Merging an upgraded Version 4 database with version 5 - how will merge work with duplicate records?
I had version 4 on iMac. I moved version 4 to MacBook Air, and then upgraded to 5 on MacBook Air, and used MacBook Air for 3 months.
I made lots of changes to the version 5 on MacBook Air.
I went back to the iMac, which I hadn't used for 3 months. I didn't realize that the iMac had version 4, and I made many changes and additions on Version 4. Then I upgraded to version 5
I realized that I had to sync the upgraded (to 5) version 4 data on the iMac with the newer version 5 data in DropBox. I found the sync preferences. I started the sync
I reached the point in the sync where I am informed that the databases will be merged.
Here is my question: 80% of the records are exactly the same in the upgraded version 4 and version 5 databases. There are 75 modified and added records in the upgraded version 4. When the two databases merge, will duplicates be created, or will the newest version of a particular record replace the older version?
1Password Version: 5.3.2
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: 10.10.5
Sync Type: DropBox
Comments
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Greetings @kwcalm,
Just to let you know that the database used to store your vaults in both 1Password 4 and 5 didn't change between versions so what your question boils down to is, what happens when I merge?
So new items in either vault are easy. There won't be a corresponding item with the same UUID so the item is copied. The interesting one is when an item has been modified in one or both locations and the UUID matches. Once sync is past the first merge changes are easy because you're syncing often enough that nothing drastic happens. The first one though... it's a lot harder to automatically tell. There are certain timestamps that we store to help with this but in the first merge we adopt a very cautious approach. If we can't tell what data is good and what is old we keep both. We store one selection in the normal field and then create a Conflict section to store the other set of data. That way we leave it to the user (who is much more informed than 1Password) as to what set to keep.
So we should never throw away data that might be valid which is the most important part.
There is one situation where it could seem that duplicates are created. Say you manually create an item in both vaults. They might contain the same information but because the item wasn't synced each will have their own UUID and they won't match. In these cases it will be a slight annoyance but deleting one is all you will need to do. We only attempt to merge items if the UUID matches to help reduce the possibility of doing something the user doesn't appreciate.
Hopefully this helps but if it doesn't fully answer your questions please do let us know :smile:
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