Unable to recover an existing 1Password account
I am an avid user of 1Password 6.8.4 on multiple devices using macOS Sierra (iMac and MacBookPro) and iOS 11 (iPhone and iPad). I currently have been using Dropbox to sync between these devices without a problem. Unfortunately, in an effort to clean up my local disk space usage on my iMac, I recently deleted the folder ~/Library/Application Support/1Password 4. As a result, my iMac now sees no password information in my account. In order to resolve the information, I retrieved the contents of the 1Password 4 folder, excluding a some of the files in the Backups sub-folder in order to save space. I then restarted 1Password 6 on my iMac but none of my password items in my vault have been restored.
Please advise ASAP how to resolve this problem. Need I be concerned that the Dropbox syncing on my other devices that share the 1Password vault will also be impacted and lose access to the passwords?
It would be very helpful to understand the distinction between the information stored in the 1Password.agilekeychain file shared via Dropbox and the contents of the 1Password4 folder. What is stored in the Backups folder and why are the backups so large? Is it safe for me to manually prune the Backups folder to only keep periodic backups, e.g. once per year (long ago) and once per month (more recent)?
Thanks,
Bob
1Password Version: 6.8.4
_Extension Version: Not Provided
_OS Version: macOS 10.12.6
_Sync Type: Dropbox
Comments
-
@MacTwoWheels - Oh, no! I'm sorry to hear you're running into this issue.
~/Library/Application Support/1Password 4is the folder which contains all of your 1Password data if you use 1Password for Mac from us (instead of the App Store version which stores data elsewhere). Unfortunately, that means you've deleted your entire data store, including backups.I'm glad to hear you had either Time Machine or some other form of backup for that folder, but if you were syncing all your vaults via Dropbox, that may not even be necessary. What you did is delete your actual local store (the sqlite) database of your data, but the .agilekeychain or .opvault files in your Dropbox folder should remain untouched. So, lock 1Password for Mac on the affected Mac by clicking the lock icon at the top right of the main 1Password window, then go back to your Application Support folder and re-delete the 1Password 4 folder you restored from backup. For good measure, click Help > Troubleshooting > Reset all 1Password data. This will erase everything and put you back in "new user" mode so that the next time you start 1Password, you'll be presented with the Welcome screen.
From the Welcome screen, choose Dropbox, then find and select your 1Password.agilekeychain (or 1Password.opvault) file. Enter your Master Password to unlock and 1Password will "bootstrap" your (new) Primary vault from the Dropbox data. Let it complete a sync, and then do the same with any secondary vaults by opening your Dropbox folder on your Mac and double-clicking them. You'll be required to provide the vault password for each additional vault, but this should result in a fresh copy of your existing data. Let us know how you get on!
0 -
@MacTwoWheels -- sorry, just realized I didn't actually answer your question, I was so focused on solving the problem of your data restoration.
Sync via Dropbox is a three-legged affair. We don't actually sync directly from the internal 1Password for Mac sqlite database to Dropbox itself. Dropbox's sync magic is predicated on the Dropbox folder. Stuff you put in there (all stuff, not just 1Password data) gets synced by the Dropbox engine with its clone on the Dropbox server, so the same can be done on multiple devices. We have no control over (and not that much insight into) that. We just use their API.
In 1Password, you have the internal sqlite database. When you select Dropbox as your sync method, 1Password writes out an Agile Keychain or (more recently) OPVault sync keychain into the location you specify within your Dropbox folder. So, 1Password for Mac is actually syncing to a folder -- and then Dropbox is syncing from that folder to your account on dropbox.com. Make sense? That's why your real local data is in
~/Library/Application Support/1Password 4/, but you still have the .agilekeychain or .opvault in Dropbox.So: 1Password for Mac ==> Sync keychain in local Dropbox folder on your Mac ==> Sync keychain on dropbox.com (and then out to other devices, which do the same thing).
Regarding backups, you CAN manually delete them, and 1Password will adjust. Left to its own devices, 1Password makes about 50 copies and there's a reason for it -- you sometimes have data corruption or make a mistake and merge things unintentionally or any of a number of other issues for which data restoration is necessary...and having just one backup from each month is less than acceptable for many users who use 1Password all day, every day. With hard drive space being, in general, cheaper and cheaper every year, it's a small price to pay (both literally and in terms of disk-space consumed) to keep that many backups of data that's as important as what most users store in 1Password. You're welcome to "prune" this if you like, but in general I wouldn't advise it. Most often, you'd never need or even notice it. But that one tie you do...and it's not available? That's a decision only you can make.
