1Password mini gives incomplete search results

Mr_V · March 2015

I've had the problem now for some time that 1Password mini does not return full search results. I had hoped that it would somehow sort itself out, but to date it hasn't. I notice other (closed but apparently unresolved) threads on the same subject dating back to at least 2013.

I'm running 5.1 (App Store) on Yosemite. 1Password, OS X and Safari are all constantly updated to the latest versions.

Here's an example — searching for the string "aws" — first in the full 1Password application, and then in mini:

The relevant entries are physically present in mini, if I browse to them. But they can't be found in a search.

Worse: This also affects autofill. If I navigate to “aws.amazon.com” — which is the URL defined for all three my AWS entries — 1Password simply autofills my normal Amazon login, which is tied to the URL “amazon.com” in my 1password vault. Right-clicking in the password field and trying to search for my AWS logins there also fails; I have to actually start the full 1Password app to retrieve my passwords.

More details in case they may be relevant: I've been using 1Password for ~5 years now, and my vault has simply been transferred from version to version. A few months ago I switched from Dropbox to iCloud for sync.

I find no correlation between the entries that do not appear in a search in mini — some of them have been added recently, and some are very old. However, I can report that my AWS entries used to show up in a search until very recently when I changed all my Amazon passwords, at which point the new, updated entries could no longer be found.

littlebobbytables · March 2015

Hi @Mr_V,

I think I know what this is.

Can you try editing one of them please from the main 1Password window. All you should need to do to confirm my suspicions is select the website field and cut and paste the URL before saving. That's right, the Login item will look no different afterwards, we're not changing the URL or making any other modification.

After saving this 'edit' does the Login item appear in 1Password mini like it should? If it does then I know the bug that is causing this and we have a couple of options depending on how many seem to be affected by this. If you can let us know the results of that test and (very roughly) how many you think are affected, as best as you can estimate anyway.

Hopefully my suspicion is correct but if not we'll continue working with you to identify the cause.

Mr_V · March 2015

Hi, and thanks for the reply

I’m afraid that did not do the trick. I edited one of the offending login entries as you said — by copying and re-pasting the URL — and it still does not show up in a mini search. The only detectable difference is that this login item’s Date Modified in the main 1Password application has now been set to today’s date.

I restarted 1Password (including mini) and still no luck.

I’m not sure how many items are affected. I’m guessing a reasonably small percentage, since I don’t run into this problem all the time. I’ve only noticed it with my AWS logins since I use them fairly often. And then more recently I tried a search in mini for “xbox” to update my son’s Xbox Live account details, and it too failed to show up.

I’ve tried editing some other login items as well, but no luck: Those that show up in a mini search before being edited still show up afterwards, and vice versa.

Thanks again for the reply. Sorry for being a pain. :)

Mr_V · March 2015

I’ve just noticed that if I select the “Search All Fields” option in mini and I search for “aws”, it finds all the other entries that contain the string “aws” somewhere (i.e. the additional ones that would appear in the main 1Password search if I click “Expand Search to All Fields”), but it still doesn’t find the items with “AWS” in the title (or URL).

Not sure if that helps in any way.

littlebobbytables · March 2015

Hi @Mr_V,

The only pain is that we didn't determine the source of the issue.

Can you try the following for me please. Using the same Login item you tried altering before (may as well stick to that one), can you try exporting the item and then re-importing it.

To export a single item you would select the item in question and then use the following option File > Export > Selected Items... You will want to save this to your Desktop for easy access and use the default format, .1pif. Keep this file safe as it's an unencrypted copy of the item.

To import the item use the File > Import... option and select the .1pif you saved to your Desktop. This will overwrite the original item with the imported one which consists of exactly the same information.

Does this alter anything?

Mr_V · March 2015

Still no luck, I’m afraid! :-(

I followed the procedure as you suggested, and the item still doesn’t show up in mini’s search.
I then restarted 1Password (and mini) — still doesn’t show up.
Finally I actually deleted the item in 1Password (well, moved it to 1Password’s Trash) and then re-imported it from the .1pif — still no luck (even after another restart).

Thanks again for helping me out with this!

littlebobbytables · March 2015

Hi @Mr_V,

So we know it isn't the display field in an item because this doesn't just affect the search facility in 1Password mini, you wouldn't see it in the the category submenu either (which you can).

