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Syncing over iCloud

przemeklach
przemeklach
Community Member
in 1Password 4 for Windows

I use Windows, Mac OS, and iOS. I'm trying to use iCloud to sync my keychain across all my devices/platforms.

Whenever I add a new item to my vault it does not sync over iCloud. Since modifications to the key-chain seem to only change the time-stamp in the data folder, iCloud does not recognize that as a change to the .agilekeychain file and consequently does to upload it.

Any way you guys could put up a patch that changes the file time-stamp in hopes of getting iCloud to work?

This issue is a potential deal breaker for me. Thanks in advance.

1Password Version: Not Provided
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: Not Provided
Sync Type: Not Provided

Comments

  • MikeT
    MikeT

    Hi @przemeklach,

    It should already be updating the timestamp on the main folder. Can you tell me if you see this on both Macs and Windows PC or only on Macs that is updating the timestamp?

    I assume you're using Folder Sync in the Mac App to store the folder in your iCloud Drive while using Wi-Fi sync to your iOS devices?

  • MikeT
    MikeT

    Hi @przemeklach,

    I just tested this and it isn't updating, I'll file a bug report to fix this as soon as we can.

    Thanks for letting us know!

  • przemeklach
    przemeklach
    Community Member

    Just played with it some more.

    So I'm testing between Windows 10, Mac OS Mavericks, and iOS 9. It's also quite possible that I misunderstood how syncing is supposed to work. For example, if I point 1Password at iCloud does it always read/write to there or does it only sync to there i.e., does it have it's own local copy somewhere after syncing?

    So here is what I did. On my laptop (Mac) I opened 1Password and I opened the vault, the only vault I have, from iCloud. What it opened was an old vault I had created a few weeks ago with none of the changes I had made earlier today. Then I ran the touch command from terminal to force the time-stamp to update on the file. iCloud uploaded my file immediately. This confirmed my suspicion that the times-stamp was the issue with the syncing.

    I then verified that the file actually uploaded by going to my online iCloud account and looking at the time-stamp. I then went to my Windows machine and looked at the time-stamp and iCloud had already downloaded the file to my Windows machine; however, when I opened my vault on Windows it was only showing the changes I had made earlier today and none of the entries that I saw on my Macbook where there.

    So it seems there are two problems (1) changes to a vault do not change the container's timestamp resulting in iCloud not detecting a file change and this results in it not uploading up to iCloud and (2) different 1Password applications pointing to the same 1Password container vault do not read the same data.

    Thanks for your help.

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni

    So I'm testing between Windows 10, Mac OS Mavericks, and iOS 9. It's also quite possible that I misunderstood how syncing is supposed to work. For example, if I point 1Password at iCloud does it always read/write to there or does it only sync to there i.e., does it have it's own local copy somewhere after syncing?

    @przemeklach: Sorry for the confusion! It works differently depending on the platform. 1Password for Windows works directly with the vault on disk — in this case in your iCloud folder. This is similar to how [Folder Sync] works in 1Password for Mac, the difference being that it also keeps an internal database — the external .agilekeychain or .opvault is not written unless you set up sync.

    So here is what I did. On my laptop (Mac) I opened 1Password and I opened the vault, the only vault I have, from iCloud. What it opened was an old vault I had created a few weeks ago with none of the changes I had made earlier today. Then I ran the touch command from terminal to force the time-stamp to update on the file. iCloud uploaded my file immediately. This confirmed my suspicion that the times-stamp was the issue with the syncing.
    I then verified that the file actually uploaded by going to my online iCloud account and looking at the time-stamp. I then went to my Windows machine and looked at the time-stamp and iCloud had already downloaded the file to my Windows machine; however, when I opened my vault on Windows it was only showing the changes I had made earlier today and none of the entries that I saw on my Macbook where there.

    Indeed. It isn't clear why iCloud Drive seems to ignore updates to files in nested folders, but that seems to be what's happening.

    So it seems there are two problems (1) changes to a vault do not change the container's timestamp resulting in iCloud not detecting a file change and this results in it not uploading up to iCloud and (2) different 1Password applications pointing to the same 1Password container vault do not read the same data.

    1Password definitely reads the same data, regardless of platform, so I'm not sure what you mean there. And, strictly speaking, changes to a file should not update timestamp of every folder in its hierarchy. The Windows and OS X convention is to only update the timestamp of the parent. And of course Dropbox Sync works just fine in this scenario — otherwise sync would be broken for a lot more people! However, I can definitely see where this change would be both useful for syncing using iCloud Drive (although this isn't something 1Password supports officially, for obvious reasons), and also for consistency with 1Password for Mac. Thanks so much for bringing this up! :)

    ref: OPW-527

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