Manual Sync timing between two computers OSX 10.9

straitline

Hi,
I use Chronosync to sync work files between a USB drive, my home machine and my work machine on a daily basis. This sync includes my 1password keychain listed under the "sync" option. This seems to be less reliable lately, with recent changes not being reflected from one machine to another. In examining the sync option, it looks like that might not happen on a very regular basis (currently 46 min ago). Is there a way I can adjust that to make it more rapid, so that my recent changes are more likely to be reflected or is there another keychain location that is more directly updated?

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1Password Version: 4.4.3
Extension Version: 4.5.6
OS Version: 10.9.5
Sync Type: manual

ag_kevin

Hi @straitline ,

Are you syncing to the keychain file directly on the USB drive? If so, the sync should trigger as soon as you connect the USB drive. If you sync that keychain file with Chronosync to a location on your hard disk, then it should sync as soon as Chronosync is finished syncing it.

One idea that comes to mind is to stop syncing the keychain file with Chronosync. Let it live on the USB drive. Remember that this is not the master copy of your 1Password data - that is stored in a database on your Mac's hard disk.

Regards,
Kevin

straitline

Hi Kevin,
Thanks for the response, I just tested the effect that you mentioned with the keychain stating that it synced immediately upon mounting the USB drive, but when reviewing the actual file, it doesn't seem to have been updated in a few weeks.

What do you think would cause that?

rudy

Hi @straitline,

The Finder is notoriously bad at updating timestamps on Folders when files inside them update, especially when you're viewing them in the Finder when they get updated. If you right click on the agilekeychain and choose show package contents you will probably see newer timestamps on the files inside it.

Rudy

straitline

That doesn't seem to be the case.
Could there be a permissions issue?

Drew_AG

Hi @straitline,

Thank you for including the screenshot! It looks like you right-clicked on 1Password.agilekeychain and chose Get Info. Instead, what Rudy suggested was to right-click on 1Password.agilekeychain and choose Show Package Contents. A .agilekeychain "file" is actually a special kind of folder, and using the option to show package contents will open that folder to show you its contents.

Do you see newer timestamps for the files/folders inside of the .agilekeychain bundle?

straitline

Ok, that makes this problem a little more clear, I'll investigate further with my Chronosync settings.
Thanks for your help.

Drew_AG

No problem! We're here for you if you need more help with that. Have a great weekend! :)

fourwheelcycle

straitline,

My comment may not be helpful, but I since I have a similar situation and I ultimately stopped using Chronosync to sync my 1Password vault I thought I would just note my experience.

I don't sync work between home and office, but I do need to sync everything among three Mac computers on my home wifi network, which works off of a Time Capsule. I have tried many strategies to keep all three computers, including Word, Excel, and 1Password files, fully in sync. Chronosync is great if you understand it well enough, but I have never fully mastered its intricacies. What finally worked for me was to buy a good SanDisk SSD and plug it into my Time Capsule with a SATA III to USB adapter. Then I wrote a very simple login script that mounts the SanDisk network drive on each of my Mac desktops whenever I turn them on.

I now locate all my files on the SanDisk network drive and use that as my main desktop folder for all three computers. I use Carbon Copy Cloner, which I understand better than Chronosync, to make daily copy updates of the SanDisk network drive on each of my three Macs, but I actually work from the SanDisk "master" files and make all file changes and new file creations on the SanDisk.

If you substitute the role of your USB flash drive for my SanDisk SSD, it seems you might be able to accomplish your goal without the need to run a Chronosync routine every time you move the flash drive between your home and office. You could just set both your home and office 1Password preferences to sync with a folder located on the flash drive (same folder for both, of course) and you could also locate the master versions of all your other home and office files on the same flash drive. You can start each work session at home and in your office by running a backup routine with Chronosync or Carbon Copy Cloner that updates a copy of your entire flash drive on your home and office computers.

As far as updating the vault, both in your computer hard drives and on the flash drive, I find that if I open, edit, and save any login or secure note, or create a new one, I can immediately go to my 1Password Sync Preference and I will see that my Folder was "Last synced: 5 seconds ago". This reassures me that everything is working properly.

One final note - if you started with 1Password 4 for Mac you should now be up to version 6, which means you can do away with your keychain sync file and use the new OPVault. That means you will have vaults on both your computer hard drives and in your sync folder, although the vault in your Macs is really just a bunch of data files in your (hidden) User Library.

ag_kevin

Thanks for the advice, fourwheelcycle,

Bottom line, when syncing to a filesystem, be it local or network, there's nothing to oversee conflicts like Dropbox does. So care must be taken that two 1Password instances have not changed it since last sync. Syncing directly to the agilekeychain on the USB drive will accomplish it.

@straitline , another way to determine if it's syncing when connecting the drive is to open the 1Password app, go to Preferences, click on Sync, and click on your vault. It will show when it last synced.

Regards,
Kevin

straitline

Thanks for the help guys, I took @ag_kevin 's advice and switched the sync to the USB drive which does happen as soon as the drive is plugged in, that should solve my problems.

Cheers.

nmott

I'm glad that ag_kevin was able to help you get everything sorted! Let us know if we can help with anything else :)

straitline

So I changed the setting to sync the keychain to my USB drive, but that has led to 1Password declaring "Problem detected" whenever the drive isn't plugged in. The only option seems to be clicking "ignore" whenever the notification comes up, even entering the settings results in the file path being reset if the drive isn't plugged in.

ag_kevin

Hi @straitline ,

Hmm… I may have forgotten about an issue in 1Password 4. 1Password 6 now does not complain when the drive is missing, but version 4 may not like that. If you go back to Chronosync, you could try setting a new sync document just for the 1Password keychain and schedule it to sync very often (e.g. every 10 minutes) and see if that makes a difference. Give that a try and see if it works.

Regards,
Kevin

straitline

Ok, I'll diagnose from the Chronosync side again, thanks for the help.

fourwheelcycle

straitline,

Perhaps I misunderstood your goal. I thought you wanted to use the same 1Password keychain sync file on both your home and office Macs. If you set your home and office computers to sync to a "local folder" on the USB drive you are obligated to have the USB drive plugged in and available whenever you use 1Password, either at home or in your office. As soon as you turn on 1Password it will look where you told it to look for the local folder sync file, i.e., on your USB drive. If you are not going to have the USB drive plugged in and available you need to change your sync preference to "None".

If you do turn on 1Password with the sync preference set to "Local Folder" when the USB drive is not plugged in it will give you an error message with a choice of two options: Ignore or Fix the Problem. When you get this error message the correct answer is Fix the Problem. Ignore will send you into an endless loop where 1Password keeps looking for the non-existent local folder. Fix the Problem will let you go in and change your sync preference to None.

This is an old, known problem for those of us who sync to local folders on our home network drives - we have to set our sync preference to None before we go on vacation, since while we are away from home our local (network) sync folder won't be available.

ag_kevin

Hi @straitline,

In the current version of 1Password, it does not complain so much when the drive is disconnected. When you reconnect the drive later, it will resume syncing. The confusion lied in that I forgot that the older version of 1Password did not tolerate the drive being missing, but now it does.

I hope that clears up the confusion.

Regards,
Kevin