How to move 1Password app to the front
I asked a question about this but cannot find it on the forum. In the meantime I figured out the answer.
If 1Password is open (you've signed in with your mater password) it will not show in the app menu if you close and relaunch it. If it closes on its own (reaching a preset time limit—set in Preferences>Security), so that you have to log in again, it will once again show in the app menu, the Dock and the Application Switcher and you can access the preferences and other menu items. If you close the app prematurely (before the time limit) it still runs in the background; if you try to launch it again it will show up on the screen but will not show up in the menu bar, etc.
I used Activity Monitor to close the background app (not the 1Password Extension Helper) so that I could launch it, enter my master password and once again have access to the 1Password menus. Needless to say this took me some time to figure out. I'm not sure why it works this way; it's counter intuitive, for me at least. But I've paid for a subscription so I feel like I have to use it—which means taking the time to figure it out.
I had set the time limit to 15 minutes. I lowered it to 5 minutes (the default) in order to be able to work on this. I'll have to see how annoying that short time limit is. No one else uses this computer so a longer limit shouldn't be a problem. I think, instead of closing 1Password when I don't need it, I'll hide it into the Dock so I can get to it again without all this rigamarole. I've got a lot of work to do to develop more secure passwords for some of my sites and to enter other important information, like credit cards and such. Whew! This is a lot of work.
1Password Version: 7.0.4
Extension Version: 4.7.1
OS Version: macOS 10.12.6
Sync Type: Not Provided
Comments
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Welcome to the forum, @WhiteDog! I'm sorry for the confusion. Honestly, I'm a little confused all around, here. You should never need to use Activity Monitor to force-quit any of 1Password's processes. If you do, something's gone wrong somewhere. But let me perhaps first explain how it's supposed to work (which is different in 1Password 7 for Mac than it was in earlier versions).
For the first time, 1Password is a combined process in version 7. That means the mini (in your menubar) and the main app you launch from your Applications folder are the same thing; in earlier versions, they were completely separate processes. If you choose to keep the Extension helper running in Preferences > Browser, you'll be launching the full 1Password application each time you restart your Mac or log out then back in to your user account. That's why 1Password 7 briefly flashes up in the dock before vanishing: it's launching the full 1Password app, then closing the main window and hiding the Dock icon to mimic earlier behavior. But 1Password is running as soon as you launch it.
I used Activity Monitor to close the background app (not the 1Password Extension Helper)
I'm not quite sure what you mean by "background app," since - as I mentioned - there is only 1Password 7 now. The Extension Helper is a small XPC app that is used to talk to the browser extension.
If 1Password is open (you've signed in with your mater password) it will not show in the app menu if you close and relaunch it.
That shouldn't be the case, but what do you mean by "App Menu?" Where specifically is 1Password 7 not showing up?
If it closes on its own (reaching a preset time limit—set in Preferences>Security)
1Password 7 will never close by itself (except if it crashes, which isn't what we're discussing here). It may lock itself based on the settings you choose in Preferences > Security, but it won't actually close the main window nor will it quit the app.
If you close the app prematurely (before the time limit) it still runs in the background...
Yes. This is how it's designed, when you use ⌘Q to close the main 1Password window. If you Quit 1Password 7 Completely by typing
^⌥⌘Q(or just holding down theControlandOptionkeys as you choose Quit from the 1Password menu), then no, it will not keep running in the background....if you try to launch it again it will show up on the screen but will not show up in the menu bar, etc.
I'm not sure what you mean here. If you've used ⌘Q to quit, 1Password will have never stopped running and so would not have disappeared from your Mac's menubar at all. If you used ^⌥⌘Q, then 1Password 7 will indeed have stopped running. but re-launching it will return it to your Mac's menubar. At no time should you be able to launch 1Password 7 and see nothing in your Mac's menubar unless you UN-checked
Show 1Password in the menubarin Preferences > General, and in such a case, you would never see it there.I had set the time limit to 15 minutes. I lowered it to 5 minutes (the default) in order to be able to work on this. I'll have to see how annoying that short time limit is.
Again, not sure I understand you: what specifically are you trying to achieve by lowering the time limit?
I think, instead of closing 1Password when I don't need it, I'll hide it into the Dock so I can get to it again without all this rigamarole.
