1PasswordAnywhere on a USB drive not working...
Recently a blogger by the name of Kevin Yank wrote about using an Orbitkey USB drive and 1PasswordAnywhere to solve the "worst case scenario" of needing to access his 1Password data in a situation when he didn't have access to his phone or his computer (where 1Password is installed), but also did not have access to DropBox.
His example: He's helping to fix a friend's computer and he needs a license key that is stored in 1Password to a disk repair utility. The problem is that he doesn't have his computer to access 1Password, and his phone battery is dead. So, normally he can just hop onto DropBox to access his data using 1PasswordAnywhere, but OH NO!, he doesn't remember his DropBox password. He only remembers his 1Password master password.
His solution to this problem is to put his 1Password data onto a USB drive (in his example, the Orbitkey) which he always has with him on his keychain. In this situation, he can just pop that USB drive into his friends computer, first up a browser and access his data using 1PasswordAnywhere, just like he would if he was able to log into DropBox.
His blog post can be read here: http://kevinyank.com/posts/orbitkey-1password-hazel-love.
It seemed like a brilliant and fantastic idea, and apparently the folks at AgileBits agree with my analysis, because they retweeted his blog post on their Twitter account. That's how I found his blog post in the first place.
So, being very excited by this, I went right out and bought myself a USB drive (I personally opted for a Lacie Petite Key) and set it all up just like Kevin Yank's blog post--retweeted by Agile Bits--explained.
The only problem?! It doesn't work!
I'm hoping someone can help with this.
There are many, many posts on this forum discussing the error that people have been receiving when trying to access their 1Password data using 1PasswordAnywhere. Apparently DropBox changed something and it broke 1PasswordAnywhere.
People would get this error when they tried to access their "1password.html" file via DropBox:
"Problem loading 1Password data file. A key data file could not be loaded and 1PasswordAnywhere cannot continue without it."
The error message goes on to suggest reading a help guide, which hasn't done a thing to help me fix this problem.
In reading the forum posts, I understand that Agile Bits worked with DropBox to repair this problem, and as of May 1, they did indeed repair this issue and 1PasswordAnywhere now works through DropBox.
But it still does not work when you try to access the .html file locally, not using DropBox! Whenever I put my "1password.html" file onto, say my desktop or--as Kevin Yank's blog post describes--onto my Lacie USB key, I get the exact same error message as shown above.
The one any only solution to this that I have found is to turn on Safari's "Develop" mode and under the "Develop" menu, put a checkmark beside "Disable local file restrictions".
But this doesn't work in Chrome, and I imagine if I try this on a Window's PC, I'll run into the same problem there too.
I have no idea how Kevin Yank is making this work, but if I am doing something wrong, I would really, really appreciate some help with this.
Thank you in advance.
Kirk
UPDATE: Now, for whatever reason, the Safari trick isn't even working. As described above, I enabled the "Disable Local File Restrictions" option on the "Develop" menu in Safari. After doing so, I was able to bring up my "1password.html" file (which was on my local hard drive) one time without a problem. Now it seems to be broken. Nothing has changed, yet when I try to do the same thing, I am now--once again--getting that pesky error message.
GRRRR!!!
Comments
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I'm so sorry to hear that you've been having trouble accessing 1PasswordAnywhere. Please have a read-through of our support article: 1PasswordAnywhere: Local File Restrictions. This should explain the situation a bit better. The 'Develop' menu in Safari is required due to increased security precautions put into place by browsers.
We've done some testing here and things seem to be working as expected. If you are still seeing problems, we'll need to take a closer look at your system here to determine where things are getting tangled up. Could you please send us a Diagnostics Report?
http://learn2.agilebits.com/1Password4/diagnostic-report.html
(Please be sure to select the tab that corresponds to the version of 1Password you have installed currently)
Then attach the entire file to an email to us: support+forum@ 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!
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Hi @kriknosretep,
In addition to emailing a Diagnostics Report, like @Megan suggested, can you also run this command in a Terminal window (without Chrome already running) and let us know the result?
open -a 'Google Chrome' --args --allow-file-access-from-files /Volumes/Untitled/Demo.agilekeychain/1Password.htmlReplace /Volumes/Untitled/Demo.agilekeychain with the location of your Agile Keychain.
I'm able to successfully use 1PasswordAnywhere in Chrome that way. In my example, Demo.agilekeychain is on a HFS-formatted USB key.
Thanks!
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Kirk,
Did I guess your name correctly? Here is a perhaps unhelpful comment from a new 1Password user - purely an amateur.
I have seen all the comments about 1PasswordAnywhere on this forum, including the suggestions about using Dropbox and the discussion of problems with local file restrictions on browsers. I would never use Dropbox since I am only using 1Password in the first place to keep my saved passwords completely off the internet. I stopped using Dropbox for anything confidential after it was wide open for several hours one weekend, with no passwords required for account access.
I am barely computer savvy enough to use 1Password4 on my own Macs, syncing across my home wifi network. I figure I could never figure out how to use 1PasswordAnywhere on a strange computer/browser while away from home, so I explored 1Password's File - Export facility. I found it is very easy to export all of my logins, or just the few I might need on new computer away from home, in a .csv format that opens in Excel. I can then save the file to a USB as password protected Excel or PDF file.
Usually when I am away from home I have my own Mac Air with me. I figure I would need to use a "foreign" computer so infrequently that I can get by with a secure list of my logins on a USB. I can type them into login pages myself.
