How do I merge duplicate entries in 1Password?

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Comments

  • rando
    rando
    Community Member

    @brenty I'm surprised that my case isn't typical but that's also a relief. I've been spending quite a lot of time merging these duplicate entries with differing URLs using "Reused Passwords" tab. I get kicked back to "Logins" tab whenever I save an edit to one of the entries. So I have to navigate back and find the same entries again before I can delete the duplicate entry. The back and forth navigation has been quite a hassle. It's sad to hear that my experience won't improve sooner and I have 400 more entries to revise. Good luck to me, I guess.

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni

    @LMMdesigns: Thanks for the kind words! I do think we'll be able to come up with a good solution. The current Clean Up Duplicate Items feature in 1Password for Mac (Help > Tools) is just a start, and we want to be conservative in our approach so that we're not tossing out any data people want. The encouragement is greatly appreciated. :)

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni

    @rando: While your case isn't typical, I'm sorry that we don't have more to help you at this time. And the issue you're running into with navigation is certainly making things even more difficult. :(

    The Clean Up Duplicate Items feature has helped most of the people who've tried it since its introduction, but we do want to do more. We just want to be cautious when it comes to anything 1Password does that discards data. Thank you for sharing your experience. It's clear that this is something that could stand to be improved.

  • maxime6542
    maxime6542
    Community Member
    edited August 2018

    Hello !

    Some news about this?

    Almost 3 years, do we need still to, FOR THE MOMENT, "need to manually copy/paste information from one item to the other, then delete the duplicate that you don't need." as said in 2015?

    PS : Or maybe can you improve the engine so that docker.com and hub.docker.com are not recognized as two different websites - I'd love to not have to do merges at all.

  • Lars
    Lars
    1Password Alumni

    Welcome to the forum, @maxime6542! Thanks for weighing in on this topic. As brenty mentioned above, we're looking into a more-comprehensive solution while making sure we remain conservative with users' data, so there's no possibility of inadvertently removing needed/wanted data.

  • maxime6542
    maxime6542
    Community Member
    edited August 2018

    Hi Lars, thanks for this quick reply.

    Shame on me, I didn't read the whole discussion - the Help > Tools > Clean duplicates menu is exactly what I'm looking for. Maybe should you make it more obvious to find, but at least it's here. Thanks !

    Maxime

  • Lars
    Lars
    1Password Alumni

    @maxime6542 - you're quite welcome. :)

  • atothek
    atothek
    Community Member

    I read through a few of the pages here and don't see a simple way to remove duplicate Items after trying to merge my local opvault file with my new 1password.com subscription. I couldn't get the databases to merge, so I copied the old vault items to the 1password.com account. Now I have ~1500 duplicate Items. I can't deal with copy/pasting 1500 times. Is there a way to export into a product (Excel or something even) where I can easily identify duplicates since the Help/Tools/Clean Up Duplicate Items seems to do nothing for me?

  • atothek
    atothek
    Community Member
    edited August 2018

    It's even worse now. In preparing to import via CSV after cleaning dupes in KeePass 2, I now have 0 items in my Vault and all are in the Trash. There appears to be no way to Restore all the trash items. There appears to be no easy way to import from KeePass and even the CSV import wouldn't work as some of the vault items are not same type. Plus the CSV exported from KeePass must not be in the right format. FML this product is SO frustrating for existing customers that have been paying for and using the product.

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni

    @atothek: I don't understand what you're doing exactly. Can you elaborate? It sounds like you've improved the same data multiple times, and then trashed everything. Can you tell me where you have all of your original data? It's probably best to start there.

  • atothek
    atothek
    Community Member
    edited August 2018

    @brenty It's in multiple locations--trash on 1password.com and a 1pif file and possibly Dropbox and 1Cloud opvault files. I imported back to 1password.com from the 1pif file so it's now in my Personal vault there as well as the Trash there. But full of duplicates in both locations. Want to clean it up without the hassle of going through each item.

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni

    @atothek: I'm sorry to be a pain, but earlier you seemed to be saying that you were new to 1Password and importing data from another app via CSV. Can you clarify?

  • atothek
    atothek
    Community Member
    edited August 2018

    @brenty Let me start over. I have been using 1Password for years. Tried to switch to 1password.com. Most of my devices failed to migrate the opvault data to 1password.com. In an attempt to ensure I didn't lose passwords, I copied the data from opvault to 1password.com. Now I have duplicates. Just want to fix the duplicates in any automated, quick way possible.

