1Password mini cannot find 1Password app / sync issues
I have had a lot of trouble getting 1P on my Mac Book Pro, and had several rounds of support previously. Never got it working because for some reason could not get it to sync. Now I need the MBP for a trip, and I was able to get 1P to sync via Dropbox.
Next issue: 1P mini for Safari says it cannot find the 1P app. It talks about having 1P 4 installed. But I have 1P 5 installed. So I tried uninstalling the Safari extension, and reinstalling it. It installs but still cannot find 1P and says to make sure 1P 4 is installed.
1Password Version: Not Provided
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: Not Provided
Sync Type: Not Provided
Comments
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After a lot of effort, I believe I "mostly" got it working. The problem seemed to be various other versions of 1P even in the Trash. Not until the Trash was emptied could I get past them.
As a test, I checked one secure note that I had updated today on my main machine. Most of the content of that secure note had been updated. However, there is still some old information on the MBP. That information was updated a little later than the info that was updated, but all in the same day I think.
In addition to the MBP, I also checked my iPhone. It has the first updates of the day, but not the later ones.
This of course makes no sense. If a secure note was updated, why only partially? Could it be that it takes some time for all the updates to propagate?
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After a lot of effort, I believe I "mostly" got it working. The problem seemed to be various other versions of 1P even in the Trash. Not until the Trash was emptied could I get past them.
@jasimon9: Aha! Thanks for the update. That makes sense. Unless you delete, empty, and restart your Mac, OS X is likely to keep old copies of the app in memory...which of course means that the current version of 1Password has trouble finding its mini "mate".
Regarding the odd Secure Note issue, that sounds like Dropbox may be having some conflict. If you inspect the contents of the vault on the Dropbox website, do you see files that say "conflicted copy"? It can certainly take time for things to sync fully depending on the connection and if Dropbox is throttling temporarily, but for what's probably a small amount of text a sync conflict is more likely. Please let me know what you find!
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Dropbox does not show any conflicted copies. I am not sure if it was a real problem or me just confusing myself. Let's "close" this one for now and if something crops up, I'll open a new discussion.
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Sounds good! Thanks for following up. Hopefully you won't encounter any further issues, but we're here for you if you need anything. :)
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As a follow up, I have noticed something very odd. In many login records, I store detailed notes. I have started to notice that the notes for many if not all logins are duplicated and triplicated. Typically my note text is present. Then the is a line break and the string === and another line break. Then my note is duplicated.
After reporting the issue with the sync, I noticed that this had also happened. I felt that the sync was not fully updating. Now I am thinking that it only appeared to not be updating because I had updated one of the sets of notes, then checked an saw that one of the duplicate sections was not updated. So I thought the note was not updated. In fact the problem in my mind now is not that updates were not complete, but rather that note sections have been duplicated and triplicated.
Here is an example, which shows that I used to keep track of previously used passwords (either you did not have the previously used passwords feature, or I was not aware of it). I am sharing some obsolete passwords because none of them are currently in use.
========== 8< ========== below is from a Notes section; please note the triplication ========== 8< ==========
*************** sanitized *************
Note: cannot contain "non-printing control characters". Ok to contain @#$%
2015-07-16 pw changed from 2FJGOaRKPjNjs2LScns_Dto r7NtWT#yJwIdlXaz$Bxp
2015-05-19 pw got fubared; KxwZ0W3gcfhJi=0^iJVp as current pw did not work; pw from recently used 2FJGOaRKPjNjs2LScns_D did work though;
somehow, 69adoItIZSqvNOTBuS-J was entered as pw in error; that is the actual pw for RL
2014-12-05: changed from G-e87ZV0mjB0v-9kmVg to V-7bMbnypbePK-Yd39Jy
2014-08-09: changed from tRgxcI5-3fpcWM;;Jrw8 to G-e87ZV0mjB0v-9kmVg
2013-12-31: changed from dpnrEK8-tcf-yupaNU8d to Rim-UM4GaDq;RKEtdZ7v
2013-09-03: changed from mcW7x2aWrwcQc--tKFKw to dpnrEK8-tcf-yupaNU8d
2013-05-13: changed from 3XiTm@8zbvrbPpsVB%Ya to mcW7x2aWrwcQc--tKFKw
2013-01-22: changed from oN3nJwZjF7M6J@vw-tJx to 3XiTm@8zbvrbPpsVB%Ya
*************** sanitized *************
2012-10-02: manually changed from PAE3jTdvjdko-7jCew-P to oN3nJwZjF7M6J@vw-tJx
2012-02-20: manually changed from e9rAtnaaVPBWLTL(9+vF to VCQoaTrE&bDV^wEE22AW
2011-10-25: Manually changed from +CoNKhG3t6XY to e9rAtnaaVPBWLTL(9+vF
2011-06-29: Manually changed from /Eqben47zkuT to +CoNKhG3t6XY
2011-02-28: Manually changed from Z7U9Ygfpr&Rs to /Eqben47zkuT
2009-04-26: Manually changed from z67NbBRgcjvT to ^Ao2KWi7t,uc===
*************** sanitized *************
Note: cannot contain "non-printing control characters".
