Application\ Support/1Password/ and Application\ Support/1Password\ 4/ and Backups, oh my!

ronenbarzel

I've been using 1Password for many years (since version 1 or 2), upgrading all along. And everything seems to be working fine. But In cleaning up my computer, I noticed that I have both of these directories:

~/Library/Application\ Support/1Password/
~/Library/Application\ Support/1Password\ 4/

I was about to assume that the former is obsolete and delete it, but then checked the files and noticed that both are getting backups in them, albeit at strangely different schedules. Here are the 20 most recent files from both:

$ cd ~/Library/Application\ Support
$ ls -Ct 1Password*/Backups/* | head -20
1Password 4/Backups/1Password 2015-09-21 10_00_00 (1 profiles, 1120 items, 19 folders, 2 attachments).1p4_zip
1Password/Backups/1Password 2015-09-21 095517 (1142 items).agilekeychain_zip
1Password 4/Backups/1Password 2015-09-17 00_18_35 (1 profiles, 1120 items, 19 folders, 2 attachments).1p4_zip
1Password 4/Backups/1Password 2015-09-08 15_28_39 (1 profiles, 1119 items, 19 folders, 2 attachments).1p4_zip
1Password 4/Backups/1Password 2015-09-07 15_00_12 (1 profiles, 1115 items, 19 folders, 2 attachments).1p4_zip
1Password 4/Backups/1Password 2015-09-05 14_13_12 (1 profiles, 1114 items, 19 folders, 2 attachments).1p4_zip
1Password 4/Backups/1Password 2015-09-03 21_07_12 (1 profiles, 1109 items, 19 folders, 2 attachments).1p4_zip
1Password 4/Backups/1Password 2015-09-02 13_40_05 (1 profiles, 1108 items, 19 folders, 2 attachments).1p4_zip
1Password 4/Backups/1Password 2015-08-28 23_24_46 (1 profiles, 1107 items, 19 folders, 2 attachments).1p4_zip
1Password 4/Backups/1Password 2015-08-23 20_09_55 (1 profiles, 1107 items, 19 folders, 2 attachments).1p4_zip
1Password/Backups/1Password 2015-08-23 200512 (1129 items).agilekeychain_zip
1Password 4/Backups/1Password 2015-08-20 15_19_32 (1 profiles, 1107 items, 19 folders, 2 attachments).1p4_zip
1Password/Backups/1Password 2015-08-20 121723 (1128 items).agilekeychain_zip
1Password/Backups/1Password 2015-08-18 093927 (1127 items).agilekeychain_zip
1Password 4/Backups/1Password 2015-08-17 10_47_06 (1 profiles, 1105 items, 19 folders, 2 attachments).1p4_zip
1Password 4/Backups/1Password 2015-08-13 23_27_27 (1 profiles, 1104 items, 19 folders, 2 attachments).1p4_zip
1Password/Backups/1Password 2015-08-13 225731 (1126 items).agilekeychain_zip
1Password 4/Backups/1Password 2015-08-10 21_51_32 (1 profiles, 1102 items, 19 folders, 2 attachments).1p4_zip
1Password/Backups/1Password 2015-08-10 212136 (1124 items).agilekeychain_zip
1Password 4/Backups/1Password 2015-08-06 17_09_10 (1 profiles, 1101 items, 19 folders, 2 attachments).1p4_zip

Is this expected behavior, or do I somehow have two different versions of 1Password running simultaneously?

Also, 1Password claims to keep "30 daily and 24 monthly" backups, which should come out to 54 files total. But here's my actual count:

$ ls 1Password/Backups/* | wc -l
      50
$ ls 1Password\ 4/Backups/* | wc -l
      73

Plus, I'd expect that 24 monthly backups would mean two years worth of backups. And although I've had this same computer since 2012, the oldest files are:

1Password/Backups/1Password 2014-12-18 124841 (1068 items).agilekeychain_zip
1Password 4/Backups/1Password 2014-02-07 18_07_52 (1 profiles, 965 items, 19 folders, 1 attachments).1p4_zip

Bottom line... I'm confused as to what's going on with these, and whether it's an indication that something is wrong.

Thanks for any enlightenment!

---

1Password Version: 5.3.2 (532001) Agile Web Store
Extension Version: 4.4.3
OS Version: OS X 10.10.5
Sync Type: Dropbox

littlebobbytables

Hi @ronenbarzel,

I think I can help clear up at least some of the confusion.

The ~/Library/Application Support/1Password/ support folder belongs to 1Password 3 while the ~/Library/Application Support/1Password 4/ support folder belongs to both 1Password 4 and 5. 1Password 4 was such a drastic departure that the support files and structure are only slightly similar so the decision was made to keep the two folders separate. Now we did cause confusion when we left 1Password 5 using the 1Password 4 folder but it was partly because the support files didn't change between these two versions. Still, given the confusion we caused some people we may not have made that decision in hindsight.

So that's why two folders. Now the reason you're still seeing backups in both is most likely because 1PasswordAgent, a part of 1Password 3, is still installed and running on your system even though you've moved to 1Password 5. It's the one creating new backups and if you have fully moved over to 1Password 5 we're safe to stop that. The following will remove 1PasswordAgent from your Mac.

1. Remove ws.agile.1PasswordAgent.plist from your ~/Library/LaunchAgents/ folder
2. Delete the entire Agent folder that resides inside of ~/Library/Application Support/1Password/
3. Reboot your Mac.

I'm not sure about why you have 73 backup files in 1Password 4, I'll be honest my folders don't get the honour of living anywhere near that long so I can't talk from experience. What I will say is when you moved from 1Password 3 to 1Password 4 or 5 we didn't transfer over backup files as the format changed completely, so if you switched to 1Password 4 in early 2014 then that would explain at the backup files in 1Password 4/5. In 1Password 3 backups weren't quite as advanced and we kept a certain number (a preference setting) but we didn't thin it out like Time Machine does, instead it could be a daily update from over the last 50 days regardless if there were changes.

Does that help at all?

Now if you're not running 1Password 3 at all any more then you can go one further than just removing the 1PasswordAgent. Here is a link to our uninstall guide for 1Password 3, Completely Uninstalling 1Password 3. I would personally recommend skipping the automated removal and instead go through the steps of the manual removal. If you find something isn't present on your system you can safely move to the next step until all parts are removed. If you need any assistance please do let us know :smile:

ronenbarzel

Hi @littlebobbytables,

Thanks -- indeed 1PasswordAgent was still on my system and running. I removed it and a couple of other things as per the manual uninstall guide.

I wonder why it was still there, though. Something funky must have happened during my upgrade to 1Password 4. (I doublechecked my other computer which similarly went through 1Password 3, 4, and 5, and it doesn't have the 1Password 3 leftovers.)

Thanks again for clearing that up. I'm happy to have one less agent running on my machine! :)

littlebobbytables

Glad we could help @ronenbarzel :smile: