Feature Request: Search in Archives

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mfisher911
mfisher911
Community Member

When I intentionally choose the Archive folder in 1Password, I would like the search bar to perform a search that is scoped to within the Archive folder.

I appreciate that the Archive folder should not be searchable from any other views/contexts. However, it would be very helpful if there was some mechanism to permit searching.

Thank you.


1Password Version: 8.9.11 (80911019)
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: macOS 13.2 (a)
Browser:_ Not Provided
Referrer: forum-search:Feature Request: Search in Archives

Comments

  • Hi @mfisher911,

    Thanks for letting us know this is something you'd like to see in 1Password 8, I've added you to our open feature request on the topic. No promises, but if you're keen on seeing what changes are upcoming, I recommend the 1Password for Mac Beta Release Notes.

    Let me know if you have any questions or additional feedback. ๐Ÿ™‚

    ref: IDEA-I-929

  • mfisher911
    mfisher911
    Community Member
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    Thanks, @andrew.l_1P !

  • Happy to help! ๐Ÿ˜Š

  • mopperle
    mopperle
    Community Member
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    Would also like to see an option to enable/disable (default) search in the archive

  • Hi @mopperle,

    To confirm, something like a toggle so the default search in the 1Password app includes the archive when searching all items? I'd be interested to know more about your use case and how you use the archive if you're open to sharing, but I'll add this note to the tracker I mentioned earlier in the meantime.

    Thanks for the feedback!

  • mopperle
    mopperle
    Community Member
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    Hi Andrew, thanks for your interest.
    About my use case: I have several hundred datasets (accounts, secure notes etc) stored. About 20-30% are datasets I would like to archive. Some of them are not needed anymore, but need to be stored for 2-3 years. After that time they will be deleted. Others are โ€žsleepingโ€œ and might be revoked one day or also deleted.
    I tried to tag them, but that means that they are always visible. As they are not used for a long time, you often forget them, especially the sleeping datasets, which are in 90% accounts for websites. Before I open on such a website a new account erroneously, I would search for it in my datasets and therefore including the archive optional would be helpfull.

  • @mopperle

    Thanks for the information here โ€“ย we'll pass that on to the product team. In the meantime, from what you describe, could I suggest something to try? Instead of Archiving those items which are "sleeping", move them to a new vault which is just for those items. Then, create a Collection which doesn't include that vault.

    โ˜ž Use collections to create custom groups of vaults

    Use that collection so that you only see the vaults with items that aren't "sleeping". When you do need to access one of those items, switch to that vault and you'll be able to search it.

    If that works for you, then you'll be able to make that use case work today, rather than waiting for a new feature. Give it a try and let me know how you get on. I'll be here if you need further help. :)

  • DerekErb
    DerekErb
    Community Member
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    I can see from another thread here that this subject has been discussed, and put on the feature request list, since at least August 2021.

    I, like many others here, absolutely need to be able to use this feature.

    I have recently come over from LastPass and brought all of my clients with me. I manage hundreds of data items for each client adding up to thousands of items. One of the arguments I used in our choice of 1Password, following our product comparisons, was the Archive functionality which would allow us to be able to move expired or replaced accounts elsewhere without having to export or delete them. I, unfortunately, did not go as far as to verify whether or not searching archived items was possible or apparently impossible as I didn't even imagine the possibility of an Archive system being created without search functionality.

    The Archive vault rapidly becomes useless when it cannot be searched. Having to scroll through hundreds of entries to see if an item is in the vault, or not, in order to be able to find expired or replaced data items is already time consuming and frustrating. But not being able to search within those items to find particular terms in the Notes fields or elsewhere makes the Archive functionality useless.

    I have gone so far as to create a vault "TEMP Archive" in to which I manually move all of the items from my Archive so I can search within that vault and then I manually re-archive them.

    The ability to search the Archive vault, either individually by going in to the Archive vault and searching or, preferably, by using a toggle switch when searching (turned off by default) to search All Items and Archived Items together should be placed very high in the feature request list as quickly as possible.

    Thank you for your consideration.

  • Hi @DerekErb,

    Welcome to the 1Password Support Community and thanks for sharing your insight on this topic! I see your point and will share your experience here with our Product team.

    In the meantime, I recommend exploring collections: Use collections to create custom groups of vaults

    Using your current workaround, you could keep your "archived" items in a separate vault and use a collection to create a view exclusive to or excluding that particular vault. Depending on your needs, it may even be worthwhile to have multiple vaults for this purpose and store them under a larger archive collection.

    Let me know if you give that a try and thanks again for your feedback. ๐Ÿ™‚

    ref: PB-30925971

  • SeaMonster
    SeaMonster
    Community Member
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    Hi, I'd like to voice another vote for this. Having an archive is great. But having no way to search that archive, simply makes it a black hole. As such, it is really no better than simply deleting items. When you have a dozen archive items, then sure, your "archive" feature works. But if you have 100 (or more), then it serves no purpose other than hiding (effectively deleting) items.

