Manual iCloud sync button [not planned; iCloud improvements in 6.8.6]
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I've used 1Password (paid version) for several years. I'm trying to find out how to make it sync. (It says it's synced but hasn't.) Changing some passwords on one machine makes no difference on other machines that are synced. I thought syncing was included: do I have to buy a "1 Membership" just to get it to sync? King regards.
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Hi @sybilline -- if you've been using 1Password for "several years," first of all, thank you! :) To answer your question, no, you're not required to subscribe to a 1Password membership in order to be able to use 3rd party sync services -- just the 1password.com sync service itself. What method of sync have you been using for all these years? Dropbox? iCloud? Something else? If you're not sure, you can find out in each of the apps themselves by going (in 1Password for Mac) to Preferences > Sync, and in 1Password for iOS to Settings > Sync to see which method each vault is using for sync. Let us know what you discover!
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I just wanted to say I've hit the same problem as Noffica: I had added a new login on my iPhone several hours ago and was expecting to see it when I tried to log-in to the site on my Mac several hours later. However, the login credentials weren't available in 1Password: I checked my phone to see if a sync had occurred and it had. Then I checked my Mac and see that iCloud sync last occurred two days (when I last rebooted my Mac). There was no option to manually trigger a sync on the Mac, but there was on the phone, which was unhelpful because it was the phone that was syncing properly and the Mac that was at fault. There are clearly two problems here in this case:
1) Like the phone, the Mac app needs a clear option to trigger a manual sync (Lock/Unlock works but I had dig around on this forum to find the workaround).
2) Like the phone, the Mac app needs to sync at least every time the app is opened: if I find the browser extension hasn't got the latest information I open the app to see if it there: it's not, but the process of opening the app should trigger the sync like on the phone so I don't need to do anything else: I then went into preferences to see that the sync hasn't occurred and there's no way to trigger it, which leads back to point (1).
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Hi @zexpe - sorry to hear you're having troubles with iCloud not syncing on your Mac, after adding/changing data on 1Password for iOS.
There actually IS a way to trigger a sync, which would be to make a minor change to any record in 1Password -- add a dot or single letter to a Secure Note, etc. This will force a sync...but it doesn't address why iCloud isn't notifying 1Password that there is new data.
To be clear, the sync with iCloud is a three-legged process: there's the internal database in 1Password, and then there is the local iCloud storage. If there are changes to one of those, a sync happens between 1Password and local iCloud storage. That gets updated via the mechanisms iCloud itself uses to keep itself in sync across devices. 1Password DOES check on startup for changes to the iCloud database...but if the local iCloud storage is unchanged because iCloud hasn't updated, then there's no sync.
I'm not sure what might be misfiring in that sequence, but here are our iCloud troubleshooting steps. Give those steps a try and let us know how you get on!
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Hey Lars,
What is the thinking behind not having a manual sync button? Ideally, of course, one would never need to press such a button, but I found myself searching google on how to force a manual sync because it hadn't for several hours and the vault was out of date. Locking/unlocking did it, but that's not obvious to someone who hasn't found this specific thread after giving up with the interface trying to find the manual sync button.
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@sammm - the thinking behind not having a manual sync button is three-fold: first, sync should just WORK. And, with the development of 1password.com accounts, it finally does. Prior to 1password.com, however, we still felt this way -- like choosing a sync method should - barring truly unusual/unpreventable occurences - just work, as Apple put it. So a lot of effort went into making sure that it DID work. The second reason was that we already have a way to manually force a sync, if the user truly desires/needs it: locking and unlocking 1Password for Mac will always do it (or, if it doesn't, something much deeper is the problem).
The third reason touches on what we've been doing lately: although we love both Dropbox and iCloud, at no point along the line (including today) have we ever had much insight into - let alone control over - the inner mechanics of 3rd party sync. That's one of the main reasons we built 1password.com accounts -- because we can offer a much more robust and reliable sync service than relying on the comparatively generic and limited sync APIs from 3rd party providers. I know this sounds like a sales pitch and it's not intended that way, but if you're looking for a method of sync that is stable as a table and was designed specifically and exclusively to sync your 1Password data, then a 1password.com account is the only real option -- not to mention far and away the best option.
