Sync 1Password 6 with iCloud

Hi @drlevbk. I'm glad to see you modernizing your computing setup; 10.6.8 was a decade ago and many of the applications and even parts of the OS itself no longer work with current technologies.

I'm not sure what you're trying to accomplish, and I don't know what you mean by "I will temporarily turn off the sync option in 1Password 6 but 1Password.agilekeychain file will be updated to iCloud." If you use an Agile Keychain file to import data into the new 1Password 6 for Mac, then it will be synced by default with that file -- wherever you store it on your Mac. It's called Folder Sync, and you can certainly turn it off in Preferences > Sync within 1Password 6 for Mac, but it doesn't automatically convert to or turn on iCloud syncing. You'll need to choose what method of sync you plan to use -- and no matter which you choose, Backups are a separate matter (which is why they have a separate tab in Preferences).

Like 1Password 3 for Mac, version 6 has a Preferences > Backups tab. 1Password makes one backup per day of your 1Password data. The files are stored at ~/Library/Application Support/1Password 4/Backups/ (if you have 1Password from our downloads page instead of the Mac App Store). In the Backups tab of Preferences, you can create a fresh manual backup any time you like, or you can restore from an existing backup. There is also an option to show the actual folder where the backups are kept.

My suggestion to you would be to make sure NOT to create any new data (or change/add anything new to the existing items) in 1Password 6 for Mac during your test phase. If you plan to keep updating the existing Agile Keychain on your older Macs running 1Password 3 for Mac, then I would just experiment with the new setup until you're satisfied, then delete all the data in 1Password 6 for Mac by locking 1Password and choosing Help > Troubleshooting > Erase all 1Password Data from the menubar. After that, you can set up 1Password 6 for Mac again as if new, with the "real" Agile Keychain (the fresh one from your older Macs), and you'll be ready to switch to whatever sync method you choose.

@drlevbk -

It is my understanding, that after I transfer my current and up to date 1Password.agilekeychain file generated on old Mac by 1Password 3 to Document folder on new Mac with OS 10.13.1 and 1Password 6, direct 1Password to proper location of the file and select Preferences>Sync>None, iCloud will still automatically update and sync the 1Password.agilekeychain file...

This is not correct. If your vault in 1Password 6 for Mac is set as Preferences > Sync > None, then you will not be syncing via any method; iCloud or otherwise. 1Password's iCloud sync does not use iCloud drive as many other applications do, it uses CloudKit, which is a developer-tool for syncing database-like data via iCloud but outside of iCloud Drive. So just having iCloud active on your Mac does not mean your 1Password data is syncing via iCloud.

Does that answer your question? If not, let me know what you're still unclear about and we'll keep going. :)

@drlevbk - ah, OK, I see what you were getting at now! iCloud doesn't work in the same way that Dropbox does. For one thing, it does not and never has used Agile Keychain files as sync files. There's nothing preventing you from putting an Agile Keychain file into your Documents folder and using iCloud Drive to sync that to other places, but that is not the same as using iCloud sync in 1Password itself and we do not provide support for such a method. It would also not be compatible with iOS devices, since the sync there must rely on CloudKit, not iCloud Drive.

I'm still not 100% sure I understand what you're trying to accomplish here, but I can tell you that you need to choose one method of sync over another. If you choose iCloud sync, you will not even see an Agile Keychain or OPVault file, because syncing will take place out of your direct view, via CloudKit. If you choose Dropbox sync, you'll have an Agile Keychain or OPVault file that you can actually see in your Dropbox folder -- but definitely don't make your Dropbox folder available to iCloud Drive at the same time. Both onboard CloudKit sync and Dropbox have been tested pretty thoroughly by us. They're known quantities, especially in the area of sync conflicts: what happens if one instance tries to update while another is also trying to? With CloudKit and Dropbox, we have a good handle on how that will behave, and what 1Password should do with sync conflicts. If you use Folder Sync to write out a keychain and then use iCloud Drive or...well, pretty much anything else (One Drive, Google Drive, etc) to handle syncing to a remote server, we have a lot less insight into how things will behave. It MAY work...or it might really screw things up: data duplication, data loss -- all of these are possibilities if you try to "roll your own" sync in that way. I'm not trying to scare or depress you, just making sure you understand that we cannot support DIY sync setups like some of what you're mentioning, because we haven't thoroughly tested them to know how 1Password will handle unusual occurrences.

@drlevbk: Hands down, a 1Password.com account is the best experience on recent OSes. It doesn't sound like that's going to work for you now, but if in the future you're able to get up to date, you may want to consider a 1Password.com membership, since it gives you access to all of the apps, the web interface, and does away with license management and sync configuration altogether — you simply login to your account to authorize a device and access your data. You can also try it for free for 30 days to take advantage of all of its benefits. On a Mac though, that means running 1Password 6 on at least Yosemite. But since we've built all of that ourselves, we're able to make it seamless, and fix any sync issues that arise, since all of that is handled by our server. I hope this helps. Be sure to let me know if you have any other questions! :)

ref: AFE-15631-114