1Password Helper Blocking Update on Macbook Pro Running Mojave

Diamondback26
Diamondback26
Community Member

Each time 1Password needs to be update I have to disable the Helper in 1Password Preferences/Browser. If I don't I get a continuous message saying 1Password cannot be running for the upgrade to proceed. Is there a fix for this as I need to keep the Helper running to effectively use Safari and it is a pain to keep unchecking and rechecking it for every upgrade.


1Password Version: 7.2.4
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: 10.14.2
Sync Type: Not Provided

Comments

  • Hi @Diamondback26

    Do you recall which version of 1Password you most recently updated from? We corrected an issue like this in v7.2, but you'd have to have been updating from that version or greater in order to see the fix. Also please note that this only affects Mac App Store updates... the version of 1Password downloaded from our website does not have this issue. If it continues for you and you'd rather not wait for us to investigate a fix you can potentially work around this by downloading 1Password from us directly.

    Ben

  • Diamondback26
    Diamondback26
    Community Member

    Hi Ben,

    I have been updating the app from the Mac App Store. I cannot remember which version I originally updated from but I am on the latest App Store version of the app. I have been having this issue for the last three to four updates.

  • Thanks @Diamondback26. If at all possible please let us know ASAP if you notice this difficulty with the next update. Since this should've been fixed for updates after v7.2 if the next one has these same symptoms then we'll need to re-evaluate that fix.

    Ben

  • Diamondback26
    Diamondback26
    Community Member

    Thanks Ben. Will do.

  • Thanks. :+1: :)

    Ben

  • AlvaroDN
    AlvaroDN
    Community Member

    Still happens...

  • Lars
    Lars
    1Password Alumni

    Welcome to the forum, @AlvaroDN! Thanks for weighing in on this. If you're having trouble, can you let us know a bit more about your specific situation so we know how to help? What specific version of 1Password for Mac do you have installed (and from where - us, or the Mac App Store), what specific version of macOS are you running, etc? Thanks.

  • oerdnj
    oerdnj
    Community Member

    @Lars This has happened to me again when upgrading from 7.2.5 to 7.2.6 today via App Store. The .com.agilebits.onepassword7-helper process came back as soon as it was killed and I had to chmod 000 the directory with the helper (1Password Extension Helper.app), then kill the process and then chmod it back to 755. Only after that the App Store was able to finish the update.

    I am running Mojave 10.14.5 (updated to latest patch release just before upgrading the 1 Password 7).

  • Thanks for reporting on this @oerdnj.

    Ben

  • oerdnj
    oerdnj
    Community Member

    @Ben I would be happy to report more information, I am software engineer myself, so I know a value of good bug report, feel free to DM me if you want to do more extensive debugging if I encounter the issue again. I am more user then developer on macOS, so I would need some hand holding when debugging the internals, but I would be happy to help as I do value 1 Password dearly (I migrated from LastPass when I switched from Linux to macOS...)

  • @oerdnj

    I appreciate the offer and will be happy to take you up on it. We're hoping to release another update here soon, so please do keep us posted. If the problem continues it would be great if you could please generate a diagnostic report shortly after updating. Our diagnostics are a 'snapshot in time' to some degree (logs are only captured back so far), so it is most helpful to have a report from just after experiencing the problem.

    https://support.1password.com/diagnostics/

    If you could please email that report to support+forum@1password.com, including a link to this thread in your email, that would be great. To help us 'connect the dots' please also post the support ID you get from our email system ("BitBot") here.

    Thanks!

    Ben

  • oerdnj
    oerdnj
    Community Member

    Another new version, another failure to update due onepassword7-helper not being able to stop. I created the report and sent it to above mentioned address.

  • Thanks @oerdnj. :)

    Ben

  • Rjevski
    Rjevski
    Community Member

    Same issue here with the last 2 updates. 1Password Extension Helper is exhibiting malware-like behavior as I literally cannot kill it. Whatever your justification is, if I kill a process via the Activity Monitor, I expect it to remain killed, not respawn forever. I have a ticket open months ago with your support (ticket ID VCA-98736-677) but it's sad to see this is still not resolved. It's not rocket science, just disable whatever is making that process restart, so at least if we want to kill it for whatever reason we have the choice to do so via the Activity Monitor.

