Does 1Password automatically empty the Trash?

lhagan

When I send an item to the Trash in 1Password, will it stay there indefinitely (until I empty the Trash) or are trashed items eventually deleted automatically?

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1Password Version: 6.3.5
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: OS X 10.11.6
Sync Type: 1Password for Families

sjk

Hi @lhagan,

It's the former. Always your choice of when to manually empty 1Password Trash. Some people use it for 'archiving' items they might want to restore later, although using a secondary vault for the purpose is usually recommended instead. Even with backups we think it's best not to have any automatic Trash emptying mechanism that could risk unintentional, unexpected permanent data removal from your vaults.

lhagan

Awesome -- I figured that was the case; thanks for the confirmation.

sjk

You're welcome, @lhagan. :+1:

I hope the rest of your weekend's a fun one!

Martok

@sjk just to pick you up on this, @lhagan has hist sync type as 1Password for Families, so presumably has a Families subscription.

According to the details on your website, it says:

Item history backup
Go back in time up to one full year and recover passwords which you or your family members have deleted or changed.

and on the pricing page:

365 day item history
Restore deleted items & passwords

I assumed from this (I too have a 1Password Families subscription) was that items in Trash would be permanently deleted after 1 year, unless I am mistaken?

Jacob

@Martok Yep, that's how the archive works. :) Your data is in the archive for one year, during which you can restore if if you'd like, and then permanently deleted. Hope that helps.

Martok

@jacob thanks for confirming. I thought this was the case, though the answer to the OP's question is that items in trash are there indefinitely until they are emptied by the user. This therefore isn't the case for 1Password accounts.

Jacob

@Martok Oh, thanks for clarifying. That's a different case. If an item is in the Trash, it's never automatically emptied. When you do empty the Trash, the items go into an archive where they stay for one year, which is what I was referring to.

Martok

@Jacob thank you for clarifying. I've now looked in my 1Password account online and seen the archive for the trash there, which isn't available via the Mac app (which is why I didn't realise that you could retrieve items deleted from Trash).

Jacob

No problem! It is only available on 1Password.com right now. :)

365nice

Be careful with the trash, it's a bit of a security hole in its implementation. If you move items to a different vault to give better security - the item in trash will still be visible to whoever has access to the original vault.

This is easily done and it's caught me out a few times. It's particularly nasty in 1P teams, but I suspect in families this crops up if people put things in wrong vaults and then move them not realising the consequence.

Jacob

Yep. We've discussed this in your thread about shared vaults. Most of the time it's okay for family members. For teams, I agree we can do better for the security of the company. Rick responded to your post about this and his answer is the most accurate right now — he's our head Mac developer. If you'd like to check in on it, feel free to on that thread.