1Password on multiple devices creating conflicts

fastrunner
fastrunner
Community Member
edited October 2012 in 1Password 3 – 7 for Mac
I have been using 1Password for quite some time. I have been very happy with it and never had a problem until now. I have 1P on my mac, android phone, iPad and my wife's mac. We each have a licensed copy running on our own computers. We share many of our accounts and were having a hard time when one of us updated a password, because the other user wouldn't have the updated password in their 1P keychain. So, I decided to put the keychain in a shared dropbox folder and link both of us to the same keychain. Ever since then, we are getting conflicted entries on both computers. We rarely change or add passwords, and probably never do so on the same entry at the same time to create the conflicts. A lot of times, these conflicted copies are in the trash, too. I have read around about how to handle conflicted copies, but I am still not sure how to handle this situation. So, I would like to know......

Is there a way to successfully have two users share a keychain without creating conflicts? Our computers are literally right next to each other, so if we have to make sure that we don't both have 1P open at the same time when making changes, we can probably do that. I would assume we would have to make the changes, close 1P, wait for the dropbox file to upload and sync to both systems before opening 1P again on the other computer. Is that right? Is there an easier way to share a keychain or particular entries with another user?

Thanks.

Edit to add: From what I can tell by making changes to entries and watching the sync icon for dropbox, it looks like changes are synced to dropbox as soon as they are saved, not after the application is closed. So it seems that even if 1P is open on two devices at once, it should be able to sync without conflict unless changes are made to the entry on both systems at the same time. Hopefully, that is right and I am getting these conflicts for a different reason.

Comments

  • khad
    khad
    1Password Alumni
    If you are using Dropbox and a single data file (thus obviously with the same Master Password since it is the exact same data file), there shouldn't be any trouble. I'm not sure how often you would be editing the exact same item especially if you are sitting right next to each other and can therefore see what the other person is doing, but even if you do, Dropbox uses LAN syncing by default which is nearly instantaneous.

    1Password's data file was designed from the ground up with syncing in mind. Each item is stored in a separate file within the bundle, so only the item that is edited needs to sync. If you are editing two different items it is impossible for a conflict to occur since 1Password will be writing a separate file within the bundle on each of your machines. :)

    For more on Sync Conflicts, please see the relevant section in the User Guide which includes an explanation as well as steps to "bulk resolve" conflicts which can often take care of some ongoing issues some users see where the same conflicts keep getting synced. Please try the "Choose All from…" option as shown in the screenshot and explained at the end:

    http://help.agilebits.com/1Password3/sync_conflict_resolver.html

    If you're still having trouble, could you tell me more about the exact trouble you are having? Specific steps you are taking and what you are [not] seeing happen will be much more helpful in resolving things.

    Let me know how it goes. Cheers!
  • fastrunner
    fastrunner
    Community Member
    I have already reviewed the recommended reading in the user guide, but I thought my problems were different because of the multiple machine use. Since that doesn't really seem to be the issue, I am looking closer to see what's going on. One thing that really confuses me is when it is asking to resolve a conflict with trashed items. If I chose to resolve by selecting the item in the trash, is it going to move the item from the trash back into my logins? I wasn't sure it 1P was somehow moving one of my entries to the trash them asking to resolve it and planning to move it back, or if the trashed conflicts are just old entries. I don't really delete that many entries, but I seem to have many conflicts of trashed items.

    In the meantime, I will take a look and see if I can find a pattern to these conflicts so i can better explain the problem to you. Thanks for the help.
  • khad
    khad
    1Password Alumni
    In some cases "persistent" individual conflicts can be resolved by using the "Choose All from…" option that I suggested above. Have you tried that yet? If not, please do. I think it may be your ticket to conflict freedom. :)
    SyncConflictResolver.jpg
    That will at least give us a baseline so that if a conflict does appear again, we'll know we started from zero.

    If you have trouble after using the "Choose All from…" option, please generate a Diagnostics Report as soon as the conflict appears and email the report to us so we can better assist you. In 1Password 3.8, just select Help > Troubleshooting > Diagnostics Report from the menu bar.

    Then attach the entire file to an email to support AT agilebits.com.

    Please include a link to this thread in order that we might more quickly "connect the dots" when we see your Diagnostics Report in our inbox.

    Please do not post your Diagnostics Report in the forums, though.
  • fastrunner
    fastrunner
    Community Member
    Sorry for my delay, for some reason I am not getting notifications from the subscripbed topic. Anyway......I was scared to select the choose all option because I didn't want to lose anything I might need. So I was going through them one at a time. I can try it, but can you let me know about the trashed items first? If I select to resolve a conflict with a trashed item, does it still stay in the trash? If so, should I try to empty the trash again to see if that eliminates some of the conflicts, since many of them are trashed items?
  • khad
    khad
    1Password Alumni
    Yes, a trashed item will stay in the trash if that is the version you select to resolve the conflict. I don't think emptying the trash will have any effect, but rather using the "Choose All from…" option will.
  • fastrunner
    fastrunner
    Community Member
    I went through all of the conflicted items. Pretty much all of them were trashed items. There were a couple that were not in the trash. In my case, the ones I needed to keep were on the computer not in dopbox. So, I selected the choose all from computer. If I would have sleceted choose all from dropbox, I would have lost a couple passwords. So far, I have opened 1P on all devices, and things appear to be ok now. Is there anything to be concerned about that my dropbox file didn't have the updated entries I had made weeks ago on my computer? Also, I did have to force sync the iPad 3 times for my changes from the computer to take effect.
  • khad
    khad
    1Password Alumni
    I don't think there is any cause for concern unless conflicts are are common occurrence. There are many reasons why a conflict — or, more likely, many conflicts from an overdue sync session — would pop up. Once they have been resolved and you are syncing your devices regularly, it should not be a regular thing. If so, please let us know. A Diagnostics Report generated as close to the time of the appearance of the conflicts would be most helpful in that case.

    Hopefully it will be smooth sailing from here on out. :)
This discussion has been closed.