Duplicate content in Secure Notes
We are sharing two Vaults with the team via Droppox (5 computers, 5 iPhones, 2 iPads). The two vaults consist of 1491 items (870 and 621).
A few weeks ago we had problems with Dropbox starting to sync like crazy on several computers (and creating thousands of conflicted copy files in that process).
We did a little research and followed the described process on your website (https://support.1password.com/switch-to-opvault/mac.html) to transition away from the Agile Keychain format to the OPVault format. The transition seemed to go smooth, until we discovered yesterday that many Secure Notes now contain duplicate content separated by this character sequence "===". In some cases the content of the Secure Note is duplicated many times. What a mess. :(
Can you please help?
Many thanks!
Best
Amadeus
1Password Version: 5.4.2
Extension Version: 4.5.1
OS Version: 10.11.2
Sync Type: Dropbox
Referrer: kb-search:duplicated notes, kb-search:duplicate notes
Comments
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Hi @amadeusp ,
I have a few questions:
- Are all of the 5 computers Macs or are there some Windows computers as well?
- Is the problem getting worse, or has it stopped since switching to OPVault?
The
===indicates there was a sync conflict. During sync it appears there was a change to the notes field made by two or more devices since the last time sync occurred. In order to preserve data, 1Password will store both copies and put them back in the note field, separated by===.Try cleaning a few of them up, (e.g. edit the note to what you want to keep and save) and make sure it syncs to the other devices. Let us know if the issue comes back.
Regards,
Kevin0 -
Hi @ag_kevin
- All Macs, same OS, same 1P version.
- I can't tell by now, will need to have an eye on it.
So, there's no way to clean this up "automatically"? We do need to go trough all of the notes manually? What's the worst case (I mean, is it possible that 1P continues to create copies)?
BTW: IMHO 1P needs a message center or something alike in order to notify users of such "conflicts". I personally find it pretty frustrating that stuff like this can happen "behind the scenes", without anybody noticing.
Many thanks!
Amadeus
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So, there's no way to clean this up "automatically"? We do need to go trough all of the notes manually?
@amadeusp: Correct. 1Password doesn't understand your notes, and we're not willing to have it make a judgment call for you about which information is "correct", as that's entirely up to you...which is why it will keep both and let you choose. Better safe than sorry!
What's the worst case (I mean, is it possible that 1P continues to create copies)?
BTW: IMHO 1P needs a message center or something alike in order to notify users of such "conflicts". I personally find it pretty frustrating that stuff like this can happen "behind the scenes", without anybody noticing.Sorry for the confusion! 1Password doesn't create the copies; Dropbox does as part of it's conflict management. I agree that it can be frustrating, but this is simply a byproduct of what Dropbox is being asked to do, which is essentially maintain a single filesystem across multiple devices.
Some other cloud services avoid this issue by maintaining the 'one true source' on the server, and that's a good approach for cases like this. But I happen to prefer Dropbox because it integrates with traditional filesystems (individual Mac apps don't have to build in support for Dropbox — it just works). It's just what I'm used to, and the tradeoff is that conflicts can occur from time to time. You can't have it both ways.
That said, you should definitely check out 1Password for Teams, as it's built with precisely your use in mind: multiple concurrent team members working with shared vaults. :)
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I see, thanks for explaining @brenty!
So, basically we have to replace the "Dropbox sync layer" with "1Password for Teams" in the future, I guess. I will definitely have a look at it.
Meanwhile I also had a closer look at how many Secure Notes are actually affected. It's 67 items that contain "===", which seems manageable. :)
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Greetings @amadeusp,
If I may I'd like to add a couple of points.
As great as Dropbox is, and it is great, I believe 1Password for Teams will be worth looking at for you. I believe the crux of the matter is there is no good alternative for a genuine server client approach in contrast to having 5 clients all attempting to interact with data on a filesystem in an automated fashion which Dropbox than has to try and handle. Dropbox can work but if enough clients are all attempting to make changes at the same time it makes it difficult on the poor Dropbox client.
To help you could create a Smart Folder in 1Password for Mac (it's a feature only on this platform) where you can specify two search criteria. The first would be Conflict fields are present which will check for a custom section titled Conflicts that can appear in any item when individual fields have conflicts. The second would be Notes contains === and you would set it to Any of the following are true to show in All Items.
A Smart Folder in combination with Show item counts in sidebar being enabled (an option in the General tab of 1Password's preferences will easily allow you to keep an eye on conflicts.
The other point I wanted to make is I would actually expect conflicts to increase when using OPVault containers. The Agile Keychain format was designed for a single file per vault item. Conflicts would only happen if there was an issue where two machines were both attempting to alter the same item. The OPVault container uses bands, 16 to be precise and we spread the items over those 16 bands. Now you enter the situation where two instances of 1Password can be altering different items that happen to be in the same band. If they are and these alterations are occurring at the same time the result is a conflict file. Now 1Password should be able to resolve this but in theory I would expect there to be more conflict files for 1Password to process with an OPVault container if you normally experience conflicts. Let's say it's worth keeping an eye on.
Hopefully this contributed something to the conversation :smile:
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Wow, thank you @littlebobbytables, that's was some great info and advice! I have set it up accordingly and it works beautifully.
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Wow. Indeed. I both love him and hate him because he is smarter than me. I'm glad that helped! :lol:
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;)
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Hating on a stick figure - wow.
:tongue:
Joking between colleagues aside, I'm glad it helped amadeusp. Hopefully things settle down but check out Teams as we really have your situation in mind when it was being created. You can try it out or just keep an eye on how things seem to be progressing and we're here to answer questions where we can.
Oh and brenty, screenshot taken buddy :lol:
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