  • Hi @Rjevski. I understand that's it frustrating and I'm sorry about that. The respawning behavior is actually a result of macOS relaunching the extension helper after it gets killed. We ask the system to ensure that the extension helper is running the first time we start it, and from there on out its lifecycle is managed by macOS. If it gets killed the OS restarts it.

    We are aware of the issues and are working on a fix. In the meantime your best bet for a successful update is to option-click on the 1Password mini icon in the menu bar and select Quit 1Password Completely. Then make sure your browsers are all quit as well, and then perform the update.

  • Rjevski
    Rjevski
    Community Member

    Any chance you can share a command to disable/enable this behavior from the command line? When I'm already in the process of updating and I just need to kill it. I don't use 1Password Mini in the top bar so your way would require me to reopen 1Password (and wait a few seconds for it to load), then unlock it, and then finally quit it. I'd like a quicker way from the command line (I assume it's gonna be a launchd command).

  • Rjevski
    Rjevski
    Community Member

    Has there been any progress on this? I have had this problem again the last few times 1Password had an update.

    The App Store is unable to update 1Pwd automatically and will get stuck on "1Password must be closed to update". The problem is, closing it is absolutely impossible at that point. The App Store itself can't do it (as the extension helper will respawn right after), and I can't do it as a user because the half-started update process will prevent me from opening up the 1Password app to do the "quit completely". The only way out of this is to cancel the update process completely so that I can open the app again, click "quit completely" and then finally restart the update manually from the App Store.

    This is insanely bad UX and something I would expect on Windows where nothing works well together, not on macOS.

  • ag_ana
    ag_ana
    1Password Alumni

    @Rjevski:

    The problem is, closing it is absolutely impossible at that point. The App Store itself can't do it (as the extension helper will respawn right after), and I can't do it as a user because the half-started update process will prevent me from opening up the 1Password app to do the "quit completely".

    It sounds like 1Password mini is still running in your menu bar when this is happening to you. Can you please try quitting 1Password completely from 1Password mini instead than from the app (right-click on 1Password mini in the menu bar at the top right of your screen > Quit 1Password Completely), and see if the update can continue at that point?

  • Rjevski
    Rjevski
    Community Member

    @ag_ana yes if I quit it completely it works. My problem is that I shouldn't have to do this. None of my other apps need to be closed manually to do an update, the App Store is able to close them just fine.

  • ag_ana
    ag_ana
    1Password Alumni

    @Rjevski:

    Agreed! This used to work in the past, and I think it reappeared just recently, so we will make sure this is taken care of again :)

  • Rjevski
    Rjevski
    Community Member

    I've had this problem for ages. I don't think this has ever worked, and judging by this thread I am not alone.

    If this matters, I've got the 1Password menu disabled (so the helper still runs in the background, but without an icon in the system bar).

  • ag_ana
    ag_ana
    1Password Alumni

    @Rjevski:

    It was definitely fixed in version 7.4:

    Resolved an issue that would prevent the app from quitting when doing an update.

    Once again, we will make sure this is resolved again :)

  • Rjevski
    Rjevski
    Community Member

    I don't know what that fix has changed but I don't recall this ever working for me. I guess I must be hitting some edge-case that makes the fix not work.

  • ag_ana
    ag_ana
    1Password Alumni

    @Rjevski:

    It's possible, yes. Thank you again for sharing this feedback with us by the way! It's great that you are so passionate about 1Password, and that you are helping us improve it even more :+1:

  • alexmidd
    alexmidd
    Community Member

    I'm getting this too, 1Password v7.4.4 on an iMac running Catalina. There have been three or four updates in the past few days, and it is getting tedious having to go into 1Password and disable the helper and reenable it again after the update is done, so a fix would be welcome. Thanks.

  • ag_ana
    ag_ana
    1Password Alumni

    Thank you for letting us know about your experience @alexmidd :+1: We will keep investigating this.

This discussion has been closed.