' app that might have done so)?

"But the data is still on the Mac!" you might say. Well, it is, but not how you might think. 1Password for Mac has an internal database, and only creates an external copy (.agilekeychain) if you set up sync (Dropbox or Folder)...so it still has all the data there.

So what I'd like you to do is login to the Dropbox website and inspect the contents of your vault there:

1. Open your .agilekeychain in Dropbox
2. Navigate to /data/default/
3. Enable "show deleted files" (trash can in the upper right)
4. Sort by "Modified" so that the most recently changed files are at the top (should have to click it twice), and you'll probably see your missing items
5. Right-click on a deleted file, and then select "Previous Versions"; this will show you the device it was modified on (probably your Mac) and the time; the one with the red ( x ) on the left is where it got deleted

Now, you probably don't actually want to restore all of these individually. The purpose of all of this is to hopefully establish what happened so you can prevent it in the future. The best course of action to get your data back will be to simply disable sync in 1Password on your Mac, restore from a 1Password backup there, and then set up sync again from scratch. But unless we understand why this happened in the first place, there's no reason to assume it won't just happen again.

Please let me know what you find. I look forward to hearing back from you! :)

P.S:

I have done a Backup on my Mac Book and I can see the Backup file in the Vault.

Can you clarify? Hopefully you don't actually have 1Password backing up inside your vault, so it may just be that I'm not understanding what you mean.

Dellalan

@brenty Many thanks for your quick reply. Yes, you are right, I had a recent cleanup in Dropbox, thinking I was deleting old iPassword backup files. Obviously, this has cause me concerns now.

Luckily, I have the data backed up on my Mac Book and all is correct there. Prior to receiving your reply, I deactivated the sync with Dropbox because I didn't want the data there to be downloaded and replaced on my Mac Book.

So thanks for that bit of advise. Possibly I was on the right track there.

The other thing I noticed on my desktop at work was i could see the backups over the last few days. About the time I did some deletions in Dropbox I had around 200 entries in iPassword that were backed up, then the next day it showed around 15 remaining.

What I did was I used the backup copy where it was 200 and restored that on the Windows Desktop. Not ideal, because I made some changes during those days of lost data and that updated information is not on the Windows PC now. Not a major issue, just a little annoying that I deleted some files in the first place. Not to worry.

As I said, I have disabled Sync on my Mac Book. Not sure how Sync really works though. If I update information on my Mac how does this update info in my Windows PC using Sync. In other words. What is the default information? Is it the information on my Windows PC or Mac?

Regards, Alan

MikeT

Hi @Dellalan,

Not sure how Sync really works though. If I update information on my Mac how does this update info in my Windows PC using Sync. In other words. What is the default information? Is it the information on my Windows PC or Mac?

This differs for each sync method but for Dropbox, there's a local copy of your Dropbox files in the Dropbox folder on each computer that's connected to your Dropbox account. The Dropbox client monitors the Dropbox folder for changes and reacts to that. When you update information, 1Password updates the item files locally in your Dropbox folder and Dropbox will see the change, uploads it to their servers and other Dropbox clients will see the timestamp changed compared to the local files it has, it will pull the new copy from its servers and overwrite the local copies with that new copy.

For your issue, what we can do is get 1Password for Mac to write a new sync file to your Dropbox folder in a different location, wait for Dropbox to finish syncing (uploading it to their servers and then downloading it onto your work PC) and see if it works. If not, that suggests there's something wrong with the Dropbox client somewhere in the ecosystem.

Here's how to proceed:

1. Open the 1Password app on the Mac, unlock, and go to the 1Password Menu > Preferences > Sync, select the primary vault and switch it to use Dropbox, point it to a new folder in your Dropbox folder, like Dropbox > Apps > 1Password if this doesn't exist already.
2. Wait for Dropbox to finish its sync on both computers; you should see a green checkmark on the Dropbox icon in your menu bar on top and for the Work PC, the notification tray should show the Dropbox icon with the green checkmark.
3. Once it is done syncing, open 1Password on the PC and go to the File Menu > Open 1Password Vault to select that new folder you created in the Dropbox folder, and see if it will unlock with all of your data.
4. Do some tests to make sure the sync is working in both directions by creating test items in both programs.

Let me know how it turns out.

Dellalan

@MikeT Thank you for the information.

I have done what you said. Within my dropbox now I can see the original folder - iPassword which includes iPassword.agilekeychain - Data - Default, then all the old files.

I now have the new folder - Apps - iPassword.agilekeychain - Data - Default, then all the files which I have just synced.

So the Sync has worked from my Mac Book to Dropbox.

I have checked remotely on my work Windows PC. Opened iPassword and it looks like all the old data is still there. At this stage it hasn't synced the new information.

Do I need to change a setting in the Windows Desktop PC so that it now Syncs with the new folder in Dropbox. Or, do I just delete the old iPassword - iPassword.agilekeychain - Data - Default folder and let the Windows PC find the new Dropbox folder - Apps - iPassword.agilekeychain etc.

Regards Alan

AGAlumB

I have checked remotely on my work Windows PC. Opened iPassword and it looks like all the old data is still there. At this stage it hasn't synced the new information.

@Dellalan: What "new information" are you referring to? I thought you were trying to restore and sync the vault to the PC from your Mac. It may be that I'm just misunderstanding something.

If you have all of your data in the new vault on your Mac, simply open the same vault in 1Password on your PC. And if everything you need is there, you can delete the old vault, so as to avoid further confusion. Ultimately we just want your "good" data (not the one with deleted items) loaded in 1Password on both computers.

Be sure to let me know if you have any questions, or clarifications that might help us figure out a plan of action if needed. :)

MikeT

Hi @Dellalan,

Open the 1Password program on the PC and go straight to the File Menu > Open 1Password Vault to select the Dropbox > Apps > 1Password.agilekeychain folder. That should be the same data as your Mac.

Let us know if it is showing the correct data.