Sorting out sync problem

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benfdc
benfdc
Community Member

I'm having a recurrence of a problem I run into every so often—1Password on my iPhone has begun syncing to a different Dropbox account than 1Password on my Macs. I make additions and changes to each keychain, so the two are increasingly diverging. This is a real problem now that Heartbleed is forcing me to change many passwords.

If I could sort my iPhone keychain by modification date, I could spot when the divergence began and export the newest stuff. But I don't see a way to do this.

How would you recommend merging these two keychains without losing any data?

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  • benfdc
    benfdc
    Community Member
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    Solved this one myself:

    1. Synced the Dropbox account containing my iPhone's keychain to the Guest user account on my Mac.
    2. Used 1P/Mac to sort the keychain by modification date.
    3. Compared result with my 1Password keychain in my standard user account to pinpoint the date when sync was lost.
    4. Exported from 1Password in my Guest account to a 1PIF in ~/Public all entries with a modification date newer than the date when sync was lost.
    5. Switched to my standard user account and imported said 1PIF into 1Password.
    6. Switched back to the Guest account and securely deleted the 1PIF.
    7. Unlinked Dropbox in the Guest user account.
    8. Logged out of the Guest user account.
    9. Wiped the 1Password keychain on my iPhone, and then synced 1P/iOS to the correct Dropbox account.
  • Megan
    Megan
    1Password Alumni
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    Hi @benfdc‌

    I'm so glad to hear you managed to get things sorted out, although I do apologize that we weren't able to get to you in time to be of any assistance. For future reference, simply re-setting sync should merge the two keychains. Provided that you haven't made different changes to the same entries on both devices, this should be a relatively smooth process. If you notice this again, you could try this:

    • On your iOS devices, open 1Password 4 for iOS, tap Settings > Sync, and toggle Dropbox to OFF.

    • On the Mac, open 1Password 4 for Mac, and click the 1Password menu, then Preferences. Click Sync, and click Change syncing.

    • Check the box to remove the data from Dropbox and confirm that you want to disable sync.

    • Restart the Mac and iOS devices.

    • Check your Dropbox folder and delete any other 1Password folders or files that the remove data checkbox did not take care of.

    • Ensure that you are signed in to the same Dropbox account on all computers and devices.

    • On the Mac, go back to the Sync preferences, and click Dropbox. Click Choose vault, then navigate to your Dropbox folder and select Open. This will regenerate a 1Password folder in Dropbox, and that will contain a new 1Password.agilekeychain file.

    • Allow Dropbox to fully sync.

    • Go back into the iOS app and re-enable Dropbox sync. That should get everything on the same page for sure.

  • benfdc
    benfdc
    Community Member
    edited April 2014
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    @Megan—

    Thanks for the info.

    The instruction that is confusing (and troubling) me is “Ensure that you are signed in to the same Dropbox account on all computers and devices.”

    Not all of my iPhone apps sync to the same Dropbox account. My understanding is that iOS apps are sandboxed from one another, and that I do not even need to have the Dropbox iOS app installed on my iPhone in order to be able to sync my 1Password keychain. I don't understand how 1Password on my iPhone learns about Dropbox accounts other than the one that I set it up to sync to.

    This strikes me as a security issue. Nothing I do on my iPhone outside of the 1Password app should have any effect whatsoever on 1Password's sync destination. Right?????!!!!

    If there is some interaction here to be worried about, and if deleting the Dropbox app from my iPhone would put an end to it, then I will delete the app. But I also would like to get a clear understanding of the phenomenon.

    —Ben F

    cc: @jpgoldberg‌

  • Megan
    Megan
    1Password Alumni
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    Hi @benfdc‌

    My apologies. My language there was unclear. If you do have multiple Dropbox accounts, I simply meant that it is important to check that the account that the iOS app is using to sync is the same as the account your Macs are using. Otherwise you'll end up with multiple keychains and no sync. :)

  • benfdc
    benfdc
    Community Member
    edited April 2014
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    I did indeed wind up with multiple keychains. I cannot conceive that I would have told 1Password on my iPhone to sync to the secondary account that it was syncing to; I believe that the switch was spontaneous and occurred without warning. However, the Dropbox app probably was sinking to that secondary account. For what it's worth, the timing of the broken sync strongly suggests that it may have happened when I installed the iOS 7.0.6 update.

  • Megan
    Megan
    1Password Alumni
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    Hi @‌benfdc,

    Again, I'm sorry for the trouble. Does this mean that you have things nicely straightened out now? Or can I be of any further assistance here? :)

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