Lots of file attachments - affects speed?
I am making the switch from KeePass (KP) to 1Pass (1P), and have successfully imported one of my KP files (has all of my logins) into 1P using the converter magic from MrC. I have a second KP file full of attachments, and I have discovered that I have to re-import them separately into KP, which I am willing to do, however, before I do this, I want to know one thing: will this slow down 1P when I open it after I add a BUNCH of jpg files? The reason I have 2 KP files is because if I have the attachments in the same database as my logins, it takes a LOOOONG time to open the file (on Windoze, never did this w/KP on Mac). Since I rarely use the attachments, I moved them into separate file. For more info, the file that has the logins (text only) is 116kB, while the KP file with attachments is 73MB. I was thinking of creating a separate vault in 1P for the attachments as a possibility to not cause any slowdowns in 1P. Any ideas on this matter would be appreciated. Hardware is MBPro retina late 2013.
1Password Version: 5.4 (540046)
Extension Version: 4.4.2
OS Version: osx 10.11.1
Sync Type: none
Comments
-
I don't have an answer for you regarding performance with attachments, but did want to say a) thanks for the mention, and b) I'm really happy to hear that another user has found value in the attachments export functionality recently added to the Keepass2 converter ! Neat.
I'm sure someone from AgileBits will address your question to your shortly...
0 -
Hi @kirk_b,
I'm so glad to hear that MrC's converters were helpful in getting your data moved into 1Password!
First of all, purely out of curiosity, could you tell me a bit more about these attachments? I rarely use attachments in 1Password (although I keep meaning to get scans of my passport, birth certificate, etc. added into my database), so I'd love to know what sort of things you store here. Please note that you certainly don't have to share any details, it's only relevant in helping us learn how people use 1Password so we can continue to improve it for all our users.
Now let me tell you a bit about how 1Password handles attachments. Each item in your 1Password database is only unencrypted when you view it. This goes for attachments as well. So even when your database is 'unlocked', only a small portion of it (the portion you're viewing on screen) is actually unencrypted. This means that the size of your database won't affect how quickly 1Password locks or unlocks. Where the size of your database might come into play is in syncing - particularly the initial sync. A larger database will take longer to sync onto your devices, but precisely how long will depend on your internet connection or data signal as well as the size of the database. Once that initial sync is complete however, future syncs will only deal with changes to your database and should not be adversely affected by the database's overall size.
I hope this helps as you're considering how to organize your data in 1Password. If these attachments are something that you only view on an 'every now and then' basis, storing them in a separate vault might not be a bad idea. I have an 'Archive' vault for all of my old and unused items that doesn't get synced out to all my devices: it's great to have those items 'just in case' I need them, but they're not cluttering up my database on a daily basis.
Please let me know if you have any further questions or concerns!
0 -
(hopefully I am quoting usernames in the correct way...)
Thanks for the info on attachments. I use attachments for lots of the things you mentioned-- passports, green cards, birth & marriage cert, driv lic etc... not just for me, but for my wife, mother-in-law, or anyone else who happens along, since I am the "document keeper" for my wife and others. I will definitely be keeping attachments in a separate vault, primarily for organization of all my info. One thing I would like to know is if there is any way to "preview" attachments without actually saving them first... I saw some previous posts regarding this and I understand that this can possibly compromise the security of attachments, but I was just curious about that, as it is very convenient to be able to view an attachment (in my case a PDF or JPG) without have to save it to a file.
@MrC,
RE: attachments export from KeePass2 converter, I ended up so far using the OSX converter for KeePassX (since it did everything automatically). Can you point me to specific info on the attachments export info for KeePass2, and does it have a limit to the number or size of attachments that can be exported? I have a Windoze7 machine too so I can use the converter for KP2.
thanx all for your support!
0 -
Hi @kirk_b,
Thanks so much for sharing that information. I can see how, if you're the document keeper, those attachments can certainly pile up!
I saw some previous posts regarding this and I understand that this can possibly compromise the security of attachments, but I was just curious about that, as it is very convenient to be able to view an attachment (in my case a PDF or JPG) without have to save it to a file
I'm not quite sure I'm understanding you here, but I'll do my best to answer. If I've got it completely wrong, I apologize!
Once an attachment is saved into 1Password, you can view it the same way you view items in Finder: click on the attachment to highlight it, and use the space bar to open it in a 'preview' window:
These attachments cannot be edited however, without moving to the desktop (or another location outside of 1Password), making and saving the changes, then re-attaching to 1Password. In those cases, it is important that you remember to securely delete the attachment that is in the unsecured location after you have re-added it to 1Password.
