How do I disable automatic backup

pentool

Hello,

One reason I did not purchase 1PW back in the days of v4 because of the 'Automatic backup' feature. It could not be disabled. Back then, I saw a lot of request to either disable this feature or make it optional.

Now that I'm finally running Yosemite (yes, just 10 days before El Capitan will be coming out... :-), downloaded the v5 version. That still has automatic backup in the Prefs section. Is there a way to disable this feature?

Thanks.

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1Password Version: 5.3.2
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: 10.10.5
Sync Type: none
Referrer: forum-search:disable automatic backup

Drew_AG

Hi @pentool,

Thanks for checking in about this! To answer your question, automatic backups work the same way in 1Password 5 as they did in 1Password 4 - there's no option to turn them off. This is because we feel it's essential to have backups of your important data. There have been countless times that we've been able to help users restore their data from backups. They are truly invaluable!

I'm sorry that's not the answer you want to hear. Out of curiosity, is there a particular reason why you would want to disable the automatic backups? Please let us know, and I'll be happy to pass your feedback to our developers. Thanks! :)

pentool

Thanks for the feedback, Drew! Honestly, I am one of those 'freaks' (...I'd say...) who like to know what, when, where, and how. I want to control what I want to control. That way I know what I did :-) I do MANUAL backups of my computer, this way I EXACTLY know what I backed up, where, and how. I don't like Time Machine sorta backups, where some "other thing" will backup "something" for me "somewhere" and I don't have to do anything because it's "black magic" and all my stuff will be restored. etc, etc, etc :-)

I am very conscious of what I store and where to the finite detail. So when an app is doing backups for me in the background without my consent (or option), that's a big no no for me.

I understand there are users who like apps and/or the system take care of their backups. There's nothing wrong with that. But I just prefer to have an option to turn it off if I want to. (e.g., Time Machine have an option to enable it. iCloud syncing have an option to use it. Etc.)

It seems there's an option under the Prefs (in a form of a button) to create a backup when I want to. I just press the button, and I get a new backup created in 1PW. This works great for me. So once I am aware of this, I could simply turn off the automatic backups and I would be in control. That's all I was advocating for. And of course other users could still keep the auto option on if they want to.

Thanks.

Drew_AG

Hi @pentool,

Thank you so much for your feedback, we really do appreciate it! I see what you're saying, and I'm sure it comes as no surprise to you when I say there are definitely others out there who feel the same way.

We actually used to have an option to disable automatic backups in 1Password 3. Unfortunately, many customers would disable that setting, and didn't have other backups of their Mac. They didn't realize it was a problem until they ran into some sort of problem and needed to restore their 1Password vault from a backup, only to find they didn't have any backups. It can be a truly heartbreaking situation, so we try to avoid that when possible. I don't think our developers will want to make the backups optional again, but I can let them know why you would like to have that setting in case they change their minds.

I'm not sure if this helps, but as far as knowing where your 1Password data is backed up, you can find that here: Where does 1Password store its data?

Thanks again for letting us know why you'd like to be able to disable automatic backups! If you need anything else, please let us know. :)

peja

For the same reasons pentool posted I would like to turn automatic backups off and manage them manually. Since automatic backups are always enabled - I would at least expect 1Password to be smart enough not to create identical backups when nothing changed. Sometimes I do not change anything in the database for a couple of weeks and still end up with 30 identical backups - which is a waste/not desired.

MikeT

Hi @peja,

• I would at least expect 1Password to be smart enough not to create identical backups when nothing changed.

1Password does do that already; check the date creation timestamps on your backups, it is not created every day as long as there are no changes.

1Password will automatically create a new backup when you make changes but as long as you make no changes, 1Password simply doesn't back up. However in both situations, 1Password maintains the 30 backups limit. Note, it is not 30 days worth of backups but simply 30 different backup files.

pentool

A developer of another app had a similar backup feature. He said I can easily disable this backup by issuing a simple command at the terminal, such as:

defaults write XYZ -bool false

(XYZ refers to app specific variables)

So I'm guessing if the devs are willing to share, there might be the terminal command for 1PW as well to disable the backups.

peja

Hi Mike - my bad, I did not notice the intelligent backup strategy - that's cool.

littlebobbytables

Hi @peja,

Does knowledge of that behaviour change your opinion on our current backup approach? Do you feel happier about how it works now? I'm just trying to gauge a feel for how we've responded to your point.

peja

I think the current backup approach makes sense. Maybe I would make the number of backups to be selectable (like 5, 10, 30).
Thanks and Regards,
Peter

Vee_AG

Hi @peja,

Thank you for the feedback! I'm glad we could address your concerns here. We're here to help if you have any further questions. Cheers! :)