One-time password created in iOS not syncing to the Mac

dafacto

Hello,

I'm running the latest version of 1Password for iOS and running version 6.2.Beta-4 (620004) for Mac. Each are sharing a vault via Dropbox synchronization.

I added 2FA (one-time password) on a record in 1Password for iOS, and let both iOS and the Mac synchronize. The 2FA field did NOT appear in 1Password on the Mac.

To make sure syncing is otherwise working, I added some text in the Notes field on the Mac, and shortly thereafter the notes appeared in iOS. So evidently syncing is happening — but the 2FA field created in the record in iOS is not being seen by 1Password 6 on the Mac.

Anybody know how this can be corrected? Thanks so much.

---

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

Drew_AG

Hi @dafacto,

I'm sorry that field doesn't seem to be syncing correctly from iOS to Mac!

Thanks for letting us know what you've tried - indeed, it sounds like Dropbox sync is set up and working correctly (at least to a certain degree). When you added text to a notes field on your Mac, was that in the same item as the one on iOS where you added the TOTP field? I'm wondering if other changes to that item on iOS will sync to your Mac. For example, if you edit that same item on iOS and add more text to the notes field (and Save), does that sync to your Mac? That will help determine if the problem is specific to that one field you added, or if all changes on iOS are failing to sync to your Mac.

Also, if you quit & reopen the main 1Password app on your Mac, does the TOTP field appear in that item? If not, you can also try restarting 1Password mini just in case it makes a difference: From the main 1Password app, go to Help > Troubleshooting > Restart 1Password mini.

Please let us know how it all goes, thanks! :)

dafacto

Hi Drew,

The record in which I added the notes is the same record in which the TOTP field was added — So it seems that the record is being synced, just the TOTP field isn't. I've restarted 1Password mini, and that didn't help. I suspected that wasn't the issue though, since my office-mate, who shares the same vault, also does NOT see the TOTP field in 1Password on his Mac. (But he does see the notes I added on the Mac AFTER having added the TOTP field in iOS.)

Hope that helps.

littlebobbytables

Hi @dafacto,

Let's see if we can narrow down where the issue is.

1. As you are synchronising via Dropbox that means you will be using either an Agile Keychain sync container or an OPVault one. Can I ask which? The Agile Keychain uses the file extension .agilekeychain while the OPVault uses .opvault. I wonder if there is an issue with a specific format.
2. In your copy of 1Password can you open 1Password's preferences and switch to the Advanced tab please. In there please enable the option titled Copy JSON. Close the preference window and select the troublesome item in the Item List pane. Use the keyboard shortcut ⌘J to copy the JSON of this item to OS X's clipboard and paste into a text editor like TextEdit or TextWrangler or whatever your preferred text editor of choice is. Can you search the JSON for the title of the TOTP field please. If you added it in 1Password for iOS it will have defaulted to One-Time Password. If you can see the entry in the JSON it means we know 1Password for Mac can see it but isn't showing and then we have to figure out why. If 1Password isn't seeing it then we've got a different issue on our hands and we also need to figure out why.

Just as a matter of curiosity, you should be able to edit the item in 1Password for iOS and copy the secret field to iOS's clipboard. If you do this and then create a new test item in 1Password for iOS and paste the secret into a new One-Time Password field does the new item show up in your vault in 1Password for Mac and does it correctly show the One-Time Password?

I apologise for all the questions, at this stage we're simply trying to figure out what might have gone wrong as we don't know the cause yet.

dafacto

Hello there,

Inspecting the JSON, I did see this, which seems related to the TOTP field and mentions something about being "concealed":

"fields":[{"k":"concealed","n":"TOTP_47[edited]","v":"","t":""}]

(I edited a long number there that appears to be an identifier.)

Does that help?

dafacto

Never mind — It looks like that concealed TOTP field was the result of an earlier attempt by me to fix the problem by "creating" a TOTP field on the Mac, hoping that the one from the iOS device might pop into existence. When I just now edited the record on the Mac, and deleted that empty TOTP field (which was waiting for me to drag in a QR code), the TOTP entry from the JSON data went away.

In 1Password iOS, the fieldname did default, as you suggested to, One-Time Password

Also, in my last comment, I forgot to mention: We're using the .agilekeychain format.

littlebobbytables

Hi @dafacto,

Just as a matter of curiosity, you should be able to edit the item in 1Password for iOS and copy the secret field to iOS's clipboard. If you do this and then create a new test item in 1Password for iOS and paste the secret into a new One-Time Password field does the new item show up in your vault in 1Password for Mac and does it correctly show the One-Time Password?

I'm just wondering what the answer to this one is.

Thank you for your observations on the JSON by the way. I wonder if the empty TOTP field has any bearing and it should be easy enough to test the theory.

