Version 5.4: Preferences -> Sync

Logic Bus

Just updated to version 5.4. In Preferences, there is a top level pane for Sync that I don't remember seeing before.

For me there's only one setting here: "Sync Primary vault with:" followed by a dropdown menu. (I only have the one vault.) The dropdown is set to None.

My vault is in my Dropbox folder. Now I suppose that 1Password doesn't have to do anything for sync since Dropbox treats my vault/agilekeychain file like any other file. But it's a little disconcerting to go to the Sync panel and see that my system is set to "None."

I've been using 1Password for about five years. I believe the default location of the vault inside the Dropbox folder has changed over time. I'd love to move it to the current default location, or choose Dropbox in this dropdown menu (or Google Drive, or Box, or OneDrive for that matter), but I have a handful of devices. I don't want for things to get out of sync while I tweak the settings for each device.

I'd really like 1Password to handle this for me. I'd like to update the location of my vault on one machine, and then the next time I log into each of my remaining devices, for 1Password there to be aware of the vault location change, tell me it's doing what it needs to, and then be done.

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1Password Version: 5.4
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: 10.10.5
Sync Type: Dropbox

littlebobbytables

Greetings @Logic Bus,

If you've been a user of 1Password for a while would it be reasonable to assume that you have used 1Password 3 for Mac in the past?

The reason I ask is a lot changed when we released 1Password 4 (followed by 5) and one of the areas that saw a very big change was in how we stored your vault. In 1Password 3 your Agile Keychain is your vault. If you moved it from the default location on a certain Mac to Dropbox that was pretty much all it took to set up syncing.

This all changed in 1Password 4 though. Now we use an encrypted SQLite database file that is stored locally. One of the advantages is it stores all of your vaults in a single file so if you have secondary vaults they're contained inside it too. We do still use the Agile Keychain but it has been relegated to that of a sync container - we don't even create it unless Dropbox or Folder Sync is enabled.

So if the Sync tab in 1Password's preferences is set to None then it isn't syncing to your Agile Keychain in Dropbox. Unfortunately 1Password is decentralised and so it isn't currently possible to move an Agile Keychain and have all devices automatically react.

We will happily help you get through the teething pains of setting up sync but just before we proceed can we gain a better idea of what version you have of 1Password and where. You've said you're running 1Password 5.4 on a Mac but it seems you have two or more other copies elsewhere. Once we know the 1Password landscape we can ensure things will go smoothly. Thankfully all of this is a one-off and afterwards you can get back to not worrying about syncing :smile:

Logic Bus

HI @littlebobbytables ,

Thanks for the response! I am using:

OS X version 5.4 from the App Store
iOS version 6.0.1
Windows version ... latest non-beta. 4.6 ? (Two PCs at home and I am at work as I type this.)

If I am going to move things around, I would LOVE to remove any 1Password file/s from my root Dropbox folder.

Thanks,
Daniel

littlebobbytables

Hi @Logic Bus,

Quite the well rounded mix there :smile:

I believe you will be using a single Agile Keychain in all the copies of 1Password for Windows that you have as 1Password for Windows still reads and writes directly to the Agile Keychain, just like I was explaining about 1Password 3 for Mac. 1Password for iOS may or may not be syncing to it as well and we know your Mac isn't at the moment. I think this should be the plan.

1. Launch 1Password for Windows on one of your machines and use the menu option Backup > Back Up 1Password Vault... to create a good backup here.
2. Launch 1Password for iOS and go to Settings > Advanced > Create Backup to do the same here. Just in case it's probably best to do this on each iOS device.
3. Launch 1Password for Mac and use the menu option File > Backup
4. At this stage we have backups of each local copy of your vault. This is the safety net so that no matter what, you don't have to worry.
5. Create whatever folder structure you want in Dropbox. It's entirely your choice. By default 1Password for Mac would create ~/Dropbox/1Password/ and place 1Password.agilekeychain in there. If 1Password for iOS creates the Agile Keychain then it would place it in ~/Dropbox/Apps/1Password/ as that's a special place for restricted iOS apps. Due to secondary vaults 1Password for iOS will request full access to Dropbox so this restriction doesn't apply.
6. Move your existing Agile Keychain into your preferred folder.
7. I believe 1Password for Windows will ask to search your Dropbox folder and it will only find the one Agile Keychain. That's all you should need to do here.
8. If 1Password for iOS was syncing to the same Agile Keychain as 1Password for Windows it will complain that the Agile Keychain is no longer there. Either way, our Sync with Dropbox (iOS) guide should be all that is needed. If 1Password for iOS was syncing before all this is doing is re-establishing sync and there should be nothing to worry about. If they weren't syncing for any reason there may be some merging.
9. We know the Mac wasn't syncing so this is the one I'm most concerned about. If the two were in sync until very recently and this disabled sync is a new thing it won't be an issue. If they haven't been in sync for a while it gets a bit tougher. Assuming you're not concerned our guide, Sync with Dropbox (Mac) will get you sorted.

