Importing into a folder

Yuri Niyazov

A while ago, I (with 1Password 3) imported an export of passwords from work, and I created a separate folder for them. That went successfully.

Recently, I upgraded to 1Password 4, and then I wanted to import an updated export of passwords from work. I dragged the export of passwords into the main window (All Items) rather than the separate folder. t work (a .1pif file) into the open 1Password window; I was expecting that it would ask me whether I wanted to create a new folder or use an existing one. Instead, it just kept all the passwords in that export that already existed in their existing work folder, but added all the new passwords to "All Items", and not to the separate work folder was created. At this point, If I create a new folder and drag the 1pif file into that folder (or try the "Import" in the menu) nothing happens, because all the items are already imported.

How do I get all the items in the export 1pif file to be in a separate folder, given that they are already in my vault, without going through them one by one (I have hundreds of personal items and hundreds of work items)

Thanks!

sjk

Hi Yuri,

I'm sorry that your imported 1Password items from work didn't end up in a folder where you wanted them to be.

As its name implies, the built-in All Items folder contains all of the items in the current vault, When items are added to and removed from folders, they remain in All Items and their specific categories. It's similar to adding and removing media to and from iTunes playlists; it'll still be in its corresponding library. One difference with that comparison is 1Password items can be in (at most) one folder at a time, while iTunes tracks can be in multiple playlists.

… I upgraded to 1Password 4, and then I wanted to import an updated export of passwords from work.

Which version of 1Password were those items from work exported with, were some (or all) of them in any folder(s), and did you do an "all" or "selected" item export?

And before importing those items into 1Password 4, were older copies of some (or all) of them in a "work" folder in 1Password 4?

I dragged the export of passwords into the main window (All Items) rather than the separate folder.

It's not currently possible to import items into a specific folder by dragging an exported 1PIF file there. I've added some notes about that to an open report in our bug/request tracker.

t work (a .1pif file) into the open 1Password window; Instead, it just kept all the passwords in that export that already existed in their existing work folder, but added all the new passwords to "All Items", and not to the separate work folder was created.

I'm not sure I fully understand, but that's okay for now.

If you look at imported items that overwrote existing items you might notice some of them are no longer in the "work" folder, but all of them will be in All Items.

At this point, If I create a new folder and drag the 1pif file into that folder (or try the "Import" in the menu) nothing happens, because all the items are already imported.

That makes sense. When imported items haven't been modified in the database then reimporting them won't make any changes.

How do I get all the items in the export 1pif file to be in a separate folder, given that they are already in my vault, without going through them one by one (I have hundreds of personal items and hundreds of work items)

It's possible to select and drag multiple items from the list area into a folder displayed in the sidebar.

If that would be too much trouble, I have other ideas to help you get the items where they belong. Answers to previous questions will fill in more details so it'll be clearer what to suggest. Also, would you be able to restore a backup of your 1Password data to as it was before you did the importing? That would simply things.

Thanks for your patience while we get this resolved.

ref: OPM-2334

Yuri Niyazov

Sorry, I haven't followed up on this because things got really busy. I'd like to pick this thread up just so that I know what to do next.

I understand that "All Items" includes everything. My issue isn't that these items are appearing in "All Items", my issue is that these items are appearing only in "All Items", and not in a "Imported/Work" folder.

I am not sure whether this was clear or not from my original post, but: the import of "work" stuff happened twice. Once, it happened 6 months ago with 1Password 3, and that worked just fine: it asked me whether I wanted to import things into a separate folder, and I said yes, and I had an "Imported/Work" folder created. Let's call this "Import A".

I have since updated to 1Password 4, and then I imported an updated .PIF of work stuff. I double clicked on it. It just asked me "do you want to import?" and when I said yes, it removed all items from Imported/Work folder, and all the new items that it just imported now appear in "All Items", not in any separate folder. Let's call this "Import B". I am not sure what version of 1Password the new, updated .PIF was created with; I presume it was 1P4 (the guy responsible for generating the export is pretty good about updating his software) but I can't be 100% certain

I do have a backup from October 1, from before "Import B" occurred. I just redid "Import B"; it is worth noting that both double-clicking work.1pif and going to File-Import and then selecting work.1pif produces the same results: the items are imported and go into "All Items" only, without a prompt for a specific folder. This is the part that bugs my most about this: I am sure that in 1Password 3, when I tried importing work.1pif, it asked me whether to put all these items into a separate folder. Is that feature no longer in 1Password 4?

While I do have a backup from Oct 1 and am able to reproduce the issue (so presumably, with a set of different instructions from you I can get the imported items into a different folder in addition to being in "All Items"). However, that's not really good enough anymore because I've had a months' worth of changes to my Vault (primarily to my personal items, rather than work items - maybe that would make things simpler) and I can't simply rollback to an earlier backup. What I need at this point is something that does one of these two things:

Potential Solution 1:

1. Create a new vault by rolling back to backup of October 1
2. Apply "work" 1PIF so that items from it go into "Work" folder
3. Take all items in my current vaule that have been updated since October 1, and copy them into this new vault.

Potential Solution 2:

1. Look at all the items that are stored in the work.1PIF, even though they've already been imported to the current vault
2. Move each item in the current vault that corresponds to an item in work.1PIF into a folder of my choosing.

Thanks for your help.

littlebobbytables

Hi @Yuri Niyazov‌

1Password 4 was a complete re-write, they threw away the codebase for 1Password 3 and started from scratch so that probably explains the change in behaviour you've observed. It was a while back but I think they did mention certain functionality wouldn't be present etc.

I think we can do potential solution 1 though.

Before doing anything I suggest though this is where you want to go and force a backup of your current setup. Go into 1Password's preferences, change to the Backup tab and click Backup Now. Then, to keep yourself straight use the Show Files button and copy that latest backup file to your desktop. That way you know where an exact copy of all your vaults at this precise moment is.

I'm going to assume that in this list, work-related items are in the minority. If I'm wrong simply swap wherever I say work and personal around.

1. Use the keyboard shortcut ⌃⌥⌘F or the drop down menu Edit > Find > Show Search Options and use the following search criteria Date modified is greater than 01/10/2014 (I'm in the UK so it uses the UK date format, adjust accordingly). This will result in a list of all items created or modified after that date.
2. Select everything in this list, you can use ⌘A to do this and then deselect all the work related ones by clicking on each whilst holding the ⌘ key.
3. The selected items represent all personal items modified since 01 Oct 14. Go to File > Export > Selected Items (you'll me asked for your Master Password) and save the file to your desktop with a meaningful name in the .1pif format.
4. Select any work-related item from that list and add to the select by clicking each one in turn, again whilst holding down the ⌘ key until the selection contains all work-related items.
5. The selected items represent all work-related items modified since 01 Oct 14. Go to File > Export > Selected Items (you'll me asked for your Master Password) and save the file to your desktop with a meaningful name in the .1pif format.

At this point you should have two .1pif files, one for work, one for personal, for all modifications made since the last 'good' backup.

6. Enter 1Password > Preferences... > Backup tab, select the backup file you wish to restore and click on Restore.
7. Import your personal.1pif file from your desktop into your primary vault.
8. Create a secondary vault for your work items and switch to it.
9. First import the export file from 01 Oct 14, then import the modified work.1pif file on your desktop.

This won't account for any deletes I'm afraid but hopefully that gets you close enough.

If you have any questions feel free to post here and we'll help you out.