Very puzzling. I hope we can get to the bottom of this.

dafacto

Hello @littlebobbytables — I created a new "Test (Shared)" entry in iOS, copied the TOTP field to it, and it did NOT sync with the Mac.

I did solve the problem by deleting 1Password from iOS, and re-installing it. After a re-install, syncing worked properly. Note, however, that getting it setup was not smooth — there were several errors like the following, before 1Password finally identified my keychains in Dropbox:

http://files.dafacto.com/uploads/8TAcP59ZPm.png

AGAlumB

@dafacto: Thanks for the update. I'm sorry for the confusion! Often when there's a lot of activity Dropbox will throttle the connection, which can prevent 1Password from downloading the vault initially. It sounds like you were able to get it sync'd eventually, as usually it's only about 10 minutes or so. Yes sure to let us know if you have any other questions. Cheers! :)

dafacto

Just an FYI — this has now happened again. :-( I added a 2FA one-time password on a record on the iPhone, it reports to have synchronized with Dropbox, but the data did not appear in 1Password on the Mac. So this does seem to be some kind of real bug.

AGAlumB

@dafacto: It sounds like the TOTP data is still on your iPhone. Is that correct? Once it's stored in Dropbox, what happens next is out of 1Password's hands I'm afraid. But hope is not lost. It's likely that Dropbox is simply creating "conflicted copy" files. The easiest way to get to the bottom of it is by logging into the Dropbox website and viewing the contents of the vault (sorting by name or time can help). Let me know what you find!

dafacto

I searched, and there are no conflicted copy files in Dropbox. And based on what I originally reported in this thread, it seems that no changes to any records made on iOS make their way back to the desktop through Dropbox syncing. It really looks like a situation where 1Password on iOS believes that Dropbox has synced, when it hasn't. (Whether that's the fault of 1Password or Dropbox is, as you say, a different matter.)

AGAlumB

@dafacto: Ah, that makes sense. Thanks for clarifying that for me! At this point, the best thing to do will be to restart the device, reproduce the same issue (for example, adding new information to an item) after first enabling additional logging*, and then generate a diagnostic report for each device and send it to support+forums@agilebits.com so we can look at the logs to determine exactly what is happening:

Sending Diagnostics Reports (Mac)

Sending Diagnostics Reports (iOS)

*In 1Password Settings > Advanced > Diagnostics > Log Settings, enable App, Agile Keychain, Cloud Keychain, Database, Dropbox, SQLite, and Sync.

Just be sure to include a link to this forum thread and your username in the email so we can 'connect the dots'. Also, knowing your timezone and the date/time of the incident will help us find it in the logs. Whether it's Dropbox not sending the data over for some reason or 1Password saying it's sync'd when it really isn't, we will get to the bottom of this! :)

44sunsets

Sorry to butt in on this thread, but I'm having the same problem as OP. Whenever I create a One-Time Password in the iOS app on my iPhone 5s, it never seems to sync to the Mac client (I haven't tried the Windows client yet, will do so soon).

(I prefer creating OTPs in iOS as I can use my iPhone's camera to scan the QR codes, it's quick and easy)

I did the JSON copy & paste thing as described by littlebobbytables above, and can't find any mention of the One-Time Password field/data in the entry on 1Password for Mac.

Note: I checked the item entry on 1Password on my iPad Pro, and the OTP does not appear there either. All the other data (fields, notes etc) for the item did sync, but the OTP did not.

Basically, it appears that the OTP data stays in 1Password on my iPhone and does not get synced anywhere else.

The One-Time Password syncing used to work, so this problem has only started happening for me recently -- about a week ago. It's possible the problem has been present for longer, but I've only noticed it recently.

I logged in to my Dropbox and checked and couldn't see any conflicting files. I'm using the opvault format.

I'm running 1Password for iOS v6.3.1 (631001) and 1Password for Mac v6.2.1 (621001).

What should I try next? Should I run the diagnostics reports as described by brenty above and send them to support+forums@agilebits.com ?

AGAlumB

What should I try next? Should I run the diagnostics reports as described by brenty above and send them to support+forums@agilebits.com ?

@44sunsets: Yes, please! If there is a common issue here, having multiple sources to compare may help us find the cause. Thanks in advance! :)

dafacto

I'm afraid to report that I won't be much help in debugging this. Having experienced it the second time, it's clear there's some problem with iOS Dropbox syncing, and I just don't have the time right now to get deeply involved in the activity of debugging. Looking for an alternative to Dropbox, I took the opportunity to finally spend some time looking into 1Password for Families, have switched to that as my primary location for passwords, and then switched my local "Primary" vault to iCloud (even thought the vault is now empty).