In theory that should be it. If you're concerned about your Mac at all please do let us know. One thing you can do is order your vault on a Windows machine and your Mac by date modified to allow a quick and dirty comparison. If the two seem to be fairly the same you should be fine.

Even so, there is the possibility of conflicts but we take a conservative approach here. The text below was written for somebody wanting to merge two different Agile Keychains but mostly applies here too if there are differences.

We will only merge items from two vaults if they have the same Universally Unique ID (UUID). If they don't we treat the as individual items. They can share the same title, username and password but unless the UUIDs match they're treated as separate items. In these instances you will see duplicates requiring you to manually remove one. When you do this I would recommend ensuring you don't have any unique information held only in one copy.

If an item in each vault has the same UUID we will merge the two. Where the data is the same in both it's easy, there is nothing to do. When there is different data in each we will keep one set of the data where it normally resides and place the other set in a custom section titled Conflicts. This way we don't risk throwing anything important away and instead leave it to the user to ensure the good data is kept and the now obsolete data is removed.

If you have any concerns or questions before starting please do let us know.

Logic Bus

HI @littlebobbytables ,

I'm going to go through these steps this weekend. Before I go, I want to ask about some other files in my Dropbox root folder:

.dropbox
.dropbox.cache
.ws.agile.1Password.settings

Can I delete these after I've followed your steps? (Can I delete them at any time?)

Thanks,
Daniel

littlebobbytables

Hi @Logic Bus,

The .ws.agile.1Password.settings you can delete. It was something used by 1Password 3 for Mac and only now applicable if you happen to have a really old Windows mobile phone. I don't know about the others but I would suggest leaving them as items created by the Dropbox service. Keep us updated :smile:

Logic Bus

Re-reading my comment and of course the .dropbox files have nothing to do with 1Password. It must be Friday.

Thanks for the response on the .settings file!

littlebobbytables

Keep us updated @Logic Bus :smile:

Logic Bus

All in all, this went pretty smoothly. (Apologies if I get any details wrong. Some of this I recorded a few hours after the fact.)

Win PC Desktop:
No error messages. Dropbox kept telling me that 30 files were updated, but I believe this was my fault -- I updated the vault location on my iPhone too close to this machine. I think they were competing with the Dropbox updates.

iPhone:
Unlocked 1P and it told me there was an error. Went into settings, the sync line said sync failed. I went into setup sync, chose Dropbox, it began to sync. Like I said, I think I didn't wait long enough for the Win PC Desktop to completely finish. I killed 1P on my phone, waited for Win PC Desktop's Dropbox to settle down, then restarted 1P on phone. After that, smooth sailing.

Win PC Laptop:
Resumed from sleep, typed in 1P password, told me that keychain didn't exist. I added the new vault. It worked. The old path is still listed as a vault and I see no way to get rid of that.

Mac:
Did this one last. It never gave me any warnings or errors (like you said, it probably wasn't synching at all). I changed the sync dropdown to Dropbox and selected the location of the keychain. That was it.

So I should have waited until my first Win PC was completely done synching before I made changes on my iOS 1Password. And I'm wondering how to delete old/unwanted vaults. Other than that, it was easier than I anticipated, and went pretty smoothly.

Thanks!

littlebobbytables

Greetings @Logic Bus,

It really is quite easy to forget that Dropbox needs to do work in the background isn't it :lol: You're not the first and you won't be the last. Maybe it's Dropbox's fault for creating such a high impression of their service. (just joking Dropbox!). It's great to hear that things went pretty smoothly and that for the most part things are good.

Now can I just confirm, which copies of 1Password have old/unwanted vaults and are they vaults that are accessible with data or is it just the 1Password for Windows with the vault history? I don't have the answer there but I will look and see what can be done once I know all the places I need to investigate for you :smile:

Logic Bus

Hi @littlebobbytables ,

I figured out how to remove the old (nonexistent) vault from the UI -- Click on it!

When I tried to switch to that vault -- by clicking on it -- I got an error message, and then it was gone forever. I did that on both of my Windows machine and it did the trick.

Thanks!

Megan

Hi @Logic Bus,

Thanks so much for letting us know that you're all sorted out! I'm sorry it was a bit of a process to get here, but we appreciate you sharing what worked.

I hope that 1Password behaves perfectly for you from now on, but if you have any other questions or concerns, we're here for you! :)