Will an encrypted iTunes backup of the iOS 1Password app always fully restore the saved passwords?

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Intensity
Intensity
Community Member
in iOS

I wanted to know, if I have a standalone vault (not syncing to iTunes Cloud nor 1Password cloud), if I take a local iTunes backup of the iOS device and provide a pass phrase for the backup (thus, enabling an "encrypted backup"), will I always be able to restore that data later to the device and recover all the passwords stored in the app?

As I understand it, if I don't provide a password during iTunes backup, then normally iTunes drops the storage of any confidential passwords (this makes sense) and archives everything else. But if I provide a pass phrase for the iTunes backup, then I believe the backup is more inclined to store the secret data on the iOS device, including passwords.

My question is about the fidelity of such a backup. In order for the backup/restore process to work successfully, does the iOS developer (such as 1Password in this case) need to make sure that the data (the 1Password passwords and secure notes, for instance) is stored in a certain way? I wouldn't want to be surprised later on to find out that the passwords I was entrusting to be backed up were not there upon restore. Is this something that the 1Password Team is sure to test that it works properly upon each software release?

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

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  • ag_kevin
    ag_kevin
    Options

    Hi @Intensity ,

    Whether or not you encrypt your device backups to iTunes, the 1Password database is backed up along with it. The 1Password data is encrypted itself, but we still recommend encrypting your iTunes backups to protect other personal information on your phone.

    When you restore a backup from iTunes, it should restore the data and download the 1Password app automatically. Your data should still be there. However, we've seen cases where iTunes restores have failed, and customers have had to restore more than once to get the data back. And there may have been some cases where it has failed completely. This is beyond our control. If iTunes doesn't put the data back, then there's not much we can do.

    However, you can do one of two things:
    1. Set up sync to iCloud or Dropbox, or better yet, migrate to a membership where we are able to backup your data.
    2. If you don't want to back up your data offsite, you can create a manual backup of your data with iTunes. The instructions for backup/restore are here: https://support.1password.com/backups/#you-can-also-create-and-restore-backups-of-standalone-vaults

    So, you can either do option 1, or do step 2 periodically.

    I hope that helps. If you have any questions, please reply.

    Cheers,
    Kevin

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