Passwords stored over time--how to get rid of them without losing something that be needed?

jasimon9

I notice that I have 67 passwords that have been stored over time. I believe that they are created temporarily during the creation of a new login. Usually the new login is set up properly with the same password, and the "password" entry itself it out of site, out of mind. However, some of them appear to be related to "false attempts", where several tries where needed to get the actual login set up.

I would like to clean them up. My question is not how to delete them as that is obvious. The question is other than reviewing them one-at-a-time to determine whether they are just the temporary extra copies, is there some better way to just delete all of the ones that do have related logins? That should leave a small number to look at individually.

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Stephen_C

@jasimon9 you have not told us what version of 1Password you are using but, assuming it's a recent version, you can try 1Password > Help > Tools > Remove Redundant Generated Passwords.

There's more explanation about generated passwords living in the Passwords category in this knowledge base article:

If you generated a password that wasn't saved, or you can't sign in

Stephen

jasimon9

Very helpful. That got rid of some of them. Leaving a bunch to manually check out.

Here is an issue: I use the password generator whenever I need a new password. Usually a login gets successfully created. Sometimes things go wrong and the saved password saves the day. However, usually it seems I get accumulated password entries.

Is there a good way to manage these? Other than periodically manually cleaning up? Seems that the system could automatically get rid of the "temporary" password once a login is created using that password. Is this a feature request on your list?

Stephen_C

@jasimon9:

Seems that the system could automatically get rid of the "temporary" password once a login is created using that password

So long as you save a login:

• with a generated password; and
• the login URL you save with that password is exactly the one you subsequently use for the login

what you say is what should happen (i.e., that generated password won't be stored in the Passwords category). In other words, the only passwords stored in that category should be those which 1Password cannot match against the specific URL for a login that you have stored. (I've assumed you're not using the Password category specifically to store information in 1Password.)

Stephen

jasimon9

I am thinking that it partially works as you say, but in some cases it should have worked because the conditions were met, but it did not.

I might get into the habit of looking for such passwords after every generated one, to see if I can find a pattern.

Megan

Hi @jasimon9,

I’m so glad to see that Stephen has been helping you out here. He’s right, the generated password should be a temporary placeholder until the password is saved into a Login item.

Perhaps I’m a little bit overzealous, but I often use the password change process as a chance to make sure that my 1Password Login works smoothly, and that I don’t have anything kicking around my vault for the site that doesn’t need to be there. So, once the password has been updated on the site, I’ll log out of the site, and use ⌘\ ( Command- \ ) to fill on the sign in page. If it works, I’ll do a quick sweep through my 1Password vault for anything with that site’s name, and remove any excess.

It’s not automatic, but it helps me keep on top of my database one entry at a time. :)

jasimon9

I too always logout/login again to confirm all is well.

Drew_AG

Hi @jasimon9,

Just to add a bit to what Stephen and Megan have already mentioned: A new Password item is created each time you click Fill or Copy in the Password Generator in 1Password mini (or when you manually highlight & copy the generated password). When you submit the 'change password' form on the website, 1Password should ask if you want to update a Login item in your vault - if you do, the generated password will be copied to the Login item, and the Password item will be moved to the Trash in 1Password.

On the other hand, if 1Password doesn't prompt you to update a Login with the new password, or if you choose not to update it when prompted, the Password item you just created won't be deleted, so you'll still find it in the Passwords category in 1Password. Copying & pasting from the Password item into a Login item won't automatically remove the Password item.

Sometimes when I change a password on a website, I submit the 'change password' form but the website rejects the new password because it didn't fit certain criteria - when that happens, and 1Password asks if I want to update a Login item, I cancel out of that prompt and try generating another new password. Because I didn't choose to update the Login, that first Password item remains in the Passwords category. That's one potential reason why you've ended up with extra Password items, although there might be other reasons.

Hopefully that helps to explain what happened, but if you find a situation in which a Password item should be automatically deleted or moved to the Trash but isn't, please let us know and we'll be happy to look into that. Cheers! :)

jasimon9

Thanks for the precise and detailed description. The scenario you describe when making several attempts certainly does cover some of the cases.

As stated above, I will be more mindful of what happens with the saved password items, to see what is happening.

Megan

Hi @jasimon9,

We’ll be interested to hear the results of your research! I know that I have more than a few Password items kicking around my vault that are due to be tidied up ... thanks for reminding me to schedule some vault maintenance. ;)