lost all passwords and 1p backups on macOS, prior event was a WLAN sync failure

bobjesse
bobjesse
Community Member

First thing this a.m., my Mac displayed a notification about WLAN sync. I clicked the "fix" button in the notification. Was not able to get sync to work (yes, WLAN sync was turned on; yes after some fiddling the iPhone and the Macbook were on the same local net. 1password on iPhone repeatedly said "Computer not found".

But now there is a bigger problem. 1p (Version 6.8.4 (684001)) on the Mac (10.12.6) has no passwords and no backups. Empty. All data (apparently) lost.

1) What went wrong (so it can be avoided in the future) and
2) How can I get my passwords back? The iPhone version is six weeks out of date. I do have hard disk backups.

Thanks....


1Password Version: Not Provided
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: Not Provided
Sync Type: Not Provided
Referrer: forum-search:lost all passwords and backups

Comments

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni
    edited November 2017

    1) What went wrong (so it can be avoided in the future) and

    @bobjesse: No idea. Can you be more specific about the error you received and what happened leading up to and after that? I'm not following how that could affect your backups.

    2) How can I get my passwords back? The iPhone version is six weeks out of date. I do have hard disk backups.

    Unless you deleted them, 1Password for Mac keeps many (we sometimes get complaints about this) automatic backup archives. If you go to 1Password Preferences > Backups, what do you see there?

    ref: MRS-49439-829

  • bobjesse
    bobjesse
    Community Member

    I don't recall the exact language of the notification that popped up on the Mac. It had to do with 1P WLAN syncing. (In case it's relevant, I had just installed iOS 11.1.1.) The macOS notification offered two buttons, one of which said "fix." I clicked that. Iirc, doing so brought up the 1P WLAN preferences panel. I tinkered with that and 1P on the iPhone to try to get a WLAN sync to happen, without luck.

    At some point, I re-launched 1Password on the mac. It showed no items (all gone). Preferences>Backups shows no backups (all gone). My 1P master password works as usual; in other respects it looks like a clean/new 1P install.

    The pressing question now is how to use my disk backups to get my passwords back: Which 1P files do I need to restore to which macOS locations?

    Thanks...

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni

    @bobjesse: Aha. I can now think of one thing that makes sense. I appreciate you hammering this home:

    At some point, I re-launched 1Password on the mac. It showed no items (all gone). Preferences>Backups shows no backups (all gone). My 1P master password works as usual; in other respects it looks like a clean/new 1P install.

    I think you have multiple copies of 1Password installed, or did previously. The Mac App Store and AgileBits Store versions have different data folders. So I think what happened is you launched the "wrong" one (the one with a different database with no data) and that's why WLAN Server freaked out: everything had changed. Try looking in both locations for backup archives (.1p4_zip):

    Mac App Store:

    ~/Library/Containers/2BUA8C4S2C.com.agilebits.onepassword-osx-helper/Data/Library/Backups

    AgileBits Store:

    ~/Library/Application Support/1Password 4/Backups

    You could also check a Time Machine or other backup for data in those locations. These are created automatically by 1Password for Mac at least once per day if you make changes to your data, so you'd have to literally be actively deleting 1Password's support files or have another app running that is doing this to have nothing at all. Let me know what you find!

  • bobjesse
    bobjesse
    Community Member

    Thanks for the pointers. The folder named above under "Mac App Store:" did not exist on the live MacHD disk or on backup.

    The folder named under "AgileBits Store" did not exist on the live MacHD but did on my backup disk. I restored it, then inside 1P restored a recent 1P backup, and now all appears to be well. (Haven't tried the WLAN sync yet.)

    FYI, iirc I deleted that folder because its name suggests it belonged to 1Password version 4. the "1Password 4" folder lives right alongside a folder named "1Password". I was trying to remove an old install, so that spotlight would stop (once in a while) launching the very old 1Password version 4!

    Can you confirm that in "~Library/Application Support" both "1Password 4" and "1Password" are in fact required for the version I'm running, Version 6.8.4 (684001)? Are there any other questions I should be asking that I don't know to ask?(!)

    Thanks.

  • @bobjesse: The best way to remove an old install is to take the simple route and drag the old version to the trash, if you're able to find it (sounds like Spotlight is being a bit inconsistent here, so I understand that may not be doable for you). I do not believe ~Library/Application Support/1Password is used by the latest version under any circumstances, but I always hate saying to delete things just on the off-chance I might be wrong under some set of unforeseen conditions. If you do decide to delete the 1Password folder, I'd do so only after ensuring you have a backup of it available -- just in case.

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni

    Indeed, the 1Password support folder is for 1Password 3 (or earlier). 1Password 4 is used by all subsequent versions. PLEASE don't delete your data without having a backup somewhere else... :cry:

This discussion has been closed.