Feature request: enable alerting if sync becomes disabled for any reason

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semblance
semblance
Community Member
edited August 2014 in Mac

Today I noticed — not for the first time — that Dropbox syncing had silently become disabled.

There was no alert, no warning, nothing; I have no idea how long sync had been disabled for.

This is a problem, because if sync is disabled for a long time then:

  • it increases the risk of conflicts occurring, especially during the more complex merge process that needs to occur when you re-enable syncing
  • if you're relying on the cloud sync file as one of your backups (one of many, hopefully), then the integrity of your backups is compromised with stale data

Alas, it appears to be the case that making sync a "permanent" option is just not possible; I get the distinct impression that there are various complex technical reasons why a previously working sync setting can spontaneously become disabled.

That being the case, it would be great if there was an option in the Preferences to Display alert if syncing becomes disabled for this vault.

Once enabled, it should be made very obvious as soon as sync becomes disabled for any reason (although an explanation would obviously be in order if you click on the alert).

Maybe something along these lines...

Comments

  • Megan
    Megan
    1Password Alumni
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    Hi @semblance,

    Thanks (as always) for taking the time to write such a detailed report here. I'm curious, do you have 1Password notifications disabled in Notification Centre? Since version 4.2, 1Password will pop up in Notification Centre with an error message whenever sync is disconnected.

    I completely agree with your thoughts here, and I'll pass your feedback along to our developers - perhaps the notification needs to be a bit more obvious. Including it in the app itself doesn't sound like a bad idea.

    ref: CSI-11

  • semblance
    semblance
    Community Member
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    Hi @Megan, if I look in System Preferences > Notifications, it says that "1Password mini" is in Notification Center.

    But I never saw a pop-up though.

    Anyway thanks for your response and passing on my suggestion to the developers.

  • Megan
    Megan
    1Password Alumni
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    Hi @semblance,

    Thanks so much for checking that for me. Please keep an eye on things. You definitely should have seen a notification then when sync became disconnected. If the notification isn't behaving as it should we'll need to investigate.

  • semblance
    semblance
    Community Member
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    Hi @Megan, i just noticed that syncing has become disabled again, and I did not receive any notification in Notification Center.

    Any diagnostics I can do before I manually re-enable syncing?

    Also — just a thought — if different user than me was logged in to OS X at the time when syncing stopped, would they see the notification instead?

  • Megan
    Megan
    1Password Alumni
    edited August 2014
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    Hi @semblance,

    I'm not quite sure if the notification would show up in a separate user account - would that separate user have 1Password installed there as well? In any case, we'll need to take a closer look at your system here to determine where things are getting tangled up.

    I'd like to ask you to create a Diagnostics Report from your Mac:
    Generating a diagnostics report

    Then attach the entire file to an email to us: support@agilebits.com

    Please do not post your Diagnostics Report in the forums, but please do include a link to this thread in your email, along with your forum handle so that we can "connect the dots" when we see your Diagnostics Report in our inbox.

    A short note here once you've sent the Report in will help us to keep an eye out for it. :)

    Once we see the report we should be able to better assist you. Thanks in advance!

  • semblance
    semblance
    Community Member
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    Hi @Megan,

    I've sent the diagnostic report, details below.

    Yes the separate user does have 1Password installed. However she is non-technical so would not understand the notification message if it did appear.

    There are 3 vaults altogether:

    • My primary and archive vaults, which are synced via Dropbox between my Mac, iPad and iPhone. They're only used by me.
    • The primary vault belonging the other OS X user. This is set up to sync, again via Dropbox, so that it shows up as a secondary vault in my 1Password.

    When the problem occurs, syncing spontaneously becomes switched off for all 3 vaults in my 1Password, but remains enabled in the other OS X user's single vault in her 1Password.

    Re-enabling syncing for all 3 vaults in my 1Password is a bit of pain, because I have to type in very long passwords which I don't normally use (at least, I do for the 2 secondary vaults — I just type in my master password to re-enable my primary vault).

    Regarding the diagnostic report: the link you provided contains a link "Download the report generator" which is currently generating a Page Not Found. Luckily I had a copy of 1Password4Troubleshooting.app from November 2013, so I used that to generate the report — hope it's not too out-of-date.

    Let me know what you find! Thanks.

  • sjk
    sjk
    1Password Alumni
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    Hi @semblance,

    We've received your email with the Diagnostics Report. Thanks for sending that in, and the detailed followup here. We'll receive the report and get back with you as soon as possible.

    Sorry about the trouble with that Download the report generator link; @Megan's post now refers to a different page with a working link.

    ref: KTR-11631-332

This discussion has been closed.