2016-02-23 pw changed from lab34orjtbDfGNlTkDBD to DOF9pQb@MKd4ouV$lhy8
2015-07-16 pw changed from 2FJGOaRKPjNjs2LScns_D to r7NtWT#yJwIdlXaz$Bxp
2015-05-19 pw got fubared; KxwZ0W3gcfhJi=0^iJVp as current pw did not work; pw from recently used 2FJGOaRKPjNjs2LScns_D did work though;
somehow, 69adoItIZSqvNOTBuS-J was entered as pw in error; that is the actual pw for RL
2014-12-05: changed from G-e87ZV0mjB0v-9kmVg to V-7bMbnypbePK-Yd39Jy
2014-08-09: changed from tRgxcI5-3fpcWM;;Jrw8 to G-e87ZV0mjB0v-9kmVg
2013-12-31: changed from dpnrEK8-tcf-yupaNU8d to Rim-UM4GaDq;RKEtdZ7v
2013-09-03: changed from mcW7x2aWrwcQc--tKFKw to dpnrEK8-tcf-yupaNU8d
2013-05-13: changed from 3XiTm@8zbvrbPpsVB%Ya to mcW7x2aWrwcQc--tKFKw
2013-01-22: changed from oN3nJwZjF7M6J@vw-tJx to 3XiTm@8zbvrbPpsVB%Ya
*************** sanitized *************
2012-10-02: manually changed from PAE3jTdvjdko-7jCew-P to oN3nJwZjF7M6J@vw-tJx
2012-02-20: manually changed from e9rAtnaaVPBWLTL(9+vF to VCQoaTrE&bDV^wEE22AW
2011-10-25: Manually changed from +CoNKhG3t6XY to e9rAtnaaVPBWLTL(9+vF
2011-06-29: Manually changed from /Eqben47zkuT to +CoNKhG3t6XY
2011-02-28: Manually changed from Z7U9Ygfpr&Rs to /Eqben47zkuT
2009-04-26: Manually changed from z67NbBRgcjvT to ^Ao2KWi7t,uc===
*************** sanitized *************
Note: cannot contain "non-printing control characters".
