Is it still possible to create an offline backup?

dafacto
dafacto
Community Member
in Mac

Hello,

Before 1Password for Families and Teams, I kept a backup of my 1Password keychain on an encrypted thumb drive. In case 1Password failed or went out of business, the keychain was usable by opening it in Safari.

I now manage my Family account, and am a member of several Team accounts.

Is it still possible, in this context, to create an offline backup that's usable should the 1Password service and/or apps stop working?

Thanks so much. Matt

1Password Version: Not Provided
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: Not Provided
Sync Type: Not Provided

Comments

  • Drew_AG
    Drew_AG
    1Password Alumni

    Hi @dafacto,

    Thanks for writing in with your question! From your description, it sounds like you had previously been using "1PasswordAnywhere", which was an old feature designed for 1Password 3, built into the old Agile Keychain format, and had very limited capabilities. Although that feature no longer works, 1Password.com accounts (including Families and Teams) include web access to your data from a browser, so you can use that if for some reason you're unable to use the 1Password app on any of your devices.

    As for backups: Your 1Password.com account data is automatically backed up on our servers. That's good because even if all your devices are simultaneously lost, stolen, or damaged, you'll still be able to restore your 1Password data on another device (and as I mentioned above, you can access your data from 1Password.com).

    Your 1Password.com account data is not backed up locally on your Mac, but even if it was, you would need the 1Password app to restore & view that data. However, keep in mind that a copy of your data is stored locally so the 1Password app will work even if you lose your internet connection.

    So although it doesn't work the same way as the old .agilekeychain files you kept copies of on a thumb drive, you'll still be able to view your 1Password data one way or another, even if we were to go out of business.

    I hope that helps, but if you need anything else, please let us know. We're here for you! :)

  • dafacto
    dafacto
    Community Member

    Hi Drew,

    Thanks for the reply. As I mentioned in the original post, the value of that old 1PasswordAnywhere backup was guaranteed access to my critical data in the case that the 1Password app or service stopped working.

    My understanding is that in the current situation, if the 1Password company made a mistake and corrupted its customer data and backups, that there would be no possibility of regaining access to my passwords.

    Is that view of the situation correct?

  • Drew_AG
    Drew_AG
    1Password Alumni

    Hi @dafacto,

    ...the value of that old 1PasswordAnywhere backup was guaranteed access to my critical data in the case that the 1Password app or service stopped working.

    Well, that wasn't really the intent of 1PasswordAnywhere, although I understand you may have been using it for that purpose. 1PasswordAnywhere was originally designed and released years ago as part of 1Password 3 for Mac (in 2009). It was meant as a way to view your 1Password data from a web browser in case you were using a computer that didn't have the 1Password app installed. Customers who synced via Dropbox were able to sign into their account on dropbox.com and access their 1Password data. Or in your case, it was possible to use 1PasswordAnywhere from a local copy of a .agilekeychain file.

    1PasswordAnywhere was always much more likely to stop working than the 1Password app. It was a feature build into the old Agile Keychain format (which was replaced by the newer OPVault format) and had much weaker security than the main 1Password apps because 1PasswordAnywhere was a JavaScript app that could easily be modified to do malicious things (it was a great feature back when security concerns were less severe, though). It relied on older Dropbox APIs in order to function on the dropbox.com website, but improvements to the dropbox.com security architecture caused 1PasswordAnywhere to stop working there. Using 1PasswordAnywhere from a local copy of a .agilekeychain file depended on compatibility with web browsers, but local file restrictions in most modern browsers prevents it from working now.

    Because of security concerns, the outdated interface, incompatibility with our newer OPVault sync format, the fact that it stopped working on dropbox.com, difficulties in using it outside of Dropbox due to modern browser restrictions, and other reasons, we finally decided to stop supporting 1PasswordAnywhere with the release of 1Password 6 (it's no longer included in new Agile Keychain files).

    ...if the 1Password company made a mistake and corrupted its customer data and backups, that there would be no possibility of regaining access to my passwords.

    We don't actually have access to customer data or backups. Although it's hosted on our servers, 1Password data is encrypted locally by the 1Password app before it syncs. All we have on our end is an encrypted blob which cannot be decrypted without both the master password and Account Key, which are never sent to us. Therefore, we don't (and can't) touch your data at all except to to copy the encrypted blob to/from your devices. I'm not sure how we could corrupt it, but even if we somehow did, that doesn't mean it would affect the local data on your Mac. But even if that somehow happened, you could restore the working data from a backup of your Mac (and if you aren't already backing up your Mac, you should really start).

    As always, if you have more questions or concerns, don't hesitate to let us know! :)

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