Preferred way to “manually sync”
Hi,
Is there any preferred way to do a “manual sync”? With 1Password 3, I had a “master” vault on my office Mac, and a “slave” vault on my Macbook. Every now and then, I deleted the “slave” vault and downloaded the “master” vault folder from my office Mac. This really was a pain.
With 1Password 4 and folder sync, I though that process would become simpler because downloading (or r-sync’ing, for that matter) the “master” vault should be sufficient to update the password vault on the Macbook. I haven’t to worry about being 1Password closed etc. before updating the files.
However, now this process failed. I have the sync to folder in place on my Macbook. I downloaded the 1Password folder against which the office Mac’s 1Password is syncing. Then I looked into 1Password on the Macbook, and it was empty. The folders are all there, but no passwords. I of course first thought it might be a problem with the downloaded file, but creating a new vault on the Macbook and syncing that with the downloaded file worked fine.
Any thoughts? Or, as I put it in my initial question, is there any preferred (aka better) way to do what I am trying to achieve?
Comments
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Hi @lollomatique,
Sorry to hear about this trouble you're having with syncing 1Password data between your two Macs.
I have the sync to folder in place on my Macbook. I downloaded the 1Password folder against which the office Mac’s 1Password is syncing.
Did you download the *.agilekeychain from your office Mac and completely replace the copy on your MacBook that Folder Sync is configured to use? That will cause a problem because Folder Sync no longer recognizes it as the original keychain.
One way to achieve the results you want would be to configure Folder Sync with a local folder on each of your Macs, then use something like
rsyncto synchronize data stored in keychains in those two folders. You're telling 1Password to sync the vault with a specific folder (on each Mac), then using a sync solution (e.g.rsync) to keep those folders in sync.Another option that doesn't use syncing would be to manually restore a backup from "master" office Mac on your "slave" MacBook whenever you want to, but that won't keep any changes you've made on the MacBook.
Please let us know if you have more questions or need any further help; we're here for you. :)
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Thanks @sjk for your answer. Yes, I did what you suspected, namely replacing the existing *.agilekeychain with the one I downloaded.
I have two immediate questions related to that:
When you are saying “Folder Sync no longer recognizes [the replaced keychain] as the original keychain”. That sounds like 1Password should consider this as an error, and display a notification. But instead, it simply stops syncing yet keeps me telling sync has taken place properly.
What you wrote sounds like it should work to disable folder sync and then re-enable it, selecting the same *.agilekeychain again, because then 1Password would know to sync with the (changed) *.agilekeychain. But what happens when I do this is that the vault remains empty.
Exactly why wouldn’t it work to replace the keychain? Is it some unique ID the keychain folder has, and that is stored in the vault? If that’s the case, then again, re-enabling the sync with the replaced keychain should work, as 1Password would pick up the new ID. From then on, replacing the keychain should continue to work as that ID would stay the same.
It would be great if you could shed some more light on the syncing mechanics.
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Please have a look at our Folder Sync Guide for instructions on how to set up Folder sync. Once you have set up Folder Sync as in the guide, the idea is that you use a secondary solution, like
rsyncas @sjk suggested to keep that folder in sync with your other Mac.With a secondary sync solution in place, there should be no need to disable and re-enable Folder Sync. The folders should remain synced up whenever changes are made on either device - that's the benefit of sync.
If you would prefer to do the process manually, I would suggest the following when you wish to update the database on your "slave" computer:
- On the master computer, set up Folder Sync to a memorable location
- Copy the 1Password.agilekeychain file from the location onto a USB drive
- On the slave computer, disable sync, if it is currently enabled (with the 'remove data' option selected)
- Plug in the USB drive and move the 1Password file to the desired location
- In Preferences > Sync, set up Folder sync to the desired location
- 1Password will advise you that the data in the location is different and ask you if you want to merge. Enter your Master Password for the keychain to continue.
- Once your updated data has loaded, you can disable sync as your data is also stored locally in 1Password
I hope this helps, but we're here if you have any further questions or concerns!
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Thank @Megan. I have read these instructions somewhere else already, and I am aware of them. My interest was more technical, not about instructions on how to set up sync.
Looking at the forums here, I see several questions/threads about sync problems where people contribute who seem to know very well how to set up a sync, but failing due to the lack of info about the sync process. I think if you could reveal more about the .agilekeychain file structure and about how Folder Sync works, people would understand better. Maybe someone even would create a custom sync solution for 1Password.
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Hi @lollomatique,
Thank you for the feedback and suggestions; we do appreciate it! I've passed this along to our developers and documentation team.
The Agile Keychain Design document has some technical information about the format that Folder Sync currently uses. We have been rolling out the 1Password 4 keychain, with its newer Cloud Keychain format, to replace the older Agile Keychain format. And the Security Overview has additional information and references.
Some of the issues with Folder Sync are related to it being configured with a single shared folder in multiple instances of 1Password. Others are primarily concerned with how to effectively configure folder-to-folder syncing outside of 1Password. There's a relatively diverse range of possible configurations.
We realize the desire for configuration guidelines that include specific criteria and conditions to reduce the current guesswork and increase the success rate with Folder Sync usage. And more information about how the syncing process works.
ref: DOCS-226
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