  • atothek
    atothek
    Community Member

    @brenty LastPass has a duplicate remover that seems to work well. Apparently I have a lot of dupes; haha.

    Completed; duplicates removed: 988

  • atothek
    atothek
    Community Member

    @brenty I think I figured it out. Had to change to Personal (1Password.com) vault from "All Vaults" which still had my iCloud opvault loaded and then the Help/Tools/Clean Duplicates worked!

  • Thanks for the update @atothek! Now that you seem to be in pretty good shape we do recommend removing the old Primary vault:

    http://support.1password.com/migrate-1password-account/#set-up-your-other-devices

    As keeping that around can cause some problems (including duplicates!). I hope that helps!

    Ben

  • atothek
    atothek
    Community Member

    Ok will do. Thanks, @Ben

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni

    Sounds good. We're here if you need us. :) :+1:

  • SpaceGray
    SpaceGray
    Community Member

    I see this continues to grow as a topic, but I would like to echo other's opinions that the ability to merge is something that is essential and I would really like to see implemented.

    I have found under iOS 12 that there are numerous times where an app is not recognized with the pre-existing URL. I actually see that as a good security feature in some ways so that it is not too lenient. As a result I do not mind making a second log in with the same credentials. However, I would really like a way to then merge or at least "link" the two entries. Linking could be a way to allow an easier change where rather than merging them, one is simply prompted after a change to a linked login and asked if it should be applied to the other login as well.

    I hope to see this, or something similar, happen.

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni

    It's really not possible fr 1Password to know what you want exactly with regard to "merging" something. Do you literally want all of the fields and their values from both items put into a single item? Probably not. We have some ideas around things like linking, which would help in different use cases, like you describe, but ultimately 1Password should not be changing user data — either adding or removing it — itself, so it will still be up to you to use the tools available to save what you want.

  • SpaceGray
    SpaceGray
    Community Member

    @brenty, would it be possible instead to choose fields to merge? For example:

    1. Choose two items, select "Merge Items"
    2. A window pops up and asks what areas you want to keep/change from each item

    This would seem to be a simple solution to do exactly that.

    Primarily, this is an issue with the new iOS 12 release. Many apps from the App Store are not showing up as a login that I have in 1Password and therefore can sometimes not be selected or filled, but I can create a new log in. If I create a new log in, I would like to merge the link generated by the app with the link generated for the website (or be prompted to add it).

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni

    Indeed, everything is much simpler when someone else has to do the work. :lol: We can certainly consider adding something like that in the future, but it doesn't come up often enough to prioritize over other things. And if you look at the comments here (which mostly have to do with getting rid of duplicates), not everyone has the same preferences and use case for a "merge" feature. But perhaps we'll be able to offer other features in this area in the future.

  • ishming
    ishming
    Community Member

    The fundamental problem here is when SUDDENLY because of some unrelated syncing option one might have clicked or unclicked you have a bunch of duplicates and you have no clue which is which when you're trying to get a password login for a site you just signed into.

    Sure we can copy a password or a website from one item to another but what about the "password history"? This gets lost!

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni

    @ishming: I'm not sure what you're talking about here. Nothing happens "suddenly", without any user interaction. The only way duplicates are created is if the user creates them, typically by copying the data to a different vault and keeping both (so that two of everything is shown in the All Vaults view), or by syncing two different vaults with similar data with each other. Having the ability to copy data between vaults and sync different ones are important functions that many people need. We can't get rid of that, or stop people from making a change they later regret. But the desktop apps do backup the local data, so it is possible to revert to that if needed.

    Sure we can copy a password or a website from one item to another but what about the "password history"? This gets lost!

    Password history only goes away, literally, if you intentionally select Duplicate. The duplicate item created does not include password history, because it's a new item which has never had a different password. I'd suggest not using the Duplicate option unless you do, in fact, want to duplicate the data in the selected item(s).

  • ishming
    ishming
    Community Member

    @brenty Ok yeah, so it appeared that I had somehow duplicated a whole swath of logins by clicking some sync on the desktop app or phone app, I don't remember. But it turned out that duplicates hadn't happened.

    I started seeing too many logins for the same site but it could be perhaps because of the different domains and subdomains especially associated with banks and other secure institutions...

    So it's not a bulk problem which can be very frustrating if one had to manually merge many logins.

