Unusual circumstance involving missing backups and inability to recover passwords

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mbeebe
mbeebe
Community Member
in Mac

Hello,

I've encountered a problem with 1Password v. 6 where I'm not able to recover a vault. This is a little complicated, so I'll go through the circumstances:

  1. Started running licensed version of 1Password, version 6, on a Macbook 15 running Mac OS 10.12, around May of 2017. This version was purchased through AgileBits.
  2. Sometime around the middle of October, I merged my master vault with the vault of my manager using the standard export-import methodology. Everything seems to have worked fine and I was able to view his passwords and my passwords as well.
  3. On 11/9 of this year, my Macbook was stolen and I was given an older Macbook running OSX 10.11.6 and 1Password v. 5. This was my manager's Macbook and still contains (or contained? See below) his original vault.
  4. From Time Machine, I restored the 1Password 6 application to the replacement Mac.
  5. Started 1Password 6 and was told it couldn't find a vault.
  6. Checked Time Machine for vault backups and found the following:
  • There are backup files dating from 10/19 (which is around where I believe I performed the merge mentioned in step 2) to 11/8. Previous to that, dating back to 6/12, there're no backup directories. However, each save point in Time Machine does contain a data directory with SQLite files in it.
  1. Restored the latest backup (11/8) and restore seemed to go without problem.
  2. Logged in to 1Password using my master password. Master password worked.
  3. Discovered that only my manager's passwords were visible. My own passwords were nowhere to be found.
  4. Restored each of the previous backups: same result -- manager's passwords are there and mine are not.
  5. Stopped here.

Questions:

  1. Where are my passwords?
  2. How do I recover my passwords?
  3. Given the backups are apparently useless, can the data be restored from the contents of the Data directory?
  4. What should or shouldn't I do at this point? I'm currently not touching anything further.

Thank you for any help you can provide,

-- Mike Beebe

1Password Version: 6
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: OS X 10.11.6
Sync Type: local

Comments

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni
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    @mbeebe: If you are now using the manager's laptop (#3), it makes sense that it wouldn't have the data which was stored on your stolen laptop. From your description, it sounds like the only place your data ever existed was on your laptop. Based on you comments, it doesn't sound like you ever copied or sync'd it to the manager's laptop. Is that correct?

    But unless you've deleted them or excluded them from Time Machine, you will have backup archives there containing all local vaults for up to 30 days, and then one per month before that going back. All of this will be in one of these places, depending on the version you were using:

    Mac App Store:
    ~/Library/Containers/2BUA8C4S2C.com.agilebits.onepassword-osx-helper/

    AgileBits Store:
    ~/Library/Application Support/1Password 4/

    Are you able to recover either of those folders from the Time Machine backup? Either will have a Backups subfolder with backup archives which are dated, such as 1Password 2017-10-21 23_58_49 (3 profiles, 1381 items, 3 folders, 57 attachments).1p4_zip. Let me know what you find!

  • mbeebe
    mbeebe
    Community Member
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    Hi Brenty,

    Thank you for your response.

    I actually caught a break in that apparently, I was backing up to the cloud all along, or at least until the time I did the merge with my manager's vault. As such, I was able to get back up on my feet.

    Thanks again,

    -- Mike Beebe

  • Lars
    Lars
    1Password Alumni
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    @mbeebe - Backups FTW! I'm glad you were able to restore a copy of your merged data. Let us know if there's anything else we can do to assist you, and have a great week! :)

This discussion has been closed.