Attachments questions
Today I started using the attachments features for the first time. Two questions:
1) I attached some JPGs. To test, I double-clicked one to view it. Saw it just fine, but I'm unclear about whether some other copy is created somewhere, decrypted or otherwise. An instruction page for the Windows version talked about other copies being created and needing to be dealt with in order to preserve security, but I couldn't find mention either way re: the Mac version. Insights?
2) I also couldn't find mention of whether attachments in 1PW are editable or not. Can I attach, e.g., an Excel document and then get rid of the original, keeping only the new one within 1PW to regular open and edit, or does 1PW only keep a read-only snapshot of an attachment?
Comments
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Sorry this is not a very satisfactory answer. There was some old discussion about this a long time ago and to the best of my recollection opened attachments are removed from cache at some stage (i.e., they don't hang around!). However, I can't for the life of me remember what triggers it, sorry. However, you don't have to do anything manually. I suspect someone more expert will add something to this answer in due course.
You cannot edit an attachment in 1P4. If you want to achieve that result you must edit the attachment in the original application and then add the revised copy to 1P4.
What you may not know—because it doesn't seem to be made very clear anywhere—is that once you've added an attachment to 1P4 you can delete the original (which won't affect the attachment in 1P4). That used to be a little clearer in 1P3 because there was a message to that effect when you added an attachment to 1P3. There is no such message when you add an attachment to 1P4.
Stephen
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Thanks, Stephen.
I was aware that the original does not need to be saved, and that is a nice feature.
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If you're looking for a way to store files in an encrypted state yet still editable then you could use OS X's built-in disk image feature. Disk Utility in Utilities allows you to create Disk Images, one of which is a sparse bundle disk image and then you can set the encryption to 256-bit AES for that image. Then you simply mount and unmount the image as required. This is how encrypted users in Snow Leopard worked and I believe it's the pretty much the same thing for entire disk encryption in later versions except more keys are added (to account for multiple users).
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Long ago I used to use encrypted sparse images for my sensitive info. It turned out my backup solution left those out without telling me, and then after a crash and restore I found out that none of my sensitive info existed anymore. I've changed backup methods since then, but still have an antsy feeling around the idea of using sparse images. I recently apply password-to-open to all my sensitive MS Office files, reserved all sensitive PDFs with encryption+password, and used Terminal to create encrypted .zip archives for other sensitive files. I'm hoping that this will suffice for keeping things sufficiently protected without putting them in either 1Password or an encrypted sparse image.
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What backup method did you use that ignored disk images? I could imagine they don't want to backup if the image is mounted but I'd be pretty pissed off myself if I found it wasn't backing up unmounted images.
What about complete drive encryption and encryption of a time machine backup?
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Retrospect Express ignored unmounted sparse images, and this wasn't documented. I went through an enormous correspondence with them, threatening legal action, and the only reason I didn't pursue it was because I couldn't afford to, not because I didn't think I had a case. It was an egregious oversight on their part. Don't get me started, it's a very long story.
Since then, I no longer use Retrospect Express. My backup scheme is now Time Machine (to disks that are themselves fully encrypted), CrashPlan (to CrashPlan Central for offsite backup, always encrypted), and nightly automatic SuperDuper! clone updates to encrypted full disks. But during the day I keep computers on and so want extra protection for sensitive files, not wanting to leave them protected only by the fact that my backups are encrypted.
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Hi @marksmeritt,
Just wanted to follow up with an official response.
When you open an attached file within 1Password, it is decrypted into a cache temporarily so it can be opened. This happens either by using QuickLook (single click the attached file in 1Password and press
spacebar) or if you double click the attached file to open it in its default application.As @Stephen_C mentioned, if you open a file directly from within 1Password, such as an excel file, any edits you make will not be saved. This is because you are editing the cached file which gets destroyed. To edit a file, you need to drag the attachment out of 1Password and open that one. Then you will want to remove the attachment from 1Password before re-attaching the edited copy.
One other idea for storing lots of files in an encrypted format is to check out our other app, Knox for Mac.
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Check, never use Retrospect Express.
I'd personally check out using sparse bundle images again. It'll be easy to verify Time Machine is backing them up (but I'd be nothing short of shocked if it wasn't), you know SuperDuper! will be and as I don't know CrashPlan I won't comment on them but again, you'd hope easy to verify. Assuming they do I'd have thought sparse bundle images would represent an easy and intuitive way of encrypting a selection of files with ease of accessing them on a routine basis which allows editing.
I wrote most of that prior to chrisdj's response, or you could check out Knox. Maybe though, @chrisdj could expand on why Knox is superior to sparse bundle images created via Disk Utility :)
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I didn't quite have the words I wanted to express, but thankfully, my colleague @jpgoldberg did. Please see comment #14 on this thread.
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