How to determine which 1P3 database is the most current

Navstar

I have my 1Password database stored in my Dropbox. But I recently had to disconnect one of my synced Macs from my Dropbox account. I also continued to use 1Password on that machine and created a few new account logins.



I've also made changed to my logins on my other Mac that has an active Dropbox.



Now that I want to re-link that first machine to my Dropbox again, how can I merge the two different 1Password 3 databases? Or how can I at least know I'm using the latest version?

jpgoldberg

Hi Navstar,



[b]Important Note:[/b] What I discuss below depends on a couple of assumptions:

[list]

[*] They databases had previously been syncing using dropbox. This technique I describe will [i]not[/i] work a general way to merge 1Password databases.

[*] The 1password.keys files within the database contains the same data an all systems. This file doesn't normally change, so this condition should hold true if these databases had previously been synchronized with Dropbox. However, if the two databases were created independently, then even with the same master password and the same entries, the contents of the keys file will differ.

[/list]

In any case, before attempting to merge things the way I describe here please check to see that 1Password has been making backups correctly on your machine. You can check for backups by going to [i]File > Restore Data File from Backup ...[/i] in the 1Password menubar. Finally, while the method I describe here can work really nicely for the situation I describe, the method that Dave describes in the next post will work in all conditions.







The way that the data format is set up, there really isn't a notion of "most recent." This is a good thing in general and for you in particular.



When you relink your Mac to Dropbox, Dropbox will find which particular entries were modified most recently. So if on Mac A you recently modified or added a login for Amazon.com while on Mac B is where you most recently added or modified an entry for Bing.com your merged data will have the Amazon.com entry from A and the Bing.com entry from B.



Although it is possible (with some Unix tricks) to determine which overall data file was most recently modified, it isn't really necessary or helpful. Dropbox syncing will do the right thing by merging all of the changes.



The one thing to be careful of is if on both Mac A and Mac B you modified an entry for Chase.com. In that case, the most recent change will win.



I hope that this gives you confidence to just relink your Mac to Dropbox. If many changes (on either system) have been made since those were in sync, please do give Dropbox plenty of time to do its business.



Please let us know how this goes.



Cheers,



-j

dteare

[quote name='Navstar']I recently had to disconnect one of my synced Macs from my Dropbox account. I also continued to use 1Password on that machine and created a few new account logins.[/QUOTE]



I think Jeff missed this key point. After disconnecting from Dropbox you effectively have two separate data files and therefore you have to merge them.



Unfortunately we do not have a smooth merge tool, yet. This was something I was talking to Roustem about yesterday but there are some technical hurdles we need to clear before we can bring a simple UX to this.



For now what you can do is rely on the 1Password Interchange Format, or 1pif for short. You can export an unencrypted copy of your Mac's keychain, switch that Mac to use the copy of your data on Dropbox, and then reimport the 1pif file you just exported. It is not ideal in terms of UX but it works pretty well.



Let us know if you need more details, and as always, before doing anything with your data files, always back them up first :)

jpgoldberg

Thank you for the correction, Dave.



I've added a note to my previous point describing what conditions need to hold for my approach to work.



Cheers,



-j