2015-07-16 pw changed from 2FJGOaRKPjNjs2LScns_Dto r7NtWT#yJwIdlXaz$Bxp
2015-05-19 pw got fubared; KxwZ0W3gcfhJi=0^iJVp as current pw did not work; pw from recently used 2FJGOaRKPjNjs2LScns_D did work though;
somehow, 69adoItIZSqvNOTBuS-J was entered as pw in error; that is the actual pw for RL
2014-12-05: changed from G-e87ZV0mjB0v-9kmVg to V-7bMbnypbePK-Yd39Jy
2014-08-09: changed from tRgxcI5-3fpcWM;;Jrw8 to G-e87ZV0mjB0v-9kmVg
2013-12-31: changed from dpnrEK8-tcf-yupaNU8d to Rim-UM4GaDq;RKEtdZ7v
2013-09-03: changed from mcW7x2aWrwcQc--tKFKw to dpnrEK8-tcf-yupaNU8d
2013-05-13: changed from 3XiTm@8zbvrbPpsVB%Ya to mcW7x2aWrwcQc--tKFKw
2013-01-22: changed from oN3nJwZjF7M6J@vw-tJx to 3XiTm@8zbvrbPpsVB%Ya
*************** sanitized *************
2012-10-02: manually changed from PAE3jTdvjdko-7jCew-P to oN3nJwZjF7M6J@vw-tJx
2012-02-20: manually changed from e9rAtnaaVPBWLTL(9+vF to VCQoaTrE&bDV^wEE22AW
2011-10-25: Manually changed from +CoNKhG3t6XY to e9rAtnaaVPBWLTL(9+vF
2011-06-29: Manually changed from /Eqben47zkuT to +CoNKhG3t6XY
2011-02-28: Manually changed from Z7U9Ygfpr&Rs to /Eqben47zkuT
2009-04-26: Manually changed from z67NbBRgcjvT to ^Ao2KWi7t,uc========== 8< ========== end of example ========== 8< ==========
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Hi @jasimon9,
It sounds (and looks) like there have been conflicts during Dropbox sync which caused this to happen. If 1Password/Dropbox is unable to determine which copy of an item has the newer information during a sync, both sets of conflicting information are saved in that item to make sure you don't lose anything. When this happens for a notes field, the text from both copies of that item are merged into the same note field with a '===' separator between them.
There are a few legitimate reasons why a conflict might happen during a sync. On the other hand, there was also a small bug in an older version which may have caused something like this to happen. I don't know how long ago these conflicts first appeared in your items or which version(s) you were using on each device at that time, but if it was originally caused by that old bug, you can simply edit those items to remove the extra (or duplicated) data, and everything should be fine after that (make the edits from one device and allow the changes to sync to the others).
You might want to try that first with just one of the items that has this problem. Once you remove the extra data from one item on one device, does that sync correctly to the other devices? Or does it end up duplicating the text in the notes field again?
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I did have some issues a ways back in syncing. I believe the 1P architecture of where the vault was stored changed at some point. Previously there was just an agilekeychain package file and that was it. I believe you changed the structure. But on other devices, it still had the old structure, with possibly even different versions of 1P. During that time, I was unable to sync, and I did open other discussions in the forum about that. That finally got straightened out.
My theory is that what you just explained about the merging copies with the "===" separator could have occurred during that time period.
By the way, another theory that I have that you can confirm or debunk is that the main 1P app does use a different method than just the single agilekeychain package but still uses that for syncing. I think this because after the change to the new method, the agilekeychain package in Dropbox no longer updated for a while. If there are in fact more than one storage method, then this duplicate storage method could be the source of problems.
Regarding you suggestion: I will go ahead and edit a note, and observe the reaction.
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Hi @jasimon9,
The default location in Dropbox for the 1Password sync file has changed a couple times over the years, so my guess (based on your description) is that at one point, your devices somehow each ended up pointing to different sync files in Dropbox. If you made different changes to the same items from different devices during that time, that would explain why you ended up with the duplicated data in the notes fields of those items. In other words, once you solved the sync problem and got all devices pointing to the same sync file in Dropbox, it combined the (slightly different) notes fields because it couldn't tell which one was "correct".
That would be a legitimate reason for this to have happened, but the solution would be the same - edit an item to remove the extra/duplicate data from the notes field. When you save those changes, they should sync to your other devices.
By the way, another theory that I have that you can confirm or debunk is that the main 1P app does use a different method than just the single agilekeychain package but still uses that for syncing. I think this because after the change to the new method, the agilekeychain package in Dropbox no longer updated for a while. If there are in fact more than one storage method, then this duplicate storage method could be the source of problems.
