Corrupt iMac 1password. Need to restore using iOS 1password

blneff1

Hello,

Tried to sync my girlfriends two iOS 1pw devices using my wi-fi and it merged her vault with mine with no warning! Now I'm trying to get my OSx 1pw back to its original state which matches my iOS devices w/o also screwing up iOS devices. Tried several solutions on your website but it appears I have both the App store and Agile bits version of 1pw OSx installed. Have also tried restoring using Mac Time Machine! Have a mess... please help!

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_1Password Version:5,4,3
_Extension Version:Not sure where to find.
_OS Version:5.3
_Sync Type:Wi-Fi

littlebobbytables

Hi @blneff1,

Having both the AgileBits Store and Mac App Store versions of 1Password for Mac does complicate matters so we'll want to address that as well.

The first thing we need to do is determine which version performed the merge with your girlfriend's iOS devices.

By the sounds of it you should have two copies of 1Password in your /Applications/ folder.

1. 1Password. This is the Mac App Store version and can be identified by the lack of a version number in the application name.
2. 1Password 5. This is the AgileBits Store version.

Now as they maintain separate vaults you may need to launch each one to determine which version synchronised with your girlfriend's iOS devices. When you find the version that did please keep that one open.

1. With the merged vault open, open 1Password's preferences and switch to the Backup tab.
2. You should see a list of backups with the date on the left hand side and the number of items on the right hand side. The list goes from newest to oldest and so what you should see is a jump in the number of items at the time this all happened.
3. What you want to do is select the backup just prior to this jump, this will be the last backup prior to the merging.
4. With the backup selected, the **Restore ** button will be enabled. Click it and follow the steps as 1Password guides you through restoring this backup.

When you launch 1Password again (it quits as part of the restoration process) you should have your vault from prior to the merging.

The next task is how to handle the two vaults. The vault this is before you should be well known to you. What you want to do is quit both 1Password and 1Password mini using the keyboard shortcut ⌃⌘Q. Now open up the other version of 1Password. Review the vault that is in there and let us know if there is anything you want to keep. If there is we'll have to help you export those items and import them into the other vault. If there isn't we'll guide you through the process of removing one version so you're left with just the one copy of 1Password where everything is stored.

Keep us informed and we'll hopefully get this all resolved :smile:

blneff1

The restore went fine and I now have older version of vault w/o my girlfriends entries, however my iOS vault on my iPhone is more current. For that reason, I tried to sync using wi-fi thinking it would add the newer information to my OS X version and I get the message "Sync Problem... Attempted to sync with a different vault than originally configured." Not sure what my next step is.

Drew_AG

Hi @blneff1,

That error message sounds a lot like the one mentioned in this knowledgebase article. Even if you're not getting that exact error, please try the steps there anyway to see if they help. When you get to the part about reinstalling from the App Store, please make sure to follow the steps to make a backup of the 1Password data on your iPhone, since that has your more current data.

Please let us know how it goes and if you're still getting the error message after trying those steps. Thanks!

blneff1

Hi Drew_AG,

For some reason I'm not getting the "Disable Sync" option in my iOS. Could it be the article was referencing a earlier version? Is there a way we take the 1pw from iPhone and send it to a folder or iCloud and then use that data as the source to reinstall my OSx version and iOS for my iPad?

littlebobbytables

You've certainly been through the wars with 1Password @blneff1.

There is a way to create a backup of your iPhone vault and use that to populate 1Password on both Macs and other iOS devices. We can do this because they both use the same backup approach. Here are the steps required.

1. Create a backup on your iPhone and copy it to your mac using the Creating manual backups of this guide.
2. Inside the Backups folder that you copy to your Mac you will see a file that ends in the extension .1p4_zip
3. Launch 1Password for Mac and enter 1Password's preferences.
4. Switch to the Backup tab and click on the Find Backup button.
5. A small Finder window will open. Select the .1p4_zip file and click the Add Backup button.
6. You will be returned to the Backup tab in 1Password and the backup will be added to the list. It should be the newest backup given you just manually created the backup on your iOS device.
7. You can now select this backup and restore it like you did before.
8. Confirm the vault is up to date and we can then turn our attention to your iOS devices.
9. For each iOS device, if you first follow our How do I start over with an empty vault? guide and then follow it up with our Existing 1Password user guide you can push a clean copy of the vault now on your Mac to the iOS devices.

I apologise for the error you've experienced on your iPhone. We've partially corrected it and I believe in the current betas we've improved on how to correct it without jumping through so many hoops. Unfortunately I can't say when the next stable will be released so waiting isn't an option.

Hopefully this will be the end of your Wi-Fi Syncing woes and you can get back to a less problematic 1Password time :smile: Let us know how you get along!

blneff1

Hi littlebobbytables,

Out of frustration last night I decided to attack the problem from a different angle and use iCloud. Having two iOS devices and one OS X machine I started by backing up my iPhone which has the latest version of 1Password. I then had to reset my iCloud account so it would except the iPhone copy. Once complete, I deleted the iOS version on my iPad and reinstalled the app. When logging in the first time it looked to the iCloud for db which I accepted by logging into the vault. For the last step, I found an article on the 1Password website for completely removing the 1Password OS X. Upon completing those steps, I then initiated 1Password 5 for the first time and it gave me the option of creating new vault or using the iCloud version. I selected iCloud and it prompted me for my password which brought down the latest version. All copies appear to be in sync and at the latest version!

Not sure I will go back to wi-fi syncing strategy given the situation it created. Could you offer any advice regarding one method being more secure than the other?

Thanks for your help and research! The additional information provided by the 1password team was extremely helpful and provided additional insight to resolving the issue!

littlebobbytables

Hi @blneff1,

I wouldn't say one approach is inherently more secure than another but people tend to have strong preferences. Both Dropbox and iCloud have their own security and on top of that is the fact that your vault is never in an unencrypted state on their servers. For some people, myself included, we simply don't want our vault on a server outside of our control. I've gone to certain lengths to do the same for things like my contacts and calendars when Apple decided to temporarily block syncing of those via iTunes to an iOS device. Once you start going down that path you tend to start applying it evenly to everything.

So even if somebody somehow manages to penetrate the security of a particular cloud service they still have to contend with the encryption applied to the vault. This is where all of our security lies. Everything is built on the concept that somebody has access to the vault and what can we do to hamper their efforts. We wouldn't offer iCloud and Dropbox support if we thought it put your data at risk so as long as you're happy using iCloud then I wouldn't be concerned.

This page may also be of interest, Is it safe to sync my data over the cloud?

Does that help at all?