What does "Rebuild Data File" actually do?

Hi Michael,

That is normal. When you empty your trash, the items are not gone but simply tombstoned. In other words, the data values are deleted for good but the metadata is left behind. The reason is because it's used to sync permanent deletions to other endpoints such as your iOS app, browser extensions and so on. If we deleted the file itself, the endpoints would think it's missing and syncs the data back to the data file.

Rebuilding basically reads the data, copy it and recreate it into a new item that's exactly like the first one, it's a way to refresh the items to get rid of any stale stuff. This also does the same for the tombstoned items.

Here's an example of a tombstoned item if you look at it:

{
    "uuid": "0B3DD335F48E432BB8A0D47307A4D7C3",
    "updatedAt": 1360806914,
    "locationKey": "",
    "openContents": {
        "contentsHash": "fe62a730"
    },
    "keyID": "E4AFA4BA5A814571B85938DADE701C1C",
    "trashed": true,
    "title": "",
    "location": "",
    "encrypted": "U2FsdGVkX18OUZakhn9MBGtJc48Pj/HKTqX7uonStyE=\u0000",
    "createdAt": 1278191192,
    "typeName": "system.Tombstone"
}

Hi Michael,

Yes, it can grow over time despite the tombs being very small. We're trying to find a better way to handle this. This is one of the reasons why the sync process can be the most difficult part of many apps, it's in their nature to make the entire app 10x more complex.

Right now, the cleanest way to get rid of those tombs are to export the data and import it in a new data file, which is probably something we can do in the future with a hidden option. The thing about doing this, is that you'll have a separate data file ID, which kicks in a security alarm in the 1Password Helper to block the sync between the browser extensions and the main 1Password app. You'd have to reinstall the extensions to allow the new IDs.

The security policy is in place to prevent 1Password from accidentally syncing two different data files into the same file.

You're welcome!

They shouldn't really be taking up much of any space at all, but you can:

1. Backup your data file (File > Backup).
2. Export all your data to 1PIF (File > Export All > 1Password Interchange File).
3. Create a new data file.
4. Import the file you created in step one (File > Import).

To securely delete the unencrypted 1PIF file in Finder:

1. Empty your trash (Finder > Empty Trash). (This will ensure that only the 1PIF is securely deleted since the process takes a long time and there is likely no need to securely delete all of the items in your trash.)
2. Move the 1PIF file to the trash (File > Move to Trash).
3. Securely empty your trash (Finder > Secure Empty Trash).

If we can be of further assistance, please let us know. We are always here to help!

It sounds like you could export to 1PIF, manually remove the tombstones and then recreate a data file from the 1PIF. But that seems like a lot of work for something that doesn't really offer any gain. I'm still not sure I understand why you would want to do this. The amount of space taken up by tombstones is likely on the magnitude of a fraction of a fraction of a percent of your entire data file size. We're talking kilobytes here. :)

The tombstone contains almost no data at all. The title, contents have all disappeared for good and can not be reconstructed. The one piece you mention that does remain is the createdAt timestamp. We can certainly look at removing even that moving forward. The tombstone data portion in the export would look like the below. You can see that title, location, secure contents and even the item type are gone.

"trashed":true,"title":"","location":"","secureContents":{},"createdAt":1353034574,"typeName":"system.Tombstone"

The data that is specific to you — data you have entered yourself or that 1Password automatically recorded when saving a Login item via the browser extension — is removed: title, location, etc. All the data you are seeing is 1Password metadata: UUID, keyID, etc. There is not a way for anyone to reconstruct anything useful from it.

I'm not sure I understand the scenario you are concerned about. Could you provide more details as to how you think this could be used for ill?