I am aware of a bug that causes this issue but unless I'm missing some odd aspect of it then one of those attempts should have rectified this.

I can only think of a couple things to try. The really annoying thing is I had a couple of items that used to display this behaviour and if I could still accessed the faulty copies I could have tried these. Unfortunately I can't find a single backup with the dud versions.

If in 1Password you right click on one of the AWS items and select the Duplicate does the copy exhibit the same issue?
If you take the more drastic step of manually creating a new item and copy each field over I would really hope it shows.
The most drastic and not one I'd suggest unless you're willing. We export the entire vault, remove the vault and start over, importing the entire contents.

Suggestions 1. and 2. are easy enough to attempt, let us know if they make any difference. Now if suggestion 3 did make a difference it would correct every instance whether you were even aware they were misbehaving but it is more involved so we'll only cover that if it's something you'd like to do. If you're comfortable with computers you won't find it that bad really but obviously there is a wide range in skill and comfort in our users.

Mr_V · March 2015

Hi again!

I tried your first two suggestions in order:

This did not work, unfortunately.
This worked, as (semi-)expected. Of course, it requires a bit of manual labour and — worse — apart from the couple of login items I mentioned, I don’t know which other items might also be affected.

As for (3), I’m starting to think you may be correct. My vault may simply have picked up some bitrot through being transferred over the years from one version of 1Password to the next, and even from one Mac to the next.

I’m perfectly happy and comfortable to export and re-import everything. Is there anything specific I should keep in mind? Is it simply a matter of selecting File → Export → All Items… and going on from there, or is there a custom procedure for this?

(I sync my vault to my iOS devices via iCloud, in case that causes any additional complications I should be aware of.)

I know that 1Password now has the facility to manage multiple vaults, though I haven’t made use of this feature yet myself. Is it maybe worth my while to create a second vault and import everything into it, see whether that works, and then delete the original one?

littlebobbytables · March 2015

Hi @Mr_V,

Your idea of testing a secondary vault before going through the full process is a good one.

Export your entire vault using the .1pif format.
Create a temporary secondary vault. Given it's for testing purposes only you don't need to worry much about the Master Password as it won't exist for long either way and won't be synced.
With the secondary vault active in 1Password, import your .1pif.
If you leave 1Password with the secondary vault active that will be the one 1Password mini uses so you can test it out straight away. Where it normally says "Search Primary Vault" it should have the name of your secondary vault as another indicator of which vault you're in. If it doesn't have the secondary vault in focus the keyboard shortcut ⌘2 will switch to the secondary vault.

If that worked then what we want to do is initialise a new Primary vault in the same way. You already have the exported vault so one step is complete.

Disable iCloud Sync on your Mac and make use of the following menu option Help > Troubleshooting > Reset iCloud Data. That will delete your iCloud sync data. You don't want 1Password trying to be helpful when you're trying to create a new empty vault.
Follow the steps in our How do I start over with an empty vault? guide.
Follow the steps in our Running 1Password for the first time guide and create a new primary vault.
Import your .1pif file and check your vault to ensure everything looks good. Check attachments etc.
Set up iCloud Sync again.
If all looks good you will want to start over on your iOS devices using our How do I start over with an empty vault? guide and then follow the guide for being an existing user (as you've created new iCloud Sync data), Existing 1Password user (iOS). I'd transition one device, check and then you'll feel more comfortable about the others.
If all is correct move the .1pif folders to your Empty Trash and then use the Secure Empty option which you can find in Finder > Secure Empty Trash... We want to do this because .1pif data is unencrypted and so not safe to keep long term. If your machine has an SSD drive I have to assume Secure Empty still works but if you use FileVault then maybe you're not as concerned as the entire drive is encrypted (which would include the Trash. You can delete the folders dragged to your desktop in step 2. although if you want to keep them for a little longer it isn't as bad because they are at least encrypted. You could copy all of the backups over to the new support folders for example so you still have all the old backups should you need them. Our support folder locations can be found in Where does 1Password store its data?

Please do ask questions before starting if you have any!

Mr_V · March 2015

Good morning!

Thanks for the detailed instructions, @littlebobbytables!

Unfortunately, there has been a rather unexpected result. As you suggested in your first bulleted list, I created a second, temporary vault, and then exported the entire contents of my primary vault and imported it into the secondary. I then switched to the temporary vault.

