Can I delete 1Password directory in the user Library/Application Support directory?

Teaman
Teaman
Community Member

I'm running 1Password 6 on iMac with OS Sierra. I sync it to Dropbox. I has iOS devices that share the database. I have multiple Macs that use it too.
In my user Library/Application Support I have 3 directories... 1Passwd, 1Password, and 1Password 4. Can all 3 be deleted? They take up quite a bit of space. 1Password is 1.15GB big! The others 71KB (1Passwd) and 240MB (1Password 4).

I do wish that when you release a new version the installer would clean up older version directories and files it won't be using any more!


1Password Version: 6.3.5
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: 10.12.1
Sync Type: Dropbox
Referrer: forum-search:Library 1Password directory

Comments

  • Drew_AG
    Drew_AG
    1Password Alumni

    Hi @Teaman,

    Thank you for asking us about that! I can definitely help to explain which of those folders can be deleted, and which cannot.

    First, the important thing to know is that the '1Password 4' folder in ~/Library/Application Support/ is the data/backup directory used by versions 4, 5, and 6 of the AgileBits Store version of 1Password. Therefore, do not delete the '1Password 4' folder!

    It made sense to include the '4' in the name of that folder when we first released 1Password 4 from Mac, as it was a separate app from 1Password 3 and required its own data directory. 1Password 5 and 6 for Mac were written as updates for version 4, so they use all of the same data files & folders as version 4 did. Changing the folder name for each new version could actually have caused lots of problems, so we kept the '4'.

    As for the other folders you mentioned: The '1Password' folder in ~/Library/Application Support/ was the default data/backup directory for 1Password 3 (AgileBits Store version). The '1Passwd' folder is from an even older version, before it was officially called 1Password. You can delete both of those folders.

    I do wish that when you release a new version the installer would clean up older version directories and files it won't be using any more!

    I'm sorry if the older data folders caused any confusion for you! There are actually some very good reasons why we don't automatically get rid of them. Because 1Password is used to securely store lots of private/personal information, we never assume you want that data to be automatically deleted. Also, the old data folders don't cause any harm, but it might cause some problems if we automatically deleted them.

    For example, 1Password 4 was a paid upgrade from 1Password 3, so we needed to make sure it was easy for customers to go back to version 3 if they tried 4 but decided they didn't want to pay the upgrade fee. By leaving the data folder for 1Password 3 alone, customers could easily go back to that version if they wanted to. If the newer version deleted data files from the old version, customers wouldn't be able to do that.

    Hopefully you're all set now, but if you have more questions or need anything else, just let us know. Have a great weekend! :)

  • Teaman
    Teaman
    Community Member

    Thanks for the response, Drew. That does help. Fortunately, the largest directory (over 1GB) can be deleted per your report so that is good. I hope the dev team will consider making the next directory name one that either can be changed with the version number or leave the version number out of the name. It's not intuitive to see 1Password 4 when the current version is 6. Two versions old seems like a solid candidate to delete. Couldn't the installed look for older versions and prompt the user to remove or keep? Inform what that would mean and let the user decide. Advise it be kept if they aren't sure. Just a suggestion.

  • Drew_AG
    Drew_AG
    1Password Alumni

    You're quite welcome, @Teaman!

    I hope the dev team will consider making the next directory name one that either can be changed with the version number or leave the version number out of the name.

    I can certainly forward your feedback to our developers! I know they'd like to do something to help avoid confusion in the future.

    Couldn't the installed look for older versions and prompt the user to remove or keep? Inform what that would mean and let the user decide. Advise it be kept if they aren't sure. Just a suggestion.

    I don't think there's any technical reason why that couldn't be done. However, I have a feeling something like that would end up causing more confusion than it would solve. Again, the old data folders don't cause any problems by being there, and it's unusual for an old data folder to be as big as the one on your Mac. But having said that, I would personally also want to remove a 1+ GB folder if it's no longer used for anything, so I can definitely see how a feature like that would be useful. We never say never, so perhaps we'll be able to do something about that in the future!

    Thanks again! :)

This discussion has been closed.