    I think of it this way. If I know I am never going to use an item again, then I will delete it. But there are other items that I really don't need now, and maybe I'll never need them, BUT I need to know that I can find them if I have to. That is what an archive is for. The fundamental key to an archive is being able to find things!!!

    Another improvement to archive functionality: I try hard to tag my items intelligently to help me organize. If I look at items in the archive, I see that the tags remain. But there is no way to display them organized by tag. It would be nice to see the archive organized by tag.

    I tried out the "collections" suggestion. It is better than your existing archive functionality. It is a way to get searching AND tags. But it is less seamless than I would like. I created an "Archive" vault and moved my archive items there. Then I created a "Default" collection that doesn't include the Archive vault and an Archive collection that only contains the Archive vault. This works well for normally hiding archive items while still giving me a way to search and view them organized. Maybe 1pw should consider implementing "archive" as nothing more than a special collection. So when I archive an item, it simply moves it to a special vault, and that vault is not searched or seen unless I specifically ask for it.

    Thanks

    Dave

  • SeaMonster
    SeaMonster
    Community Member
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    P.S. A question about collections: (I'm still new to 1pw.) If I archive something using your archive feature, I assume that auto-fill on Android and Chrome (and everywhere else) will not suggest those items. But what about items I put in a different vault? If I am viewing the vaults using the 1pw app, the collections can work for letting me isolate my "Archive" vault. But what about auto-fill? Will it use all of my vaults? Or can I tell it to only use the vaults in a collection?

    If it uses all vaults, then using collections to create an archive is NOT a solution.

  • Hi @SeaMonster,

    Thanks for your insight! I think you make a good point about how we think about archived items compared to deleted items, I'll share your feedback with our Product team.

    Regarding the workaround and collections in general, the pool of items from which autofill will search varies depending on where you're using it, but in all cases you can customize this. On Android for example, if you tap on your account/collection icon in the top right > Settings > Autofill > Show filling suggestions from, you can choose an account or collection.

    Collections aren't yet available in the browser extensions, but you can still choose which vaults are used for autofill by right-clicking the 1Password icon in your browser > Settings > Accounts & Vaults, and unchecking any you don't want included.

    Let me know if you give these a try or have any questions and thanks again for sharing your feedback. ๐Ÿ™‚

    ref: PB-30985868

  • uhuhleuh
    uhuhleuh
    Community Member
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    Any chance we'll see this feature anytime soon in the roadmap? Don't overcomplicate: when archive is selected in the left menu (main app, in my case "1Password for Mac 8.10.4") and a search in performed, it should automatically include (or restrict, whatever) the search scope to archived items. Intuitive and no need to change UI whatsoever! Please!

  • Dave_1P
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    @uhuhleuh

    Have you tried using the Find tool to search the Archive? Try these steps:

    1. Open and unlock 1Password for Mac.
    2. Open the Archive.
    3. Click Edit > Find.
    4. Type in your search term in the Find field at the top of the item list (not the Search field at the top of the app).

    Let me know if that produces the results that you'd like to see. ๐Ÿ™‚

    -Dave

  • uhuhleuh
    uhuhleuh
    Community Member
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    Find does work, thank you. Still, it doesn't make any sense to me ("average user") to have both "Search" and "Find", with different behaviors.

  • Dave_1P
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    @uhuhleuh

    The Search field includes items, tags, categories, and vaults from the selected account or collection while the Find field searches only the current list whether that's a specific vault, a tag, or even the Archive. You can use shortcuts to engage the appropriate tool when needed:

    • Search: Command-F
    • Find: Option-Command-F

    We plan to further iterate and improve the search tools that are available in 1Password and I've passed along your feedback to the team. ๐Ÿ™‚

    -Dave

    ref: PB-32856680

  • Arnoud
    Arnoud
    Community Member
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    I'd like to express my support for the requests in this thread for improving the Archive feature as well.

    The workarounds proposed by 1Password aren't really solving the issue:

    • By bypassing the Archive functionality and replicating it, in a way, by creating Archive vaults, two issues are created: 1) The archived items will then still be showing up in the Safari extension because it doesn't support Collections. 2) It clutters the list of vaults.
    • Watchtower will still report on archived items (unless you pick the right filtered view), while it's useless to update them.
    • Find only searches in Titles, which is very limited and, for me personally, not enough to find back items in the Archive.

    I'm hoping this issue has found its way to the top of the backlog by now, as it's been reported multiple times since the betas. Looking forward to any improvements in this area!

  • ag_tommy
    edited May 2023
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    @Arnoud

    I'm not sure where the request stands. I'd be happy to let the team know you are interested in these to further refine the archive search/abilities.

    ref: PB-32936962

This discussion has been closed.