0 -
@MrC,
Quoted from your initial response:
"b) I'm really happy to hear that another user has found value in the attachments export functionality recently added to the Keepass2 converter ! "
Obviously, this is for KP2 (Win-only, right?) which I did not use, I did the export on KPx on Mac. If I use the converter on KP2/Win, will it export all the attachments?
thx
0 -
Thanx for the info, that was what I was looking for, just previewing/viewing an attachment, e.g. if I needed to just get a passport number. On a totally separate note, the secure deletion you mentioned is a bit problematic on my MacbookPro with SSD, since SSDs delete info in a different manner than HDDs... Apple recently removed the option to "secure delete" files from SSD Macs with the ElCapitan (10.11) release, exactly for this reason. Any suggestions on secure delete for an SSD (my own topic hijack...) ?
0 -
@MrC,
You don't need to go the the trouble of adding attachment export to KPx for me, since I have KP2 on my Win machine, and can do the export using KP2 (not KPx). However, I didn't see any info in your "user guide" talking about attachments export using KP2. Can you tell me more about it?
I am fine on both Mac and Win, I just defaulted to KPx/Mac for my logins export since it was simpler, but I am fine doing export on KP2 in Win, I just wanted more info about the attachments export functionality since I hadn't seen info on that...
0 -
Grab the 1.08 version in the _testing folder of my AgileBits Utilities folder. See the README file for info on the attachments (under the step 3 export instructions).
Edit: hold on, let me check something...
0 -
@MrC,
So which converter are we now talking about, KeepassX or Keepass2? The situation with KPx is that it seems the EXPORT from KPx only exports one attachment, which doesn't help too much. Your side of the converter seems to work find for KPx, I found the folder with the attachment, but there is nothing you can do about the fact the KPx only exports 1 attachment.
Question: if I do the export in Windoze using Keepass2, do you know if it will export all of my attachments, or only one?
thx
0 -
There are two converters: one for KeePass 2 (called keepass2) and one for KeepassX (called keepassx) - don't blame me, I didn't choose their poorly chosen names.
Last week, I added attachment support to the keepass2 converter. It supports all the attachments present in the export.
Just today, I added attachment support to the keepassx converter (for you, my friend!). KeepassX only supports a single attachment per entry, and so the converter handles this.
0 -
@MrC,
quote:
" Just today, I added attachment support to the keepassx converter (for you, my friend!). KeepassX only supports a single attachment per entry, and so the converter handles this."I have tested and your converter for attachments in KPx works perfectly, and as we both mentioned, KPx exports only on attachment, so not much help there.
I have not set up the conversion on my Win7 machine yet, but will let you know once I have done the conversion.
Thanx very much for all your support!!!
0 -
@kirk_b: I'm glad to hear that MrC was able to help. He's the man! :) :+1:
Thanx for the info, that was what I was looking for, just previewing/viewing an attachment, e.g. if I needed to just get a passport number. On a totally separate note, the secure deletion you mentioned is a bit problematic on my MacbookPro with SSD, since SSDs delete info in a different manner than HDDs... Apple recently removed the option to "secure delete" files from SSD Macs with the ElCapitan (10.11) release, exactly for this reason. Any suggestions on secure delete for an SSD (my own topic hijack...) ?
In regard to secure delete on SSDs, since the data storage is completely abstracted (there are no canonical sectors that can be read or written on demand) this really isn't possible. That said, that actually makes it more difficult for anyone to attempt recovery, since the drive may not even offer those sectors again, and certainly not on demand.
Additionally, if you're using El Capitan and an SSD, you're probably using FileVault2. And if you're using FileVault2, then all data is written to disk encrypted, so i the event that someone has access to the drive and is somehow able to dump the data in a useful fashion, they'd still need the key to decrypt it. I don't think Apple has come out and said this, but I suspect that's part of the reason that FileVault2 exists and is enabled by default: most Macs sold now use SSDs.
So to actually answer your question, the only way to 'reliably' secure delete data on an SSD is to overwrite all free space with random noise. I know there are Windows utilities that do this, but I don't know of any offhand for OS X...and frankly this is really not good for the drive anyway, and unnecessary due to what I mentioned above. I hope this helps! :)
0 -
@MrC,
Thanx for the clarification, I have gotten everything to work just fine, was very easy to simply drag/drop the all of the exported attachments at once into the new vault that I created for attachments. Two thumbs up for your converters and user support!!@Megan,
I have also tested the speed for opening 1Password after adding all of my attachments, 59 files total (a mix of JPG and PDF), 49MB total, and I am happy to say there appears to be no slowdown in opening with the attachments added.@brenty,
Yeah, I know about SSDs and have also done some other research into this question, and your suggestion is the most popular response. Thanx very much for the follow-up!Now, on to another topic... ;-)
0 -
@kirk_b: I'm glad that helped, and that you seem to be having a great deal of success getting started with 1Password.
I will say that I wish you'd mentioned the actual attachment count earlier, as I could have easily allayed your performance fears! I have probably 3-4 times that, and most of them are high-resolution color document scans. No trouble here!
Be sure to reach out if you have any other comments or questions. And thanks for your support! :)
0