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I find it quite telling that even Apple's Reminders on macOS has a secret, hidden Debug menu with a manual force iCloud sync option...
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What is the thinking behind not having a manual sync button? Ideally one would never need to press such a button, but I found myself searching google on how to force a manual sync because it hadn't for several hours and was out of date. Locking/unlocking did it, but that's not obvious to someone who hasn't found this specific thread after giving up.
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I agree. There should be an option to manually trigger a sync.
Many desktop apps offer an option to manually perform synchronisation (e.g. Evernote) and almost all mobile apps (pull-down-to-refresh).
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That is a cumbersome work-around, and hardly a pleasant one for the user.
If automatic is unreliable, why not offer a manual option,
which as I understand, is guaranteed to work.
In the case of automatic sync, 1Password is depenedant on third-parties, which are outside its control. We can understand if there are complications with it, esp. iCloud (which still exhibits flaws in its sync functionalities).
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Hi @Noffica,
I can understand your frustration with this. I'm the person that keeps asking us to avoid adding that button. In my opinion, every time a user needs to go click that button, it means that we've done something wrong (or could at least do something better). We should fix that something wrong as opposed to adding a button that works around the issues.
The iCloud reliability issues I've seen of late seem to all be related to the AgileBits store version of our app and its implementation of sync via iCloud. That code is getting significantly reworked to address a lot of these problems.
I can completely understand why as a user you might just want that button. From my side, I want sync to actually feel magical, regardless of which sync method is chosen. The best way to do that is to hear about the times where it's failing. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
Rick
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Ah, I understand now, @rickfillion.
Incidentally, the type of 1Password I used was from the AgileBits website.
'very heartened to learn that it's a focus of development.
It's customer engagement like this that won me over to 1Password from LastPass, and keeps me with 1Password.
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@Noffica : I'm hopeful that these issues will be addressed for you then. I'm not 100% sure when that development is slated for release, but know that it's most definitely on our radar.
Never hesitate to push us to do better. We want to hear it, even though sometimes it can be painful to hear. :)
Rick
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I have been a paying customer for many years and have several devices that I use 1Password on with iCloud sync. 2 MacBooks, iPhone, and iPad.
I often make a change on a single device, and while the iOS devices have no problem picking up the change, one or both laptops do, because I don't have them lock automatically.
It is actually kind of silly that I have to go edit an item or lock then unlock 1Password, in order to be up to date.
Please provide a prominent "Sync Now" button, so at least there is an easy workaround.
I just can't see paying for the 1Password subscription in order to solve this problem.
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@sumocomputers: As Rick mentioned, we really do want to hear about these issues and address them rather than having folks solve them alone. We use 1Password all the time to do our jobs, so the temptation to just wipe everything clean and fix problems we encounter is very real and it's tough to resist given fixing 1Password issues is our job and there's rarely a problem we can't make go away. I'm sure I've been guilty of doing that myself a few times (don't tell Rick, though, he yells :wink: ) and that some issues have been delayed in being fixed as a result of my impatience. :blush:
The point here is that I 100% understand the desire to just fix a critical part of your workflow, but it's also very important to us that we're able to fix it permanently. If we include a sync button, well, we'll never hear about these problems. Or, worse, we'll only hear about them when you become convinced clicking the button is the only way to sync. Given the choice between a temporary annoyance that we can totally fix and lingering longstanding issues we never know about, we'll take the former any day. :+1:
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I totally understand wanting to fix this long term, but I have had this issue since I can remember, and now that you know about the problem, and know it’s been around for a long time, it seems like the choice for the sanity of your customers is:
to get the real fix done soon, or get the band-aid in place soon, so you can take your time on the “right way”.
I am almost tempted to write a script that creates a dummy note object in 1Password on a schedule, just so I don’t have to get frustrated any more.
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@sumocomputers: The forum can often give the impression there's some overarching universal issue, but that's actually generally not the case. Most of the time, folks have differing issues -- some are overarching issues that tend to be fixed up shortly after, others have their roots in one person's local environment, and on occasion they're related to some variety of setup issue. Regardless of what category these problems fall into, many of them are moved over to e-mail so we can take a closer look at them and address the root cause without asking folks to share things less suited to a public forum.
