1Password disappeared and now I can't find all my data

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catharinawidell
catharinawidell
Community Member
in iOS

Hi Team,
so yeah from one day to the next - my 1Password disappeared. All my data gone. I went to the apple store today and they said it didn't look like I chose a method of back up when I first set the app up... it doesn't seem stored in iCloud and I don't recall syncing it to dropbox... I may have but I don't remember doing it and even if I did - I wouldn't know how to access it. The apple store guy went into my iCloud manage storage feature and could see there is 64.1 KB of data SOMEWHERE... can you help me figure out what happened? I'm not very tech savvy so I'd prefer a contact number where I can reach you if possible and go over it on the phone?
Thanks!
Regards,
Catharina Widell

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

Comments

  • AGKyle
    AGKyle
    1Password Alumni
    Options

    Hi @catharinawidell

    Sorry to hear you've had trouble like this. There are a few ways you could recover data, I'll list each one below:

    Sync
    If you were syncing to Dropbox or iCloud you could sync to that again. It sounds like you did not sync to Dropbox, and you are seeing something in iCloud. It's likely that the information you're seeing there is remnants from the older iCloud sync system we used. So that data is probably quite old (going on 2 years now). It's possible it might be recoverable from a Mac.

    On another device
    If you have your 1Password data on a second device, usually this is done via Sync, but not always. Sometimes people have separate data, though similar data, on multiple devices. If you have data on another device we could setup sync and move that data over to the iOS device.

    Apple Backups
    These are done two ways: iCloud backups and iTunes backups. It sounds like the Apple Genius said you were not making these. Is that correct?

    1Pasword Backup
    This is done by doing these steps. Do you recall ever doing these?

    If you do not have any of these options available then I'm afraid there's probably no way to recover your data. My question then becomes how did 1Password just disappear, which leads me to the two most common reasons for it happening that I have run into and understand:

    1. Previous versions of 1Password (prior to 6.2) had an age rating of 17+, after version 6.2 it has a 4+ age rating. If you setup parental controls at all and set the age ratings under those it would cause the application to not be visible, but it could still be installed. If you change the rating back to 17+ it might make it reappear. If you've already reinstalled though this is probably not the case.
    2. The second way I've seen this happen is by some sort of erroneous iTunes Sync. It seems in rare cases it's possible for iTunes to remove apps that it doesn't have locally within iTunes. It can also remove items if the age rating changed (like with Parental Controls above).

    Those are the two ways I've seen this happen.

    The question then becomes, how can you protect yourself from this in the future. And my advice here is lots of backups.

    1. Sync - You should definitely sync somewhere, even if you have no other devices to sync to. Having a sync file available is a form of backup. I would not rely on this entirely as every time you change data it changes the sync file. The definition of a backup is an unchanging copy of a file from the past, used to restore from should something go wrong. So, while a sync file could be used to restore from, it's not a typical backup, but it is a step in the right direction.
    2. Have your data on a desktop computer. Our desktop applications make backups regularly so you would have many backups over time. Bonus points if you're also backing up the desktop computer to either a local backup or a remote backup (using one of the many online backup tools, like Backblaze). Ideally you'd be doing both (I learned the hard way, and now backup both ways myself).
    3. Alternatively, you can let us do some of that work for you. 1Password for Families (and Teams) is another way you can protect yourself from these situations. It's both sync, backups and also includes the ability to share your data with others. I use this personally now, but still backup my computer in #2 because it contains other important data that isn't in 1Password. :)

    I hope that helps some, I'm throwing a lot at you here because you can go through it slowly one by one, but if you have questions please don't hesitate to ask and we'll get you the answers you need.

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