McAfee realtime scanning makes 1Password unusable

marcsk

I have had 1Password installed on a Win 7 machine and moved to a Win 8 machine. 1Password worked fine for several weeks on the PC, but quit working about 2 weeks ago. It accepts my master password, then shows my folder structure and then hangs. I see 1Password in Task Manager consuming about 13% CPU. I can only quit by stopping task in task manager.



OnePassword in Firefox and IE work fine

I have uninstalled and reinstalled several times.

I use Dropbox.

Onepassword on an iPhone and an iPad work fine.



After reinstalling, there was one difference. Now the program still hangs, but the top column headers for the password list flash constantly.



Help!

khad

Welcome to the forums, marcsk! Thanks for taking the time to contact us. I'm sorry that you are having some trouble. What you describe sounds similar to some issues I've seen with realtime antivirus scanners. They are trying to scan every one of the possibly thousands of tiny files that comprise your data while 1Password is trying to work with them. What antivirus solution do you have installed? Do you see the same results with it completely disabled?

marcsk

Yes, that was it. I am using McAfee 15.6 virusscan (and 11.6 security center). Checking now on how to not scan certain file types.

Stefan von Dutch

McAfee is notorious for slowing 1Password (and others) down.

marcsk

So. To temporarily get around this, I configured McAfee to only scan programs and documents. However, 1Password now opens but my password lists keep jumping "home". For example, I have one list with about 50+ passwords. I try to select an account that starts with the letter "K", i can select it, but the list instantly jumps back to the top and deselects my selection. If I am real fast, i might be able to double click on the entry to edit it. At this point, it is basically unusable. As a note, I am also using this on a windows 7 machine also running McAfee (an enterprise version) and am NOT having this problem.



I'm not going to quit using McAfee (never had a problem with anything else) and will have to go to another password management product if there is no fix.

khad

Just to be clear, you're saying that (1) [b]the problem goes away completely if you disable McAfee completely,[/b] but (2) when you change McAfee's configuration there is a different problem? Perhaps there is a way to better configure it to simply exclude files within `1Password.agilekeychain` and all subfolders. You may need to contact McAfee for assistance with their software. I'm sorry to say that if (1) is true, then there not anything we need to resolve. The problem is a performance issue with McAfee's realtime scanning. There are myriad other antivirus solutions which do not cause this problem in 1Password including the Enterprise version you have installed on another machine apparently. Double-check the McAfee configuration on the machine that is working well. The Enterprise version is either a different application (which is entirely possible) or it is configured in such a way as to not cause the problem.



Let me know if you are able to exclude `1Password.agilekeychain`. It could help other McAfee users who have this problem with McAfee's software.

marcsk

Yes - #1 is correct, HOWEVER - Please note, as a 27+ year IT professional, I firmly believe the problem is not McAfee, but the way your are coming back from external activity that McAfee may be doing. I have been using McAfee for 12+ years and have never had a problem with any other application. The problem is that upon return of focus, you bounce back to no selected item. If i make the window big enough to display ALL logins for a specific folder, then I can select the item and edit appropriately. However, if the login list must be scrolled to see all of it, then 1Password resets and does not show the item i just selected. I.e. I select an item and it immediately resets. Since I can change behavior by changing the window size to show ALL in the list, this is a problem within 1 Password that is only apparant because of the AV process.



McAfee for home has no way to disable specific folders or files.

marcsk

Sorry - I was wrong about one thing. Even when I expand the list to display all, it doesn't work. I was just quick enough to edit one entry before it lost focus again. I really think there is a problem with maintaining the selection within 1Password, not an AV problem. Otherwise, I would see this problem in other apps.

khad

[quote]McAfee for home has no way to disable specific folders or files. [/quote]

This is unfortunate. I don't think I've ever used an antivirus solution that didn't provide that option. <img src='http://forum.agilebits.com/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/skype_worried.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':S' />



We'll work to see what we can do on our end, but I don't believe there is any other antivirus solution that causes this problem. It is very peculiar that the enterprise version of McAfee's product does not produce this problem nor do any other products. Apparently there is some way to scan files that doesn't make it impossible for 1Password to work properly.



I apologize if my posts have given the impression that we were just ignoring this and waiting for McAfee to fix their application, but we are looking in to this. I'm just not super optimistic that we can do anything about it since the problem has been narrowed down so acutely to McAfee's home solution.

MikeT

Hi Marcsk,



Can you open the 1Password for Windows app, go to the View Menu and unselect "Show Password Strength", does that improve the issue at all?



Please let us know.



Thanks!

marcsk

No change on deselecting any or all of the view options. It still immediately deselects the selected item.

khad

Thanks for letting us know. We may have something new for you to try soon as we continue to investigate this. We'll post back as soon as we do. Thanks for your patience.

Stefan von Dutch

I have installed McAfee Anti-Virus in Windows 8:

* McAfee SecurityCenter 12.1

* McAfee Anti-Virus 16.1



Unfortunately, this does not seem to reproduce your problem. 1Password appears to be running fine.



Anyway, starting with 1Password version 1.0.9.BETA-313 here's a new undocumented setting that might help you:

1. open regedit

2. navigate to this key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Agile Web Solutions\1Password

3. right-click in the name/value panel, then click: New > DWORD Value

4. enter the following new value name: "WatchDataDir" (no quotes)



Alternatively, you can unzip and then double-click the attached file - this will automate the procedure above and import this undocumented setting into your registry.



Can you please [url="http://agilebits.com/onepassword/win/release_notes"]download version 1.0.9.BETA-313[/url] and confirm this "fix"? Thanks!

marcsk

That worked!

khad

Thanks for letting us know! That is great news. <img src='http://forum.agilebits.com/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />



We'll see how to best proceed from here in the next update, but I'm glad that did the trick.