Sorry about that, but I just need to get back to work... :-(

ag_kevin

Hi dafacto ,

We completely understand. Sometimes sync problems take a little bit more troubleshooting than we'd like, and it's often difficult to reproduce. We will continue to look into this issue, and thank you for your patience.

Regards,
Kevin

dafacto

Hi @ag_kevin — Thanks for understanding. A summary of the clues as I view them:

1. Changes made on the Mac did get synced to the iOS devices, even changes made to the record on which the problem was discovered. And changes made on the Mac were bi-directionally working with other Macs. It was only the iOS to Mac direction that doesn't work, so the Dropbox link between the two seems to work to some partial extent.

2. The first time I reported this, a complete deletion of 1Password from iOS (and reinstallation) was required to get bi-directional syncing working again.

3. For what it may be worth, on the Mac, I was on the 1Password update schedule that includes beta versions. (As of this morning, though, I've switched back to official releases.)

Hope that helps.

44sunsets

Hmm after some more experimentation, it appears that my issue is likely this one here: https://discussions.agilebits.com/discussion/62149/new-items-created-on-iphone-are-not-syncing-to-dropbox

And most likely doesn't have anything to do with One-Time Passwords or the Mac client at all. Will post in the other thread with details and will submit logs to support.

AGAlumB

@44sunsets: Great! Thanks in advance! :)

@dafacto: That's given me enough to go on I think. I really appreciate it! :chuffed:

nicwise

Same issue here. Killing and restarting iOS fixed it (tho a password change flowed from OSX -> iOS just fine, just not the OTP info). Will send logs thru.

AGAlumB

@nicwise: Thanks! I'm glad to hear that restarting the app helped in the mean time. I see that we've received your email, so we can continue the conversation there. We'll take a look at the diagnostics and get back to you shortly! :)

ref: ZSL-71131-812

nicwise

Thanks @brenty - there were 2 emails, one from iOS and one for OSX. No hurry now - I don't add new OTP's often, and there is a work around, so :+1:

AGAlumB

Yep! We've got both of them. I'm sorry for not being clear about that. They're actually merged together so we can cross reference them. Hopefully we'll gain some insight from those. Thanks so much! :)

danielwinter

hey there, is there any update on this matter?

i use an iPhone SE with 1password synced via dropbox as well as 1password on OSX and Windows. While all my passwords etc do sync, the OTP do not. I just have them on my iphone which is a bit scary for me. After all I'm using 1password and not google authenticator as I want my OTP to sync across these devices. Now I'm afraid I'm locked out of my services if I lose/crash my iphone.

Any ideas what could be wrong?
And yes, latest OS and App versions on all these devices.

Megan

Hi @danielwinter,

I’m sorry to hear that you’re feeling frustrated by this. There’s not really an update here, as it’s unclear at this time whether there’s a bug involved or just a glitch with an individual’s sync.

Let’s see if we can track down where things are getting tangled up for you:

• If you edit an entry with a one-time password (add a few notes to the bottom, for example), do those changes sync to your other devices?
• If you create a new entry with a one-time password, does this entry sync to your other devices?

Chiela

Any word on this? I've recently changed phones and hit the very same issue. The iOS version of one password has the one time passwords working but there appears to be sync issue with both my PC and my MAC versions. To make matters worse it isn't just a case of not syncing at all, because some entries have synced and some seems to have attempted a sync but seemingly got confused.

Here is what has happened:

iOS - four entries with appropriate one time password fully working.

PC & MAC -
One entry has fully synced and the one time password is showing up in both the PC and the MAC version of one password without any issues.
Two entries do not display a one time password at all, despite it working in the iOS version. These two entries are showing no update since last year.
One entry does not display the one time password and one password has created a seperate login entry with the one time password as a static field displaying the first one time password which was generated and a one time password field which is present but blank.

I am using the agile keychain from dropbox. My mobile is running iOS version 10, my PC is running windows 10 build 1511, and MAC is on El Capitan 10.11.6. I have tried closing down all instances of one password and relaunching several times, it doesn't seem to help with the syncing.

Drew_AG

Hi @Chiela,

I'm sorry you're having such an odd problem trying to sync your one-time passwords! I'm sure we can help to figure this out one way or another.

Earlier this year, we discovered an issue in 1Password for iOS where it received changes via Dropbox, but didn't send changes to other devices. I think that's probably the issue at least some of the other customers in this thread were running into. Because it's often easier to add a one-time password to a Login item on iOS, it often seemed like the sync problem was specific to one-time passwords.

From your description, that problem might explain the trouble you've been having. However, we fixed that bug in version 6.4.3 of 1Password for iOS (the latest version for iOS is currently 6.4.4). Can you please check which version of 1Password is on your iPhone? In the 1Password app, the version number should be shown on the Settings screen directly underneath the "Recommend 1Password" option.