    But the other issue I'm raising is about having to manually merge. If you have two logins for the same site (or cluster of sites with similar subdomains), It's possible that across devices you could end up updating both of them. To reconcile and "merge" into one login by basically copying the information from one into the other before deleting one, there is the metadata like "previous passwords" that wouldn't/couldn't be copied.

    That's what I meant about password history. You'd have two histories and no way to combine them when merging the fields.

    I understand there's no current login merge capability now, but I did want to clarify the issue I was trying to explain above. It's possible this reply makes it LESS clear!

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni

    But the other issue I'm raising is about having to manually merge. If you have two logins for the same site (or cluster of sites with similar subdomains), It's possible that across devices you could end up updating both of them. To reconcile and "merge" into one login by basically copying the information from one into the other before deleting one, there is the metadata like "previous passwords" that wouldn't/couldn't be copied. That's what I meant about password history. You'd have two histories and no way to combine them when merging the fields. I understand there's no current login merge capability now, but I did want to clarify the issue I was trying to explain above. It's possible this reply makes it LESS clear!

    Thanks for clarifying. That actually helps a lot. While I'm not sure why/how you'd do that in the first place, and it doesn't seem common, you raise an interesting point about password history. I can't say I've had a use for password history past a few weeks or so (by that point, I'll know if I need the old one due to a failed password change), but it's something we can keep in mind as we develop future versions. Thank you for bringing it up -- and for taking the time to explain. :)

  • joshka
    joshka
    Community Member

    I was just about to start a thread to ask for a merge feature for exactly the same reasons. I have various email addresses for sites and have sometimes changed them over time ending up with duplicate entries for sites. Keeping password history is useful, as sometimes these duplicates are actually multiple logins and I'm consolidating down to a single one but need the history kept.

    Another approach that I'm considering using instead as a workaround is to create an Archive vault and exclude it from All Vaults. This works to keep the noise of those deprecated logins down when using 1p day-to-day.

  • SpaceGray
    SpaceGray
    Community Member

    Indeed, everything is much simpler when someone else has to do the work. :lol: We can certainly consider adding something like that in the future, but it doesn't come up often enough to prioritize over other things. And if you look at the comments here (which mostly have to do with getting rid of duplicates), not everyone has the same preferences and use case for a "merge" feature. But perhaps we'll be able to offer other features in this area in the future.

    Although I do agree that things are not ever easy to make happen, I think the updated iOS 12 implementation may be a reason to bring this forward more. With the implementation of iOS 12 and support for entries, there's a number of items that work in a browser, but do not work in an App. As a result, creating a duplicate entry is the only way to add that feature. If we could create the duplicate and then merge it (or alternatively simply assign the app URL Scheme to the existing item) this would help significantly.

    Thanks for clarifying. That actually helps a lot. While I'm not sure why/how you'd do that in the first place, and it doesn't seem common, you raise an interesting point about password history. I can't say I've had a use for password history past a few weeks or so (by that point, I'll know if I need the old one due to a failed password change), but it's something we can keep in mind as we develop future versions. Thank you for bringing it up -- and for taking the time to explain. :)

    Regarding this, I also agree that Password History is something that is very useful, and a feature I use on a regular basis as well. Losing that history is a pain for sure.

    Lastly, I would also add a note about the use of this to merge "Passwords" with "Logins". At the moment, my 1Password account (with ~700 items) has 94 items that are passwords without logins. Most of these are duplicates of full logins that just got left behind at some point in time. Having a way to associate and merge these items would be incredible. Looking at a given "Password" item, there's 2-4 entries from different passwords I attempted to use (often things that were caught up in a system that requires a very specific password scheme used) and never saved or deleted. It would be best to have these all in a single Login item but with each entry as a History item.

  • Lars
    Lars
    1Password Alumni

    @joshka - I've actually got a vault myself called "Archives" which I use in exactly the manner you describe. There's perhaps a bit too much of the digital hoarder/pack-rat in me, but you never know when you might need some disused piece of data. Regarding a "merge" feature, see brenty's comments, above. It's something we've had on the back burner for a while, mostly because other priorities have taken precedence, and everyone seems to have a different use-case for merging, how it should function, etc. But stay tuned to updates and release notes, which is where you'd see announcements of this nature first. :)

  • Lars
    Lars
    1Password Alumni

    @SpaceGray - interesting ideas! Thanks for sharing them; I'll pass these along to the development team.

This discussion has been closed.