1P7 and Dropbox path requirements?

AppleMaru

Hi all,

I have just upgraded to 1Password 7 two days ago. My vault locates in the non-default location of Dropbox. Three of my computers: MBP (macOS 10.13.5), MBA (macOS 10.13.5), and Desktop PC (Windows 7) worked smoothly. There is one more iMac (macOS 10.13.5) which behaved strangely. It shows the same "This does not appear to be the Dropbox folder. Please use the folder with the name 'Dropbox'." error message as other people encountered. The only different thing of this iMac is the 1P vault is not only at the non-default location but also on another drive different from the start-up volume.

Tried everything I could but still getting the same error message. Later, I tried the "delete/import" method mentioned by @jd007 , no success either. I was about to give up and not to use 1Password 7 on this Mac at all. At my very last attempt, 1P suddenly asked me to name the new vault and create a main password. Now, everything works fine. Except, as shown in the attached screenshot, there is an empty "Primary" vault "On My Mac", which cannot be deleted. The other "Primary" vault "On Dropbox" which works fine has a different icon than it is on other computers. Moreover, this vault syncs way slower than my other Macs.

Well, at least it is working now, but it looks like there are some issues which need to be resolved.

AGAlumB

@AppleMaru: That's fairly easy. Thanks for the details! You just created a new Primary local vault when setting up the app instead of using the existing one. If you've got all of your data in the Dropbox vault, you can remove that secondary vault (which, confusingly, you seem to have named "Primary"). But if it's simpler, reset the app and then set it up with the vault in Dropbox from the start. And, as noted in this thread, if you run into trouble because of sandboxing, you can choose Folder Sync instead to select the vault in an arbitrary location. I hope this helps. Be sure to let me know if you have any other questions! :)

aal

I want confirm that the suggestion by @tkrombac to choose sync type of "Folder" rather than "Dropbox" and selecting my .opvault located in the non-default located Dropbox folder (which is on a secondary drive)...was the only solution that has worked to get that vault to sync. Interestingly, the sync type changes to "Dropbox" in the Preferences tab. Thanks for all the help.

Ben

Thanks for the update @aal.

Ben

AppleMaru

@brenty Thanks for your explanations. Just two days ago, the 1Password 7 on my iMac kicked me out again. It stated that there was an synchronization issue. I can no longer use my Dropbox vault. With frustration, this morning, I have migrate everything to my 1Password account and hope it will work more smoothly. Personally, I feel more comfortable to see my data on hands as it is in the Dropbox. The "Folder" method seems to be a practical solution for now (Thanks, @aal ). However, at this moment, I am going to stay in the 1Password account until the sandbox "issue" can be resolved in any later version of 1Password 7.

My suggestion to the 1Password team: If there are so many users experienced the Dropbox vault problem due to the sandbox restriction, why not just dump the "Dropbox" option and simply ask Dropbox users to choose the "Folder" in the future version?

Ben

@AppleMaru

That somewhat defeats the purpose of sandboxing, which is generally a good thing. A 1Password account will not experience this issue because it does not require access to areas of the file system outside of 1Password's sandbox.

Ben

AppleMaru

@Ben Ah, I see. Sorry that I don't completely understand how sandboxing works. What you explained did make sense completely.

Maybe we need a warning message when choosing a vault in Dropbox (Ask users to place a vault in the default/acceptable Dropbox location, otherwise, it might not work.)

Also, a different error message may be needed. "This is not a Dropbox folder" is very confusing (at lease to me).

Ben

Agreed. There is room for improvement here. :)

Ben