However, at this point, a search for “aws” in 1Password mini failed to produce any hits, just as it does with my primary vault. I checked and double-checked that mini was indeed searching the secondary vault, since I really hadn’t expected this result.

Is there even anything we can do at this point to troubleshoot this further?

I have made another manual recreation of one of the non-working items, and exported both the non-working item and its working clone. I think pretty-printed the resulting .1pif file using jq and looked at a side-by-side diff of the two sections to see how they differ. I found some slight differences in the way in which a user-defined section was stored, but this cannot explain why some of my much simpler Xbox items are also non-searchable.

Still digging through this to see if it leads anywhere…

Mr_V · March 2015

Let me post more details as to what I mean by “slight differences”:

In my AWS items, I also store the AWS Access Key ID and Secret Access Key as hidden (password) fields, in a section of their own. This is how this section appears in the original (non-searchable) item:

    "sections": [
      {
        "fields": [
          {
            "k": "concealed",
            "n": "access_key_id",
            "v": "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX",
            "t": "access key id"
          },
          {
            "k": "concealed",
            "n": "access_key",
            "v": "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX",
            "t": "secret"
          }
        ],
        "title": "Access Key",
        "name": ""
      }
   ],

This is how the same section appears in the manually cloned (working, searchable) item:

   "sections": [
      {
        "fields": [
          {
            "k": "concealed",
            "n": "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
            "v": "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX",
            "t": "access key id"
          },
          {
            "k": "concealed",
            "n": "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
            "v": "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX",
            "t": "secret"
          }
        ],
        "title": "Access Key",
        "name": "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
      }
   ],

In both cases the XXXXX X-ed out strings represent my actual access and secret keys. In the second (working) instance, the lowercase x-ed out xxxx fields represent seemingly random alphanumeric strings generated by 1Password — I assume some sort of unique ID. (I didn’t want to include those strings here either, since I don’t know how they’re generated or how they may be reverse engineered.)

littlebobbytables · March 2015

Hi @Mr_V,

I think we've exhausted what we can safely discuss here in the forums and so if you're happy I'd like to continue this over email.

Can you email us please at support+forum@agilebits.com and can you include the following:

A link to this thread, (https://discussions.agilebits.com/discussion/37998/1password-mini-gives-incomplete-search-results/p1)
Mark it For the Attention Of LittleBobbyTables

and we'll take it from there. Sorry this has been such a palaver.

CowFall · May 2015

I had the same problem with one entry. There was a strange thing - "the date of creation was completed as 5 years ago" (however I created it the same day)!

See the attached picture: field "created" - it isn't true date (I didn't have the 1Password in those times). And you can`t see the result in 1password mini (no matter whether in "favorites" or in usual search.

So maybe it`s a hint for hunting the bug by developers - wrong date in "created" field.

PS: in the same moment I saw the entry synchronised on my iPhone.

Megan · May 2015

Hi @CowFall,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts here! I have one quick thing to check first, before we assume that you're seeing the same bug as the original poster:

Please edit the entry in question and scroll down to view the 'Display' settings: is 'Never Display in Browser' selected?

CowFall · May 2015

I am sorry. I can't check it for you. The entry didn't work, so I've already deleted it. If, I will face the similar issue anytime later, I will let you know.
I can only say, that I never use the display settings, and I always use the default preset for the "Display" row.
what's your opinion about the really very old and stranfe "create" date? I don't have a correct explanation for it.

Drew_AG · May 2015

Hi @CowFall,

Did you create a new Login item to replace the one you deleted? If so, does the new one appear correctly in 1Password mini?

As for the old "created" date, I'm not sure exactly why that would have happened. Did you create that Login as a brand new item, or is it possible someone else created it and sent you a copy? If you received the item from someone else, it would show you the original date the item was created. If you created that item yourself, did you do that on a different device? Is it possible the date on that device was set incorrectly at the time you created it? Did you create it in a different version of 1Password? Have you noticed that happen with other items, or just that one?

Hopefully it's not a problem for other items, or for new items you create now.

Mr_V · June 2015

Thanks again for sorting this out for me @littlebobbytables!

Just thought I’d make a note here so it doesn’t look like an open issue…

AGMarshall · June 2015

@Mr_V On behalf of @littlebobbytables you are very welcome. Glad to hear he was able to help via email.

1Password mini gives incomplete search results

Comments