I copied my 1Password.agilekeychain from my desktop iMac 1P5 to my laptop 1P4 like always. NG.

Thank you, @Drew_AG for your unusually direct, complete, and informative reply. You might look for a place to put some form of your article in the user guide, or FAQ, or similar.

I have been using Macintoshes since 1986. I see a purchase receipt for 1Password (apparently 1P2) dated June 1, 2009. Until now, I probably had the same version of 1Password on both my desktop (primary) and laptop (secondary) computers. (Actually, I was surprised when this problem occurred to find both 1P4 and 1P5 on my laptop, and even more surprised to learn 1P5 would not work there when I tried to start it up.)

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    You asked for specific details how I “synced” my laptop from my desktop by copying the 1Password.agilekeychain file. I thought that was the standard way (or instructions) to update data from one machine to another. The procedure is simple, and until now it never failed me. I simply sit with my laptop and:

1. Set my Finder folder to ~/Library/Application Support/1Password
2. Rename or copy the existing 1Password.agilekeychain file to save it (just in case)
3. Open a second Finder window, select my desktop’s name under SHARED in the sidebar, and login to my userid on the desktop. From there it looks like my local computer, so I go to ~/Library/Application Support/1Password/1Password.agilekeychain and drag it to the comparable spot on my first window. Done.
4. The next time I open 1Password, the copied database is used like the original. I have long considered this one-way wifi syncing.

A few extra comments or conditions:

a. File Sharing must be enabled on the desktop (and probably laptop) via System Preferences/Sharing. My file sharing is always on.
b. Apple did me no favors by deciding to hide Library from everyone. Sometimes I can use the Finder’s “Go” menu to show it, but the more reliable method is to open Terminal and give the chflags nohidden ~/Library command once per OS X update.

• • *
    My 1Password 5 says I have 146 items stored by title, so I would go crazy without it. My 1Password 4 said I have 125 items using my copied-over database file, so maybe I am losing more than the latest password changes I was complaining about. I use 1Password daily, but update only a few logins a month, so I don’t need to sync all that often. But the instantaneous updates iCloud provides are indeed tempting.

While I was writing this, something strange happened. As a test, on my laptop, I quit 1Password 4, renamed my just-copied-over 1Password.agilekeychain database to something else, and renamed my earlier one back to what it was. When I re-started 1Password, all the changes I had made in the past day or two remained, and did not go back to their prior values. I restarted the computer, and the same thing happened. It is like 1P4 doesn’t necessarily read the .agilekeychain file to get its data, but has some kind of a cache or internal memory it uses instead. ????? (Intrigued, I just noticed that 1Password.agilekeychain is a package, not a file. Maybe my problem relates to different/additional folder/subfolder setups between 1P4 and 1P5?)

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    I noted with interest you said, “Actually, that [copying the backup file] should work just fine, as both versions use the same backup format.” This appeals to me, since the procedure is nearly the same as above. So last night I tried it, and from my spot checks it apparently worked fine. My procedure was:

1. I note that the backups are automatically stored in the 1Password 4 folder for both versions. Each file name contains the date and time. The game is to find the latest backup file in the source (1P5’s) folder. The intent is to copy that file to my laptop, and use 1P4’s File/Restore… command.
2. On my laptop, position my Finder folder to ~/Library/Application Support/1Password 4/Backups
3. Open a second Finder window, select my desktop’s name under SHARED in the sidebar, and login with my desktop’s userid. From there it looks like my local computer, so I click to the Library/Application Support/1Password 4/Backups folder.
4. Find the latest backup file on the source machine by the filename’s date and time, and drag it to the comparable spot on my first window. I close the second Finder window at this point.
5. Open 1Password (preferably from the Applications folder), supply your master password, and use the File/Restore… command. In the window that opens, select the date and time of your copied-over backup file, and click on the Restore button that appears upon your selection.
6. Read the message box and confirm by pressing Restore again. 1Password will quit almost immediately. Open 1Password again, and you should be finished.

I spot checked the updated 1P4 by viewing 4 or 5 changed userid and passwords, and logging into those websites. My 1Password 4 window now says I have 146 items stored by title, up from the 125 items it showed before, and matching the 1P5 on the source machine. The displays look good. Not an exhaustive test, but I will use the new data until I find anything else wrong.

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    I know nothing about folder sync. In reading about it, I was appropriately uncomfortable by your article’s warnings, uncertain about what it is trying to do, where, and with what files, and if I could ever point to the new sync folder from my remote computer. I also was not sure about the paper’s example showing use of the 1Password.agilekeychain file, which had just failed me. Dedicating a thumb drive may be the answer, but with my frequency of need, the whole thing struck me as more work than just copying over the backup file by wi-fi.

You have convinced me that Dropbox syncing is a valid method which I would use if I needed to sync very often. But I still prefer to keep my sensitive data on my own local network — I know, I am just an old fogey.

As an aside, out of curiosity I tried the wifi sync from 1P5 to my ancient iPhone 3 with 1P4 on it. It worked fine, and I confirmed a few passwords to prove it to myself. No problem.

It occurs to me that if backup file transfers are viable, Agile could establish two classes of wi-fi syncing: one for what you use now for IOS transfers, and the other for on-demand wi-fi backup file transfers for computers.

I’m sorry for being so verbose. But all my life I learned the devil is in the details, so I like to be complete and precise. With your help, I think I have found a viable wi-fi parent-child syncing method using the backup/restore facility. Any comments or warnings will be welcome.

Thank you, both. I think I will use that backup/restore method for now, as it seemed to work well and was easy. If I see future problems there, I'll let you know. With my only 2 or 3 computers with one of those the main one, I prefer to use my parent/child method to keep my others up to date. You guys, when you think sync, must think of two-way syncing on a minute-to-minute basis with possibility of more than one person making changes at any moment... much more difficult and demanding.

Meanwhile, you both have given so much good information, I would urge you to consider adding your points to your user guide, or troubleshooting documentation, I know when I was writing software documentation, way back when for the IBM mainframes and VAX, I always considered the limitations section was every bit as important as the capabilities sections. I still look for that section, but almost never find it. :)