Macbook 1Password stopped syncing—how do I re-sync with iPhone?

B_Clarkston
B_Clarkston
Community Member

Hello,

My 1Password is supposed to be synced, via Dropbox, between my MacBook Pro and iPhone (tech details below). I recently realized the sync function on my MacBook is turned off. This means my iPhone is syncing to the Dropbox, my MacBook is not. This has been the case for quite some time, it seems, as I have numerous 1Password items (notes, logins, etc.) found only on either the MacBook or iPhone. I have only one 1Password vault in each of the MacBook and iPhone, both called "Primary".

Details:

  • Macbook Pro running OS High Sierra 10.13.4, 1Password Version 6.8.8 (688001)
  • iPhone 8, 1Password app version 7.0.6

My goal is to get back to having only one vault, synced across my laptop and phone. I'm concerned that there is no way to combine two vaults without completely overwriting one, or only transferring "new" items from one to the other. What happens, for example, when two different Logins exist, one on the iPhone, one on MacBook, that each have different information (because one is out of date)? I'm hoping I can get some help with combining the two vaults into one...in a way that doesn't cause me to lose a bunch of information. Thank you for your help!


1Password Version: 6.8.8
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: OS X High Sierra 10.13.4
Sync Type: Dropbox

Comments

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni

    @B_Clarkston: Syncing them with each other will not "overwrite" one; rather, the data will be merged. It would best if you have all of your data on one device, since you could just start over on the other and sync that there as well. But you won't lose information either way. You just may end up with some redundant information depending on what you've been doing since you weren't syncing the two. Let me know what you think.

  • B_Clarkston
    B_Clarkston
    Community Member

    @brenty thank you for your help! I understand that it would be best to have all data on one device and start fresh on the other, but that would require manually checking each item on one device to make sure it had the most up-to-date info (the most up-to-date info is scattered across the two devices).
    When you say I will end up with some redundant information, what does that look like? Say I updated the login info (e.g., new password) for my gmail account on one device, with the old info for this gmail account still stored on the other device. When I sync the two vaults, will that gmail account now have two separate logins in my 1password vault?
    Thanks again for your help.

  • @B_Clarkston

    In that example what should happen is that you’ll end up with one Gmail login item on both devices that’ll have the new password in the password field and then you’ll have a ‘previous passwords’ section that’ll show the old password. Where you may run into trouble is if you’ve edited the same item on both devices since they stopped syncing. It is more difficult to say what exactly might happen in that case. It is possible to lose data in that case. And as such we’d recommend making backups of 1Password on both devices before proceeding, especially if you suspect that may be the case:

    1Password backups

    I hope that helps!

    Ben

  • B_Clarkston
    B_Clarkston
    Community Member

    That's great help, thanks very much @Ben!

  • You’re very welcome. :)

    Ben

This discussion has been closed.