0 -
Lars - thanks for your feedback. I tried following your recommendations regarding how to restore the 1Password vault on my iMac, but have run into some difficulty. I manually deleted the 1Password 4 folder under ~/Library/Application Support/. I then opened the 1Password app and confirmed the lock in the upper right corner was already locked. The menu item "Help > Troubleshooting > Reset all 1Password data" is dimmed out, i.e. not available for selection. 1Password 6 does not show a "Welcome Screen", but does show All Items to be empty. Under the 1Password 6 menu, I selected preferences and then Sync. I selected the Primary vault and specified to sync it with Dropbox, pointing to the agilekeychain file in my local Dropbox folder. After making this selection, the displayed window indicates that "1Password found existing data in Dropbox. It will be merged with your current vault." I selected "Merge with Existing" and receive an error message that "1Password Sync. Problem detected. Update preferences."
In summary, it does not appear to me that I have achieved "new user" mode as suggested in your directions.
0 -
Lars - I have succeeded in restoring access to my 1Password vault on my iMac. This was apparently made possible by a reboot of my iMac which was not possible earlier today due to the 1 TB duplicate backup in progress by SuperDuper throughout the day. Following an iMac reboot, I restarted 1Password and was now greeted with new user welcome screen and successfully followed the directions that you provided.
My overly zealous approach to cleaning up my disk was based on the large size (3.5GB) of my 1Password 4 folder and my mistaken assumption that 1Password 6 would not be using a folder named 1Password 4. I would like to better understand the explanation in your second posting with the 1:43pm Nov 10 timestamp. What do you mean by "all stuff, not just 1Password data"? Are you syncing more information than found in the contents of my 1Password vault? The large size (3.5GB) of my 1Password 4 folder is primarily due to the large number (393) of files in the Backups folder. Your explanation suggests a limit of 50 backup files which would not be a problem for me. Do you expect and understand why I had 393 files in the Backups folder and the number grew by several more each month? What is the content of each of these .1p4_zip files? Is each just a snapshot of the 1Password vault contents at the time corresponding to the file name? Does having all of these distinct files in the Backups folder allow me to go back in time and retrieve old or deleted password information? Is there a way for me to safely restore the historical data that has apparently been lost by manually repopulating the Backups folder with some of the old file contents?
If 1Password continues to increase the size of the Backups folder without limit, then I would request there be a recommended way for me to safely prune folder contents, e.g. keeping only one file per year for old file dates, one file per month for more recent file dates, and all files for very recent file dates.
Is it safe for me to delete the ~/Library/Application Support/1Password folder, i.e. not the 1Password 4 folder? This folder requires an additional 1.6GB of space and I'd prefer to remove it if 1Password 6 is no longer using it.
Thanks,
Bob0 -
@MacTwoWheels: Glad to hear Lars was able to help! :)
I would like to better understand the explanation in your second posting with the 1:43pm Nov 10 timestamp. What do you mean by "all stuff, not just 1Password data"? Are you syncing more information than found in the contents of my 1Password vault?
The contents of 1Password's support folder do not sync, only the contents of individual vaults you setup to sync. So, a subset of the data stored there in that folder.
The large size (3.5GB) of my 1Password 4 folder is primarily due to the large number (393) of files in the Backups folder. Your explanation suggests a limit of 50 backup files which would not be a problem for me. Do you expect and understand why I had 393 files in the Backups folder and the number grew by several more each month? What is the content of each of these .1p4_zip files? Is each just a snapshot of the 1Password vault contents at the time corresponding to the file name?
Essentially yes. A .1p4_zip file is an archive of all of the vaults in 1Password at that time, so that you can restore all of your data if needed. 1Password by default keeps daily backups (only made if you make changes on a given day though) for a month, and then monthly backups. It will automatically prune these over time. However, it will not delete files it has no record of creating, so you could end up with more over time if you'd moved to a new computer, changed settings, or removed files. I'd say at least keep backups going back a month, but it's up to you. What we don't want is for 1Password to be keeping too few backups, or to delete things unless there's good reason.
Does having all of these distinct files in the Backups folder allow me to go back in time and retrieve old or deleted password information? Is there a way for me to safely restore the historical data that has apparently been lost by manually repopulating the Backups folder with some of the old file contents?
If you restore from one of those backups, 1Password's data will be just as it was at the date/time when the backup was created. This will disable sync though, to avoid mishaps if you restore from the wrong backup by mistake, so be aware that you'll need to configure that again.
If 1Password continues to increase the size of the Backups folder without limit, then I would request there be a recommended way for me to safely prune folder contents, e.g. keeping only one file per year for old file dates, one file per month for more recent file dates, and all files for very recent file dates.
It's really up to you. If you have known-good backups saved offsite, you may not need 1Password's. But that's not something we can assume.
Is it safe for me to delete the ~/Library/Application Support/1Password folder, i.e. not the 1Password 4 folder? This folder requires an additional 1.6GB of space and I'd prefer to remove it if 1Password 6 is no longer using it.
Correct. If you have everything you need in 1Password currently, this is stored in the
1Password 4folder. The1Passwordfolder is only used by 1Password 3, so if you're no longer using that it is not needed.I hope this helps. Be sure to let me know if you have any other questions! :)
0
