Using Dropbox to sync what do I need to keep?

dpar15

I use dropbox to sync my 1password between my mac and my iPhone. There are files in there there are over five years old. What can I clean out and what do I need to keep?

littlebobbytables

Greetings @dpar15,

If you're syncing a primary vault between your Mac and iPhone you should have a single 1Password.agilekeychain in Dropbox. You want to keep the entire contents of that folder as any manual deletions will likely leave it in an unusable state.

Now if you have multiple folders that end in .agilekeychain then there might be an Agile Keychain or two that can be safely removed. The first thing to do is figure out which is the currently used one. To best instruct can you tell us what version of 1Password for Mac you are running please.

dpar15

1Password has the most current update. I don't have access to my Mac at this moment to give the version #. In the Dropbox folder there is .ws.agile.1password.settings file. Then a folder 1password. In that folder a dozen files named 1password.html. Then the folders- a, config, data, sync. In the data folder there are more then 200 files from 2 weeks old all the back to 2010. The "a" folder has many folders and many files in it.

littlebobbytables

Hello @dpar15,

The folder that contains a, config & data should be titled 1Password.agilekeychain and that folder along with all the contents inside represents your vault. If you start deleting any part of that you can be potentially destroying your vault. For example, the .1password files in the /data/default/ folder each represent a single item in your vault. Their timestamp will be connected to the last time they were modified and some of your items may not have been altered for a while.

The problem with saying that 1Password is up to date is that doesn't reliably tell you what version you're running. 1Password 3 will report it's up to date as 1Password 4 uses a different branch. 1Password 3 isn't lying, it is running the latest version of 1Password 3 but it does mean you could be running a version of 1Password that we haven't touched in a couple of years. Similarly, I don't believe 1Password 4 will notify you about 1Password 5 if your machine is running Mavericks as there's no point - 1Password 5 requires Yosemite.

If you're running 1Password 4 or 5 though and you suspect that the Agile Keychain could use a refresh we can have 1Password delete the old one and create a new one. We can't do that though if you're running 1Password 3 which is why it is important to know prior to making any recommendation.

Your Agile Keychain though will have, at the very minimum, one file per item in your vault along with a number of others and as each file is separate they will have varying last modified timestamps depending on how often you alter the items. So that part by itself isn't a cause for concern.

If you are running 1Password 4 or 5 and want to create a fresh Agile Keychain as part of a Dropbox housekeeping we can tell you how, just let us know :smile:

dpar15

Its version 5.3(530029). I think it is time to do some housekeeping. :p

Drew_AG

Hi @dpar15,

No problem, let's get started on some housekeeping! :lol:

It's actually pretty simple. Just keep in mind that if you sync 1Password on other devices, you'll need to re-enable Dropbox sync on each device afterwards. Before we start, it's always a good idea to make a new backup of your 1Password data by going to File > Backup. That will open the Backup preferences and show all your backups, including the new one you just made.

To reset your 1Password data in Dropbox, just follow these steps:

• Open 1Password and go to 1Password > Preferences in the menu bar.
• Click the Sync tab (if you have multiple vaults, select the Primary vault on the left side).
• Change the sync from Dropbox to None.
• Click the box to Delete data from Dropbox, then click Disable Sync.
• If you have multiple vaults, follow the same steps to disable sync & delete the data from Dropbox for each vault.

Once you've done that, go back to your Dropbox folder on your Mac. If any .agilekeychain files/folders are still there (in the 1Password folder or other locations in the Dropbox folder), you can delete them. If you want, you can delete the entire 1Password folder from Dropbox (just check its contents first in case you've put any other files in there by accident).

When you're ready, you can re-enable Dropbox sync for your vault(s) in 1Password. When you do that for your Primary vault, it will create a new 1Password.agilekeychain package in ~/Dropbox/1Password/. If you sync your 1Password data with other devices, you'll need to re-enable Dropbox sync in 1Password on each of those devices as well (you'll be able to merge with the new .agilekeychain file you created).

Hopefully it all goes well, but we're here for you if you have more questions about that. :)

dpar15

All worked flawlessly. Thank you

AGAlumB

Excellent! On behalf of Drew you are most welcome! You should be all set, but be sure to let us know if you need anything else. We're here for you! :)