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Thanks for sharing your solution! I'm glad to hear that you at least have a password protecting that Excel file ... otherwise I would have been a bit worried. :) Of course I still feel the need to caution you about storing your passwords on a portable device when they're not locked safely behind 1Password's encryption and your nice strong Master Password, but it sounds like you've been around our forum a fair bit and likely already know the risks.
If there's anything else you need to savvy up your 1Password experience, please let us know - we're here to help!
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Megan,
Good point!
I just wanted to get my idea out there. In fact, I have never actually taken a USB stick with my password file on the road with me since I always have 1P4 on my Mac Air.
If a specific situation arose where I could only take a USB with me I would probably put my important files in a TrueCrypt container, which is how I transfer confidential files on Dropbox after its weekend "open door" experience. Please don't tell me you have stopped usingTrueCrypt now that they are no longer supporting it!
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I'll be honest with you, I actually haven't used TrueCrypt before ... and reading that they are now no longer supporting it would make me think twice about using it now. ;)
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Hi Megan and SJK.
Sorry for the delay in responding.
I will reply more later this evening and will try your suggestion, SJK.
Thank you.
Kirk
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Sounds good, Kirk. Looking forward to hearing how that works for you, hopefully successfully. :)
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Hi again, SJK and Megan.
First off, SJK:
I did what you asked and I was given a file not found error.
This is precisely what I typed into Terminal: open -a 'Google Chrome' --args --allow-file-access-from-files /MYPETITEKEY/1Password/MyVaults/AutoMasters.agilekeychain/1Password.html
Now on my actual USB key, I have spaces between "myvaults" and "automasters", but I renamed those folders to take out the spaces before running this test, so there's no reason that I can see that the HTML file wouldn't have been found.
Regardless, that's the error I received.
I've attached a screen shot of my Google Chrome screen.
Secondly, Megan:
I think I found the solution to my problem that you addressed. Tell me if you think I'm right and if so, great. If not, I'll go ahead and forward the report you asked for.
What I discovered is that I was receiving this error when I went into Safari itself and tried to open the HTML file using the "Open File..." command. This, of course wasn't working, because I cannot open a "package" in Safari. So, I went to Finder, opened the package there (I am referring to the "1Password.agilekeychain" package) and pulled the HTML file (copied it, really) out and into a regular folder. Then I tried again to open the HTML file in Safari and received the error.
Clearly I was being a moron.
When I realized what I was doing wrong, I simply used Finder instead of Safari, went into the "1Password.agilekeychain" package, clicked twice on the 1Password.html file and it came right up in Safari, no muss, no fuss.
So the net effect is, I solved my own problem. And it was user error.
Having said that, I have a question: the discussion you referred me to dealing with 1PasswordAnywhere in browsers other than Safari says to change Chrome's settings and add the "--allow-file-access-from-files" command line option when launching Chrome.
What it does not do is explain how to do that. For those of us who aren't Terminal wizards and/or have no idea how to add that command line option, this is less than ideal.
So, my question: I know I have to use that command line option. I know I have to edit Chrome's settings to do so.
How?
Kirk
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Hi Kirk ( @kriknosretep ),
Thanks for the detailed followup! Sorry that your 1PasswordAnywhere test with Chrome didn't work. Could you run this command in Terminal and let me know the result?
file /MYPETITEKEY/1Password/MyVaults/AutoMasters.agilekeychain/1Password.htmlIf the file exists and is readable the output should be:
/MYPETITEKEY/1Password/MyVaults/AutoMasters.agilekeychain/1Password.html: HTML document text
Otherwise, it'll probably be:
/MYPETITEKEY/1Password/MyVaults/AutoMasters.agilekeychain/1Password.html: cannot open `/MYPETITEKEY/1Password/MyVaults/AutoMasters.agilekeychain/1Password.html' (No such file or directory)
I get the same message in Chrome that you did, even directly copying/pasting the line from your reply, because the file doesn't exist here:
Embedded spaces wouldn't be the issue since you remove them. Alternatively, you could single-quote the entire pathname, e.g.:
'/MYPETITEKEY/1Password/My Vaults/Auto Masters.agilekeychain/1Password.html'… to easily ensure any whitespace in it wouldn't be troublesome.
Ahh, just realized that /Volumes should probably be prepended to the pathname:
/Volumes/MYPETITEKEY/1Password/MyVaults/AutoMasters.agilekeychain/1Password.html
Giving the
open …command a retry with that might be sufficient for success and there's no reason to run the aforementionedfile …command. :)The way you opened the local 1Password.html file with Safari through Finder and were able to use 1PasswordAnywhere is certainly a GUI-based solution. A command line equivalent would be:
open -a Safari /Volumes/MYPETITEKEY/1Password/MyVaults/AutoMasters.agilekeychain/1Password.html… presuming the file exists.
This extension supposedly has the same behavior (plus a bit more) as adding the
--allow-file-access-from-filesoption to Chrome without launching from the command line:Chrome Web Store - Allow-Control-Allow-Origin: *
But 1PasswordAnywhere still refused to work for me after that was installed/enabled.
Closest I've gotten so far is creating a simple Automator application with this single action:
Saved it as an application to ~/Applications/MyChrome.app (which shows up in Launchpad), opened a 1Password.html file and got the 1PasswordAnywhere interface, then created a bookmark for that. Works well for this purpose, but brief testing with it as the default browser didn't work quite right. Maybe with some adjustment.
I hope at least some of that is useful to you. :)
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