Can restoring from Time Machine restore an older Master Password?

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Bruce In Iloilo
Bruce In Iloilo
Community Member
in Mac

I changed my Master Password but somehow screwed it up so that what I wrote down is not unlocking 1Password (I probably mis-typed). But I have an idea that maybe I can use my Time Machine back-up to revert to the point just before I updated my Master Password and thereafter use my "old" Master Password. Will this work?

I used the built-in restore feature from 1Password to restore 1Password back to before the new Master Password, and that worked. The problem is that some log-in info is missing. But that restore gave me the idea to use the Time Machine backup.

I tried moving a file over as suggested at this article called Starting Over, the folder "2BUA8C4S2C.com.agilebits.onepassword-osx-helper" That didn't work. I did find this article "Where does 1Password store its data?" but if I worried about would happen if I start moving over files, especially since this article warns "We recommend not attempting to modify, move or replace this file. Instead, use the Backup feature to create and restore backups of your data." I do not want to screw something up permanently especially if it is not going to work.

I found some articles that talked about Time Machine but they all seem to apply to 1Password 4 and I am using 1Password 5.1, bought from the Apple Store.

I started another discussion called "How long can the Master Password be?" but this question is about Time Machine and copying files from Time Machine, not about the length of the password.

So, should I just replace the files on my iMac with files from Time Machine in an effort to get back to a point before I changed the Master Password?

Comments

  • littlebobbytables
    littlebobbytables
    1Password Alumni
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    Hi @Bruce In Iloilo,

    Sorry for the delay in responding. I say that given this may be a reasonably time sensitive query.

    So 1Password will backup your vault as often as once a day but will only do so if there have been changes since the last check. If you haven't added or modified your database in say a week there would be a week's gap.

    Now one scenario that isn't quite covered is as follows.

    You launch 1Password and it performs its backup check. Over the next few hours you make a bunch of modifications and additions and then change the Master Password. In this case it would mean reverting to the previous backup would result in the loss of those items.

    Now if changed your Master Password today, you still have the hourly backups in Time Machine and you remember vividly the (fairly) precise time when you changed it then I can see what you're hoping to achieve.

    The first thing I would do is this.

    Open a Finder window and use the keyboard shortcut ⇧⌘G to open the Go to Folder... window. Paste in the following path ~/Library/Containers/2BUA8C4S2C.com.agilebits.onepassword-osx-helper. Copy that entire folder to your Desktop. This will be your extra safety net over Time Machine should anything go wrong.

    Next, make sure both 1Password and 1Password mini aren't running. The easiest way to do so is to use the ⌃⌘Q keyboard shortcut when you have 1Password active.

    Go back to Finder. Now in theory if you were to go to ~/Library/Containers/2BUA8C4S2C.com.agilebits.onepassword-osx-helper/Data/Library/Data (using the ⇧⌘G from above) and restore that folder to a previous point in time that should be sufficient. You could of course restore the entire ~/Library/Containers/2BUA8C4S2C.com.agilebits.onepassword-osx-helper too.

    Before testing I would probably recommend a reboot just to make sure caching doesn't play a factor. After the reboot though you should be using the vault from that particular hour as stored by Time Machine.

    Worst case scenario, you still have the 2BUA8C4S2C.com.agilebits.onepassword-osx-helper that you've copied to your Desktop as the safety's safety net.

    Do let us know how you get along and I hope it's good news.

  • Bruce In Iloilo
    Bruce In Iloilo
    Community Member
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    Drat, it didn't work. Restoring from the Time Machine Back-up and from the 1Password back-up got me back to the same place. Oh well, it was worth a try. At least I didn't lose too many items as I have just started with 1Password.

  • rickfillion
    rickfillion
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    Hi @Bruce In Iloilo,

    Sorry to hear that that didn't quite work out as well as it could have. Good to know that you're back up and running though. Let us know if you have any more questions.

    Rick

  • tuni12
    tuni12
    Community Member
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    Rick,
    I did something stupid - I thought the above discussion presented a good way to save 1PW on my own Desktop. Followed the directions re. finder and Go To folder above - could get ~/Library/Containers/2BUA8C4S2C.com.agilebits.onepassword-osx-helper/Data/Library/Data to copy to my Desktop - somehow I ended up "moving" it instead of its copying. Now its totally gone, not on my Desktop and not in Finder and now, I have NO BACKUPS in my 1PW backup file. Can you help me get my backups back to where they should be - they're not anywhere. HELP!!!!!

  • tuni12
    tuni12
    Community Member
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    adding to the above problem, cannot even do a backup at all - get an error message something about "error domain ??????" What to do? what to do? Am totally panicked now....(I know , I should never try to fix something that "ain't broke" - now I fear, I've broken it good. :-(

  • tuni12
    tuni12
    Community Member
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    its "Error Domain=NSCocoaE........."doesn't show anything else on the "BackupFailed" popup. I even tried restoring from Tiome Machine, yesterday's 1PW - no luck - no backups are showing, and 1PW won't allow me to "backup now" - :-(((((

  • littlebobbytables
    littlebobbytables
    1Password Alumni
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    Hi @tuni12,

    :( We're sorry to hear what's going on.

    So you attempted to copy the Data folder from ~/Library/Containers/2BUA8C4S2C.com.agilebits.onepassword-osx-helper/Data/Library/ to your Desktop but something went wrong and you can't locate it anywhere.

    If you only moved just that folder then I'm surprised to hear you don't have any backups in ~/Library/Containers/2BUA8C4S2C.com.agilebits.onepassword-osx-helper/Data/Library/Backups/ as that folder is separate. It shouldn't have been affected by any accident involving the Data folder.

    As a last resort though I would expect using Time Machine on ~/Library/Containers/2BUA8C4S2C.com.agilebits.onepassword-osx-helper/ to work. What you might need to do though is the following:

    1. Launch 1Password, just long enough to use the keyboard shortcut ⌃⌘Q. This will quit 1Password and 1Password mini.
    2. Use Time Machine to restore ~/Library/Containers/2BUA8C4S2C.com.agilebits.onepassword-osx-helper/ to a point prior to the 'event'.
    3. Reboot your Mac.

    Does 1Password behave any better after that particular sequence?

  • tuni12
    tuni12
    Community Member
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    yes, got the backups back - maybe I've learned a lesson - ya' know, if it ain't broke......
    Don't really know what happened though - however, as long as I can locate old backups and I can now backup, am a happy camper. Many thanks for your prompt reply.

  • littlebobbytables
    littlebobbytables
    1Password Alumni
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    I am relieved to hear you've managed to recover your backups @tuni12 Phew!

This discussion has been closed.