As Rick mentioned, we are aware of some recent reliability issues with iCloud sync that are already being worked on, but given your mention that this has been affecting you for some time, I'd be inclined to think your issue is something different entirely. Perhaps something we don't yet know about, but potentially something we can fix once we've taken the time to look at it. Either way, the first step to solving it (both now and long-term) is to figure out exactly what it is. Our iCloud troubleshooting article can be a good start, but if you've tried all of that before, we're happy to take a closer look at some diagnostics to see what might be going wrong:
https://support.1password.com/diagnostics/
You can send these to support@agilebits.com, let us know your Support ID when you receive it, and hopefully we can fix things without need for a script. :chuffed:
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I checked all those troubleshooting steps, and they did not change the problematic behavior.
But before we go too far, can we confirm expected behavior on the Mac App Store Version using iCloud Sync?
Sync is only triggered when:
- 1Password is unlocked
- A an item is edited and saved
If that is expected behavior, then I would say there is nothing to troubleshoot, but an enhancement request to the current design.
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@sumocomputers: From what I'm seeing on my Mac, that appears to be appropriate behavior, so I will go ahead and pass along your feedback to the development team. :+1:
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Sync for a vault should be triggered when any of these happen:
- The app unlocks and the vault in question is shown to the user (if using All Vaults, then all vaults within the All Vaults set are synced)
- Any edits happen to the vault
- You switch to that vault
- The app receives a notification that there's an external change. In the case of sync via iCloud this is provided by a Apple Push Notifications.
It sounds to me like the last one is what's not working for you. The Apple Push Notifications for iCloud when used with our AgileBits Store version of the app have been quite unreliable, but generally speaking with the Mac App Store version they've been quite good. If that's not the experience you're seeing then we should get a diagnostics report from you and have our developers figure out why the app isn't getting the notifications or isn't reacting correctly upon getting them.
Rick
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I agree that the last bullet is where we have issues.
I added a test note on iOS, then waited about 30 minutes on macOS, and after no triggered sync, I sent a diagnostic report. Here is my Support ID:
HDM-19923-378
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Thanks @sumocomputers.
I've filed a bug with the Mac team and included your information so that they can look into it.
Rick
ref: OPM-5466
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No worries! Happens to me sometimes too. We'll keep working to make the sync experience as seamless as it can be. :)
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Having to lock and then unlock the MacOS app to get it to sync is not intuitive. Also, I've found that if I create a new login in MacOS and then leave my computer, I don't get the iCloud sync until I lock/unlock on the Mac. If I leave my computer (lock the laptop screen) and go about my business, when does the Mac sync? In my experience it isn't very soon at all.
I created a login for WSJ.com on the Mac and put the login into 1Password. I then went about other stuff and then later went to add the WSJ app onto my iPad. When I looked on 1Password on the iPad, there was no entry since it had not synced up. That's a problem. It should force a sync every time I make a change so it's pushed to all my devices. At least give me a manual sync button.
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Having to lock and then unlock the MacOS app to get it to sync is not intuitive.
@equals42: As you can see from our comments above, we agree. ;)
Also, I've found that if I create a new login in MacOS and then leave my computer, I don't get the iCloud sync until I lock/unlock on the Mac. If I leave my computer (lock the laptop screen) and go about my business, when does the Mac sync? In my experience it isn't very soon at all.
Indeed, while we don't have direct control over iCloud, we're looking into what we can do to help. Are you also using the AgileBits Store version of 1Password?
I created a login for WSJ.com on the Mac and put the login into 1Password. I then went about other stuff and then later went to add the WSJ app onto my iPad. When I looked on 1Password on the iPad, there was no entry since it had not synced up. That's a problem. It should force a sync every time I make a change so it's pushed to all my devices. At least give me a manual sync button.
As Rick, said, we're not going to do that; we're working to improve things on our end. For example, rather than a button, maybe we could find a way for 1Password to force a sync, rather than the user.
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