Restoring secondary vault after Mac re-install, not using dropbox or account

hmcintyre

I have a copy of 1Password6 from the App Store, and have been using this with a total of 3 vaults which are only stored locally. No Dropbox or 1Password account or any other non-local storage. In addition the previous install was using WLAN sync to 2 iOS devices, and also Folder Sync to allow syncing to a different Mac. Not all devices were fully in sync before the restore, but I do have all of the files from the Mac before re-install.

I have reinstalled Mac OS and 1Password and successfully restored the primary vault by opening the "1Password.opvault" vault from the folder sync directory. However it's not clear how to restore the secondary vaults. Should I use File->Import ? Or some type of sync? I'm reluctant to just try WLAN sync or folder sync in case it removes the missing secondary vaults from iOS.

Also I guess I'm confused whether the files under the folder sync directories are the vaults themselves, or these are synced slave files and the "real" vaults are elsewhere?

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1Password Version: 6.8.9
Extension Version: not installed
OS Version: 10.13.6
Sync Type: WLAN / Folder

Ben

Hi @hmcintyre

The files created by Folder Sync are sync files only — they are not the master database. Erasing them will not erase your data.

To set this up as you’ve described you’d need to set up folder sync to sync out to OPVault sync files for each vault. These sync files should be stored locally, and then a 3rd party tool such as rsync should be used to sync them to other devices. Folder sync is not intended to be directed to non-local folders:

How to keep a copy of a standalone vault updated in a folder | 1Password

Only sync to a folder on a local or removable drive, like an external hard drive or USB flash drive. Syncing to a folder on a network volume, like a Time Capsule or other NAS, may cause problems if the device goes offline.

I’d also point out:

Local folder syncing in 1Password can be complex and depend on many factors, including your network and software configuration.

We’re unable to provide support for issues you might encounter with local folder syncing because we can’t troubleshoot your network or third-party sync solutions.

I hope that helps!

Ben

hmcintyre

Hi Ben - thanks, I understand the "no support" policy for complex issues with local folder sync even though I had this working reliably via rsync from master->slave computers before the re-install.

My question is how to re-load the secondary vaults on the "master" 1Password config, ignoring folder sync for now. Do I just use file->Import on each of the secondary .opvault vault files that were previously folder-synced given your comment that "these are not the master database"? Or do I need to re-import a different master database for these secondary vaults?

Put differently, if I didn't previously have folder sync, how should I have restored secondary vaults? And given that I do have folder sync for these vaults, is it now easier to restore from the .opvault files? And for future reference, should I have restored from a "Backup" file?

Thanks,

Hugh.

Lars

@hmcintyre - A little background: since some users never sync their data at all (only use it on a single device), 1Password for Mac has to have an internal store of your data. This is in the form of an encrypted SQLite file that's located in one of two places, depending on where you got 1Password from initially:

• 1Password from the MAS - ~/Library/Containers/2BUA8C4S2C.com.agilebits.onepassword-osx-helper/Data/Library/Data/OnePassword.sqlite
• 1Password from our website - ~/Library/Containers/2BUA8C4S2C.com.agilebits.onepassword-osx-helper/Data/Library/Data/OnePassword.sqlite

When you choose Folder Sync as your sync method in Preferences > Sync, 1Password will sync that internal SQLite database with a keychain (OPVault) that it creates in whatever location you specify. This is also the same way Dropbox sync works, only with that, there's the third leg of the sync process, Dropbox using its own sync magic/APIs to sync your local copy of the OPVault in your Dropbox folder with their servers so you can access it on other devices.

My question is how to re-load the secondary vaults on the "master" 1Password config, ignoring folder sync for now. Do I just use file -> Import on each of the secondary .opvault vault files that were previously folder-synced given your comment that "these are not the master database"? Or do I need to re-import a different master database for these secondary vaults?

I'm not entirely sure I understand this; do you have OPVault keychains for those secondary vaults? If you do, you should be able to simply double-click them and they should open right up in 1Password 6 for Mac. The File > Import option is only going to work if you previously exported your vault data in either .1pif or .csv format; the importer cannot recognize other forms of the data.

If you neither 1pif nor csv exports AND you don't have OPVault keychains for those secondary vaults, then we're going to have to get a bit more intricate. You'll need to either see if you can locate your previous, most-recent backup of your 1Password data OR we'll need to restore your entire 1Password schema by retrieving that SQLite database. So: when you say you "have all the files from the Mac before re-install," what does that mean? Do you have a Time Machine copy of the data? Or perhaps CCC or SuperDuper!? Or did you manually copy folder contents, and if so, do you have a copy of the folder paths mentioned above?

hmcintyre

Thanks for the reply. I do have all of the .opvault files and after double clicking on each, the vaults are restored. Thanks!

FWIW, in terms of "I have all the files from the Mac before re-install," I have a full CCC backup as well as two other backups (cloud backup service and local rsync). So I do also see the ~/Library/Containers/2BUA8C4S2C.com.agilebits.onepassword-osx-helper/Data/Library/{Data,Backups} directory. I guess I might have been able to restore from one of these backups as well, not that this is needed now?

Ben

I guess I might have been able to restore from one of these backups as well, not that this is needed now?

Yes, that is a possibility. :)

Thanks for the reply. I do have all of the .opvault files and after double clicking on each, the vaults are restored. Thanks!

Glad to hear it. Thanks for the update. I would recommend checking on the sync settings for each of the vaults to make sure they are syncing as you want them to be. When double clicking on a sync file by default 1Password will set up a folder sync for that sync file’s current location, which may not be what you want here.

Ben