I'm not entirely sure I understand your question, but maybe this will help to answer it: On your Mac, your 1Password data is stored locally in an SQLite database. When you open 1Password, it reads your data from that SQLite database regardless of whether or not you have any of the sync options enabled. When you set up sync with Dropbox, 1Password puts a copy of your vault in a sync file in your local Dropbox folder. That sync file is only used for syncing purposes. Any changes you make to 1Password on your Mac (i.e. to the SQLite database) are copied to the sync file in Dropbox. If you make a change to 1Password on another device, those changes end up being copied to the sync file in Dropbox, and then copied from that sync file to the SQLite database on your Mac. As long as the sync settings in 1Password on each device are pointing to that same exact file in your Dropbox account, sync should work seamlessly.
Now, the other thing you might be asking about is the sync file format used by 1Password, and there are actually two different formats: Agile Keychain and OPVault. But it doesn't really matter which format your sync file is in, as long as each device points to that same exact file.
Hopefully that answers your questions, but please let us know if you have more! :)
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Thanks for the detailed explanation. That is about what I suspected was the current design.
I never had more than one agilekeychain file, which existed in Dropbox and was thus replicated to all the Dropbox locations. Before you had the SQLite store, I believe this was the only place where data was stored. Then when the SQLite store was established, something went wrong and it took some effort to get the sync reestablished properly.
Checking the one note that I edited to remove the duplicate info shows that it has properly synched with 1P on my phone. So regardless of what happened and how it happened, I think we are beyond that now, and if I clean up the duplications, it should be clear sailing from here on.
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Hi @jasimon9,
I never had more than one agilekeychain file, which existed in Dropbox and was thus replicated to all the Dropbox locations. Before you had the SQLite store, I believe this was the only place where data was stored.
That's correct - back in 1Password 3 for Mac, the Agile Keychain was the only place your data was stored. By default it was in the Application Support folder, but could be moved to your Dropbox folder in order to sync. I'm sorry to hear you had a bit of difficulty with the transition to newer versions of 1Password!
Checking the one note that I edited to remove the duplicate info shows that it has properly synched with 1P on my phone. So regardless of what happened and how it happened, I think we are beyond that now, and if I clean up the duplications, it should be clear sailing from here on.
That's great news! And yes, it sounds like things are working correctly now, so you can certainly go ahead and remove the duplicate info from the notes fields and it should all sync properly to your other devices.
If you need more help with that or something else, you know where to find us! ;)
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Something odd might still be happening. I was editing the notes section of login, and during the process, the whole note got duplicated with the === separator. I am not sure what is going on and cannot give specifics yet. Will post more when I have them.
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Hi @jasimon9,
Hmm, that's definitely strange. Did that happen with just one specific Login item that you edited, or did the same thing happen with multiple Logins? Did the duplicate notes section (with the === separator) reappear right away after clicking the Save button?
Can you confirm that you edited the item (to delete the duplicate notes section) from one device? If you edited the same item separately on two different devices before they synced with each other, that might result in what you're seeing. But assuming you did this on one device, what happened on the other devices after the duplicate notes reappeared? Did they reappear on the other devices?
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I only edit on my main system. Not really sure what happened. Cannot tell what happened on other devices, since I have already cleaned up that one Note. As I said before, will do some work over time and let you know if I can pin anything down to a pattern.
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I only edit on my main system. Not really sure what happened. Cannot tell what happened on other devices, since I have already cleaned up that one Note. As I said before, will do some work over time and let you know if I can pin anything down to a pattern.
Thanks for clarifying! Please let us know what you find.
Something odd might still be happening. I was editing the notes section of login, and during the process, the whole note got duplicated with the === separator. I am not sure what is going on and cannot give specifics yet. Will post more when I have them.
However, reading this leads me to believe I know what is happening: you create an item, it syncs to Dropbox, and then when you edit the item and it syncs Dropbox compares it to its copy...and decides that both are valid, which is where you end up with a conflict.
Of course, to you it seems obvious, but to software that's trying to maintain consistency across multiple sources, it can't always get it right. And when it is uncertain, conflicts are a lesser evil than data loss.
While only Dropbox may be able to say for certain, the most likely (and common) cause of something like this is a date/time discrepancy — however minor — between the client and the server. Even a temporary connection problem could cause this, and I'm glad that Dropbox errs on the side of caution when it comes to our data. Cheers! :)
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