If you don't have 6.4.4 installed on your iPhone, please install the update from the App Store. If you already have 6.4.4 installed, we'll need to know a few more details about your setup:

• What exact version of the 1Password app is installed on your Mac?
• What exact version of 1Password is installed on your Windows PC?
• On your iPhone, if you edit a Login item with a one-time password (add a few notes to the bottom, for example), do those changes sync to your other devices?
• On your iPhone, if you create a new Login item with a one-time password, does it sync to your other devices?

Thanks! :)

ref: OPI-3606

Chiela

@Drew_AG,

Windows is running version 4.6.0.604
MAC is running version 6.3.2
Mobile is running version 6.4.4

Additional information - after some thought and poking around the two entries which wouldn't update with the one time password are older entries in my vault. The one which synced without issues was created on the same day. The one which seemed to attempt to sync but did something weird was two weeks old.

After doing this I updated a new entry (by iOS) with some notes - namely the item that did sync properly (we will call this Entry G) with the one time password - and the new notes synced fine to my PC and MAC. I updated an old entry (Entry A) with the same notes and the entry did not sync.

I then picked another old entry (Entry O) and updated with some notes by PC. This update synced fine to both iOS and to MAC. I took the same old entry and added more notes by iOS. This also synced.

Going back to Entry A I tested by adding notes that didn't sync, the creation date was 27 April 2015 this entry had never been updated. The creation date on Entry O that synced the notes correctly was 20 September 2014. Going back to one of the entries that didn't sync with the one time password the creation dated was 8 August 2014 but was updated 10 October 2014 this is designated Entry D.

I picked Entry D and updated it with notes by the MAC. This updated on iOS and PC without issue. I then added additional notes and a tag by iOS. This synced fine. So I went and removed the one time password on that account and reapplied it by iOS and it failed to sync again.

Quick summary:
Entry G - New - No sync issues.
Entry A - Old - Sync issues, never updated after creation.
Entry O - Old - No sync issues, never updated after creation.
Entry D - Old - Sync issues related to one time password only (2 factor auth).

As you can see from this summary there seems to be a pretty mixed bag of results.

I took entry A which had sync issues with notes from iOS, and added notes and a tag from PC, this worked. And in syncing down to iOS it erased the notes I had added from the previous test. I then added some more notes and another tag from iOS. This synced to PC and MAC correctly.

It would appear that old entries with sync issues can be corrected by updating the entry from PC or MAC client after which updates from iOS will work correctly except in the case of the one time password and unfortunately I can't test this throughly unless you know of a way to generate random one time password seeds.

Drew_AG

Hi @Chiela,

Thank you for all the details about the tests you tried! To be honest, I was getting a bit confused about what changes were being made to what item on which device, but after reading through your description a few times, I think I understand. Just to make sure: New items are fine and sync all changes correctly between all devices. Some older items weren't syncing all changes between all devices, but you were able to correct that by making a change on one of your devices. At least one item might still be having trouble syncing a one-time password field between iOS and your Mac and Windows PC. Is that correct?

If so, one possibility is that there's a problem specifically with the older items that still aren't syncing correctly (because newer items seem to be fine). In that case, it sounds like you might be able to solve that by creating new items to replace the old ones.

It would appear that old entries with sync issues can be corrected by updating the entry from PC or MAC client after which updates from iOS will work correctly except in the case of the one time password and unfortunately I can't test this throughly unless you know of a way to generate random one time password seeds.

You can enter any text in a one-time password field to test whether or not it syncs correctly. It will look just like a normal one-time password (i.e. it will show six digits with a 30-second timer), although of course it won't actually work with any website. In 1Password for Mac, edit a Login item and type some text in a new custom field, then click the button with 3 dots to the right of that field and choose "One-Time Password" (remember to click Save when you're done editing). Or in 1Password for iOS, edit a Login item and tap "Add new one-time password", then type some text in the 'Secret' field (remember to tap Done to save changes).

Hopefully that helps you to test this! :)

jandubois

I just encountered this problem again with 1Password 6.7.2 on iOS:

The phone would only write 1Password.agilekeychain/data/default/contents.js to Dropbox, so the new OTP was not visible on OS X (and the modification time wasn't updated either).

When I rebooted the phone and started 1Password again, it was syncing for a long time (not really, maybe 2 minutes, but that is longer than normal), and during that time it wrote about 27 *.1password files to Dropbox, which the OS X version then processed immediately, and everything was working as expected.

Given that the contents.js file was synced successfully every time I made a change on iOS I would think that the problem is with the 1Password sync logic and not with Dropbox.