Merging two vaults
I use 1P across many devices but my main vault management happens on my Mac. I had a dropbox issue and for some reason (probably user error) after it got resolved my primary vault got duplicated. There are hundreds of entries in both vaults, most are duplicates but not all.
I need to merge the 2 vaults back into the primary without loosing any data or generating duplicates. I cannot find a clear way to do so on the interface. What am I missing?
Thank you
Fab Dupont
1Password Version: 6.0.1
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: OSX 10.10.5
Sync Type: Dropbox
Referrer: kb:undefined, kb-search:merge vaults
Comments
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Hi @fabdupont,
I'm sorry you're having some trouble with duplicate items and/or vaults! We'll be happy to help you get this straightened out.
Just to make sure we understand the exact situation: It sounds like you now have 2 vaults set up in 1Password on your Mac. When you say you have duplicates of your items, do you mean most of the items in the secondary vault are the same as the items in the Primary vault? Or do you mean that within a single vault (Primary or secondary), there are multiple copies of items there?
If the issue is that the secondary vault has most of the same items as the Primary vault, which vault contains all your latest data?
When comparing what you have in each vault, you can use the vault switcher in the top left corner of the app window to choose either your Primary or secondary vault - that might make it easier to see exactly what data you have in each one.
Thanks in advance! :)
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Hi Drew,
Sorry about the delay. I did not notice the email notification.
You are correct: most of the items, but not all, are the same in both vaults. There are no significant duplicates within either vaults.
regarding the latest data, there lies the problem, it seems that 1P asks which vault to update when updating password. I'm not sure which
vault has the latest. And I'm pretty sure that some info was updated/added randomly in one or the other before I noticed it would be an issue (Which is why I want to slim back down to one central vault)I have over 800 entries. I don't have the time to side by side compare both vaults, which is why I was looking for a merge function or protocol to make sure all my data is concentrated in one reliably up to date vault.
What do you suggest I do?
Thank you.
Fab
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Thanks, @fabdupont! And no problem at all about the delay, we're here for you whenever you need us. :)
You are correct: most of the items, but not all, are the same in both vaults. There are no significant duplicates within either vaults.
Great! That's good news, as it's usually much easier to merge two vaults than to go through duplicate items within a single vault. Before doing anything else, you should make a fresh backup of your 1Password data. From the main 1Password app, go to File > Backup. That will open the Backup preferences and show all your backups, including the new one you just made.
You'll be able to merge the data from the secondary vault into the Primary vault by syncing them with the same sync file in Dropbox. First, let's check the current sync settings for each vault:
- Open 1Password, go to 1Password > Preferences in the menubar, and select the Sync tab.
- Select your Primary vault on the left side, then check the sync settings.
- If Dropbox is selected for the Primary vault, take note of the file name and file path for the sync file shown there.
- Select the secondary vault on the left side, then check the sync settings.
- If Dropbox is selected for the secondary vault, take note of the file name and file path for the sync file shown there.
If each vault is pointing to a different sync file in Dropbox, you'll need to disable sync for the Primary vault (i.e. change the setting from Dropbox to None) and then enable Dropbox again and choose the same sync file as the secondary vault.
On the other hand, if one vault is not currently syncing with Dropbox, you'll need to set up Dropbox sync for that vault and choose the same sync file as the other vault.
If you're not sure exactly what steps to take, no problem - just let us know what you find in the sync settings for each vault, and we can give you more specific steps. Thanks, and looking forward to hearing back from you! :)
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Hi Drew,
It looks like neither vaults are syncing to the agilekeychain stored in my dropbox at this point. Very odd, but it explains some of the trouble I have been dealing with obviously.
Unfortunately when I try and sync 1P with the existing agilekeychain in my dropbox using the steps you describe above 1P gets stuck at the step after I select the keychain. I click continue and nothing happens. Am I missing somehting? Is it supposed to take a long time for 1P to acknowledge this command?
Fyi, my iphone is still syncing to that keychain and my ipad is too.
Thank you
Fab
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Hi Drew,
It looks like neither vaults are syncing to the agilekeychain stored in my dropbox at this point. Very odd, but it explains some of the trouble I have been dealing with obviously.
Unfortunately when I try and sync 1P with the existing agilekeychain in my dropbox using the steps you describe above 1P gets stuck at the step after I select the keychain. I click continue and nothing happens. Am I missing somehting? Is it supposed to take a long time for 1P to acknowledge this command?
Fyi, my iphone is still syncing to that keychain and my ipad is too.
Thank you
Fab
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Hi @fabdupont,
It looks like neither vaults are syncing to the agilekeychain stored in my dropbox at this point.
Do you mean the vaults are syncing to a different file (or files) in Dropbox? Or do you mean neither vault is syncing at all (i.e. each vault is set to "None" in the sync preferences)? Either way, that certainly sounds like it explains the trouble you've been having.
Unfortunately when I try and sync 1P with the existing agilekeychain in my dropbox using the steps you describe above 1P gets stuck at the step after I select the keychain. I click continue and nothing happens.
Hmm, it sounds like something isn't working correctly there. If you enable Dropbox in the sync settings and choose an existing .agilekeychain file from your Dropbox folder, you shouldn't actually see a "Continue" button at that point. Instead, it should be a button that says "Merge with Existing". Since you aren't supposed to see a "Continue" button after choosing the sync file, I'm not surprised that it doesn't work when you click on it - but I also don't know why you don't see the "Merge with Existing" button.
