Backing up standalone vaults independently

rya
rya
Community Member
edited January 2018 in Mac

I'd like to backup a standalone vault separately from the other vaults. Its seems like the 1password backup procedure stores all the profiles (or vaults) in the .1p4_zip file, so I cannot separate one vault from another.

Is it possible to keep completely isolated backups of standalone vaults?


1Password Version: 6.8.6
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: OSX 10.12.6
Sync Type: none

Comments

  • @rya,

    Thanks for the question. It isn't possible to backup standalone vaults separately due to the way that 1Password data is stored internally. The backups you found by way of the 1p4_zip file are complete copies of the 1Password sqlite files and all standalone vaults are stored in a single sqlite database.

    Rudy

  • rya
    rya
    Community Member

    Thanks Rudy, appreciated.

    So just for absolute clarity, if all standalone vaults are stored in their own sqlite(?) database, then are you saying that the complete backup cannot be unpacked into the separate sqlite databases?

    I must say, this functionality would be useful in circumstances where a user requires two 'keys' of security to access to a single 'lock', but wishes to keep those two 'keys' in separate vaults, and wishes to backup those vaults to different locations.

    Thanks

  • Lars
    Lars
    1Password Alumni

    @rya - You have it correctly: backups in standalone 1Password are comprehensive; there is no way to separately back up an individual vault. The only potential exception to this would be to sync a local vault to a folder, and use the OPVault keychain as your "backup." That's a possibility, but it's not a true backup, and you'd need to do it on a vault-by vault basis.

  • rya
    rya
    Community Member

    Thank you Lars, that solution works perfectly.

    Question : why would the .opvault file not be considered a true backup? Is there more security vulnerability using this method?

  • Lars
    Lars
    1Password Alumni

    @rya - It gets a bit into the technicalities of how you define things. The backups made by the 1Password app are comprehensive; they include all vaults, and they're iterative: you can, just like Time Machine, roll back to a point in time, and restore to the way things were then. The OPVault keychain, by contrast, can certainly be used to recover your data if you lose a device or it's destroyed, so in that sense it functions as a backup. But because it's a sync file, it will always contain any changes made recently. If you or someone with access to your account deletes some items, that will be automatically synced, and re-syncing from another device will not recover those items. With an actual backup file like what's made by 1Password for Mac, you can do so.

    However, for your purposes, this should work fine -- which is great! Let us know if you have any further questions or issues, and have a great rest of your week! :)

  • rya
    rya
    Community Member

    Hi Lars,

    Thank you for your time in explaining the technicalities - much appreciated.

  • Lars
    Lars
    1Password Alumni

    @rya - you're quite welcome! Glad I was able to help! :)

This discussion has been closed.