1Password helper

alanper

What is 1Password helper and what does it do?

I use 1Password on a Windows 7 64bit machine with Chrome and the 1Password extension (most of the time) has a red exclamation mark. When checking why this is, it is (most of the time) related to 1Password helper. I read the troubleshooting guide about going into the application and clicking 'Help->Restart 1Password helper', but after doing that repeatedly I wished I could rather fix the problem than treat it.



Is anyone else experiencing this?

Is there a way to restart the helper from within the extension, rather than having to open the main application?



I know that the latest version of 1Password was quite a big change, and along with it come a few anomalies. But, for me, it was a change for the good. Thanks for continually improving the product, and when there are problems, releasing fixes quickly.

khad

1Password manages the data exchange between itself and the browser extensions through [i][url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebSocket"]WebSocket[/url][/i]. This allows the 1Password background process (Agile1pAgent.exe in Windows, a.k.a. "Helper") to communicate with the browser extensions while still respecting the sandboxing rules enforced by modern web browsers. Although these appear as network connections, they are limited to your local machine. These connections are encrypted and authenticated, so they cannot be used to deliver information to any other processes beyond the extensions and the main 1Password application.



If the connections are blocked for any reason, the extension will not be able to connect to 1Password, and no data transfer can occur. The most common symptom of this problem is an [b]Agent Not Connected[/b] error in the browser extension. The simplest solution is to ensure that local connections are not blocked on [b][font=courier new,courier,monospace]127.0.0.1[/font][/b] by a proxy server or software firewall.



[b]Many anti-malware, antivirus, and Internet security solutions also include a firewall, so that would also be something to check especially if you are using Windows where such programs are more prevalent.[/b]



The specific ports that 1Password uses through its WebSocket connections are [b][font=courier new,courier,monospace]6258, 10191, 14821, 24861, 25007, 38151, 46360, 49801, 55730, 59483[/font][/b], but it is much simpler to just allow all connections to [b][font=courier new,courier,monospace]127.0.0.1[/font][/b] (localhost).



Please see the tips in the [url="http://help.agilebits.com/1Password_Windows/agent-not-connected.html"][i]Troubleshooting the new browser extensions[/i][/url] article in the [i]FAQ[/i] section of the 1Password for Windows user's guide.

alanper

I hear what you are saying about the firewall and ports. For me though there are times when the helper does not show an error, and times when it does (most of the time). If it was the firewall I would expect it to not work 100% of the time.

DBrown

It's all a bit new and complicated to me, alanper, so I may be wrong; but so far, the troubles have been solved by process of elimination, as described in that [url="http://help.agilebits.com/1Password_Windows/helper-not-connected.html"][i]Why aren't the new browser extensions working?[/i][/url] article (that Khad linked to) in the [i]FAQ[/i] section of the user's guide.



Please let us know how it goes. We learn something from nearly every case.

Stefan von Dutch

[quote name='alanper' timestamp='1324542547' post='56015']

there are times when the helper does not show an error, and times when it does

[/quote]



what error?