Looking back at your original post, I see that you said you're using version 6.0.1 of 1Password on your Mac. If so, that might be the problem, as it's a very early release of 1Password 6 for Mac. The latest update is version 6.3.2, so please try installing that to see if it helps. If you're using the AgileBits Store version of 1Password for Mac, open the main 1Password app and go to the menu for 1Password > Check for Updates. If you're using the Mac App Store version, open the Mac App Store and check the Updates section.
Once you have 6.3.2 installed, are you able to re-enable sync with the existing .agilekeychain file in Dropbox?
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Good morning Drew,
The plot thickens.
I discovered that for some reason dropbox was not synchronizing my agilekeychain file properly. On my main machine it was stuck at a date 6 months ago.
Fortunately my dropbox is syncing to my laptop and it was still synching the agilekeychain properly on that machine so I saved the broken one with a different name and dropbox immediately updated the folder on my main machine with the healthy agilekeychain that was sleeping on my laptop peacefully (and synching with dropbox just fine) . Joy.However, when I followed your instructions to then sync 1P on my main machine with that healthy keychain, 1P posted that ' 1P will create a copy of your vault in dropbox, it should become available on other devices in a a few minutes' instead of asking me to merge with existing. My option is to 'create new' not to 'merge with existing'. What did I do wrong?
At this point I have two different unsynched vaults on my main machine, one synched vault on my laptop but out of sync with the main machine since dropbox dropped the ball, an old broken keychain a new healthy one that won't merge and a budding headache.
Any help appreciated.
Thank you for your patience.
Fab
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Hi @fabdupont,
Hmm, the plot thickens indeed! But don't worry, I think we almost have this all sorted out - I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. ;)
I'm glad you were able to find & solve a problem with Dropbox not properly syncing the .agilekeychain file! So now, the issue seems to be as you described:
However, when I followed your instructions to then sync 1P on my main machine with that healthy keychain, 1P posted that ' 1P will create a copy of your vault in dropbox, it should become available on other devices in a a few minutes' instead of asking me to merge with existing. My option is to 'create new' not to 'merge with existing'.
It sounds like you may have chosen the Dropbox folder (or a folder within Dropbox) instead of selecting the existing .agilekeychain file. If so, that probably explains why 1Password created a new sync file instead of merging with the existing one. That's an easy problem to solve, though - you should be able to disable the sync for that vault, delete the new sync file, then re-enable sync and select the .agilekeychain which is syncing with your other Mac:
- On the Mac that has 2 similar vaults in 1Password, go to 1Password > Preferences > Sync.
- Select the Primary vault (which I believe is the one currently syncing with the new sync file in Dropbox), and change it from Dropbox to None.
- Click the box to Delete data from Dropbox, then click Disable Sync.
- In the Finder, double-check your Dropbox folder to make sure the new sync file is gone, and only the old .agilekeychain remains.
- Go back to the sync settings in 1Password and change it from None back to Dropbox.
- Click the Choose button, then select your existing .agilekeychain sync file from Dropbox (and click Open).
- Click Merge with Existing to start syncing (enter your master password if prompted).
Assuming that works as expected, you'll need to sync the secondary vault with that same .agilekeychain file in Dropbox:
- Go to 1Password > Preferences > Sync.
- Select the secondary vault and change it from None to Dropbox.
- Click the Choose button, then select your existing .agilekeychain sync file from Dropbox (and click Open).
- Click Merge with Existing to start syncing (enter your master password if prompted).
If all goes well, at this point your Primary and secondary vaults should be identical. If so, switch to the secondary vault and go to 1Password > Delete [secondary vault name] Vault. Now you should have just the Primary vault, and it should be syncing with your other Mac via Dropbox.
Please let us know how it all goes, thanks! :)
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HI Drew,
I just managed to get everything to work again.
It seems you guys changed the sync file format from 'agile keychain' to 'opvault' sometimes recently. Correct?
Since I still could not get 1P to sync to any of the old sync files, I removed all sync files from the dropbox folder. Forced 1P to create a new sync file from the primary vault (That's when I discovered the new file format). Synced the unwanted secondary vault to that newly created vault at which point I was able to 'merge with existing' for the first time since things broke down. I then deleted the unwanted extraneous vault. Then I went back to all my machines and synced them all to the new file choosing to 'merge with existing' on those too.
All and all it worked good. There are a few duplicates. Nothing terrifying but I'd like to get rid of those. Is this a 'by hand process' or is there a smarter way to handle that?
Thanks a lot for your help and guidance, it allowed me to feel confident enough to help myself in these dire times.
Cheers
Fab
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That's great news, @fabdupont! I'm happy to hear you were able to get everything sorted out and working correctly again. Thanks for letting us know how you solved the problem, and I'm sorry it was more difficult than it should have been. My best guess is that there was still something wrong with the old .agilekeychain file you were trying to use. Deleting the old sync file and creating a new one is exactly what I would have suggested next! :)
It seems you guys changed the sync file format from 'agile keychain' to 'opvault' sometimes recently. Correct?
That's correct - starting in 1Password 6 for Mac, OPVault is the default format when creating a new sync file. It still supports the older Agile Keychain format, although it sounds like there was a problem with the specific .agilekeychain file you had been using.
There are a few duplicates. Nothing terrifying but I'd like to get rid of those. Is this a 'by hand process' or is there a smarter way to handle that?
You'll need to go through your items and manually delete the duplicates. But hopefully it shouldn't be too difficult, as you can sort the item list by title (that's actually the default sort option). That will make it easy to scroll through the list of items and spot which ones are duplicates. Take a look at the data in each one, and if necessary, you can copy data from one duplicate item to the other, then delete the one you no longer need.
We're always happy to help, so if you need anything else, please be sure to let us know. Cheers! :)
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