If you can tell me a little more about what it is you're trying to achieve, I may be able to help you get there. Thanks in advance for any clarification.
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Perhaps I'm mistaking some of the behavior. But I paid for a subscription this time and so have been taking the trouble to get to know it. Turning off Safari's autofill, for instance. I was trying to get access to 1Password's preferences for testing purposes. But if I Command-quit the app, because I don't need to see the window for awhile, then restart it to get the window again, the window comes up but the app doesn't show up in the Application Menu, so I am unable to access Preferences. Now I see what I was doing wrong, though. I don't need to quit 1Password to dismiss the window. If I click the red Close button in the top-left corner of the app window, or hit Command-W, the window is dismissed without quitting the app—and all I have to do to get the app window back is to faux launch it again. At the moment I cannot reproduce the behavior I reported earlier, where quitting the app and restarting it (as I though I was doing) leaves the preferences unavailable. Apparently hitting Command-Q doesn't really quit the app, which is why I thought it was running in the background. Also, if you close the window (of hit Command-Q), 1Password disappears from the Dock and the Application Switcher. This is another reason I thought it was a background app. This is non-standard behavior for an app that is still running, which added to my confusion. Most apps, if you close a window and the app is still running, will remain in the Application Switcher and the Dock. I imagine you have your reasons for this unusual behavior, but if it remained in the Dock or the Application Switcher it would be easier to get to. If I didn't use DragThing as an application launcher, I would have to go to the Application folder to relaunch it.
Of course, in the normal course of events one wouldn't have to keep referencing the main window. But I'm upgrading some of my passwords and (maybe) entering credit card numbers, and this does require repeated use of the window. Which is why I thought I might just hide it in the Dock to retain easy access to it without repeatedly relaunching it.
In sum, for reasons I cannot unravel, 1Password diverges from standard Mac application behavior. As I was trying to figure out how to use it without plowing through a manual, this confused me. Nevertheless, I'm gradually sorting it out. I don't know why I was getting the odd behavior I experienced earlier, but needless to say I'm glad to see it gone. Thanks for explaining how the app works, remaining on rather than running in the background.
I might add that normally on the Mac if you close a window in an app that remains running, like Word, TextEdit and Preview (and the Finder), all you have to do to get a new window is hit Command-N. Why you eschewed this standard behavior I don't know. But it confused the heck out of me.
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I paid for a subscription this time and so have been taking the trouble to get to know it.
Always a good idea to know the ins-and-outs of important software! However, just for clarity, much of what you're discussing here isn't a function of the 1password.com membership itself but rather of the workings of the 1Password 7 for Mac app. Happy to help either way. :)
Apparently hitting Command-Q doesn't really quit the app.
Right. In previous versions of 1Password for Mac, the mini and the main app were two separate processes. They could be quit independently of one another, which made it easier in some ways; you could use
⌘Qin the way you'd expect on the main 1Password app -- it would quit. For a variety of reasons in 1Password 7 for Mac, we combined the processes, so that 1Password and the mini are now a single process. People expect the mini to keep running in the menubar (just like in previous versions of 1Password for Mac), so we couldn't have⌘Qactually quit 1Password or the mini would quit as well now that they're a single process. So instead,⌘Qis now mapped to an action that closes the main window of 1Password 7 for Mac and hides the dock icon. This looks like 1Password has actually quit because you can't see it anymore...but the mini is still in your Mac's menubar, and the 1Password process is still running.If I didn't use DragThing as an application launcher, I would have to go to the Application folder to relaunch it.
Only if you needed to access the main app itself for some reason. As I said, 1Password 7 for Mac IS still running...only now, just in the menubar (the mini). You can still use the mini to fill in Logins or save new ones, having the main app open or closed does not matter for these purposes. And, with the mini's expanded functionality in 1Password 7, you now can do quite a bit more as well. There ARE still reasons you might want to open the main app -- but you don't need to, if you're performing basic 1Password functions.
I'm glad to hear you're getting more comfortable with how it works, but definitely let us know if you have further questions. :)
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Thanks for the explanation. It makes sense, once I know what's going on. Though you didn't explain why the main and mini app were combined. I have to suppose that there was a good reason for that too, but it's far from obvious, to me at least.
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