My mother just called me to report that the 1Password icon had disappeared from her Mac’s menu bar and that something was “funny” with the app in her Applications folder, although she was still able to log in to sites in Google Chrome. As I was opening my own Applications folder so I could describe what it was supposed to look like, I was already mentally telling her to restart, assuming that 1Password had crashed in the background.
Imagine my surprise, then, when I discovered that my 1Password app showed a circle with a backslash through it on its icon and occupied only 495 bytes on disk—the app package was empty except for what I presume was Finder metadata. That matched exactly what she described—and, needless to say, it wouldn’t launch for either of us.
Although I could have restored 1Password from my nightly backup, I figured the easiest course of action for my mother was to download a new copy and install that. I ran through those steps quickly on my Mac so I could talk her through them as well. For both of us, the 1Password Installer resolved the issue, and all our logins were instantly available again.
How could this have happened? I remembered updating 1Password earlier in the day (and my backup from last night contained the older version 8.11.20), but my mother didn’t recall manually triggering an update. Here’s what I think is the key: because I have “Install updates automatically” checked in 1Password > Settings > Advanced, 1Password had already downloaded my update, and I merely needed to give it the go-ahead by clicking Restart Now. Even if my mother hadn’t done that, I could imagine her copy of 1Password installing the update automatically when she next relaunched the app or restarted the Mac.
I can’t think of any commonality between my 1Password installation and my mother’s, so it’s possible that others may encounter this issue as well. If your copy of 1Password has been zeroed out, simply download and reinstall it from the 1Password website, and all will be well again.
That is why I never allow automatic updates. I want to watch the update be installed. Has 1Password fessed up to their latest bungle? Since they started prioritizing their business customers over the user base that made them a go-to application, I don’t expect them to. I still only use 1Password 7.9.11 on my Mid-2011 iMac that is maxxed out at MacOS 10.13.6. The good thing about it is I can keep my data ON my iMac and not captive on 1Password’s servers, I can sync it between my iMac and my iDevices, and last I don’t have to pay hefty “subscription” fees to a company that no longer cares about individual customers.
To be clear, this wasn’t an automatic update—I explicitly clicked a button allowing it.
I haven’t seen other reports of the problem yet, including on the 1Password Communities forum, so it may be relatively uncommon.
And to be clear, when you use 1Password 8, your data is NOT “captive” on 1Password’s services. It’s fully local and synced through 1Password’s servers. And if you let your subscription lapse, your data remains accessible for logins and export; you just can’t add or edit items or do various other things.
That is what made 1Password no longer a viable application for me (along with version 8 not running on High Sierra). I want total control over how I store, sync, edit, etc my confidential data. Like I said, 1Password is more concerned about big business customers than individual customers like me who supported them since they started 20 years ago.
If total control is what you want, you might want to switch to something that’s open source and has an active development community. Since it’s no longer in development, 1Password 7 could stop working with any update to macOS.
This exact same thing has happened to me twice, and you have now inspired me to turn off automatic updates, although I’m not sure that will solve the problem. I reported the problem to 1Password support the 2nd time it happened and their reply was kind of lame, I can share that with the group if requested. I suspect it is some kind of bug,
True…and I will reluctantly upgrade to v8 when forced to…because a pretty exhaustive review of the available options has shown that nothing else provides all the features in use in 1PW. But I’m staying with v7 as long as I can.
I have always had my 1P auto update ON and cannot remember a single issue with it including recent updates in 20 years. Did I miss the bad movies? I just don’t subscribe to the fear that the 1Password folks aren’t competent and routinely foul up.
I feel, after roughly 20 +/- years using this app that 1Password is THE single most reliable and impactful piece of software in my computer life. I trust them with my data… knowing we are all humans and knowing the courage it takes to play at the highest level in the game of maintaining personal data security. I view them as THE leading edge of safety and security of our personal info. Who in this world would you trust more? The government? Some other password / data manager app? Dropbox? Or would you prefer to go back to neolithic times when we relied on spreadsheets and word docs kept on paper stuffed into file folders in our desk drawers?
Adam, considering that your backup had V 8.11.20 (which presumably worked) and that reinstalling gave you V 8.11.22 (which also works), what happened to V 8.11.21? Perhaps there was such a version out there for a few hours which was quickly pulled because it was defective.
How compatible are 1Password7 and 1Password8? My wife & I are running 1Password7 on at least 6 devices (Macs & iPhones) and are leery of upgrading to 1Password8.
Is it possible to run 1Password7 on some machines and 1Password8 on others, or once we upgrade one device must all the other be immediately upgraded, too?
Tom, my wife and I were in your position back in June 2023. . . We had been satisfied 1Password users since its early days. We took our sweet time to update because we were not fans of the subscription scheme and the move to being required to keep our data on the AgileBits servers. But I finally decided to take advantage of the 2-week free trial period and give 1P8 a test drive on my Mac. Fortunately, I decided to leave my wife’s MacBook Air using 1P7 (we had a family license).
During the upgrade something went terribly wrong and I could not access my data. Thus began a long arduous journey with AgileBits “tech support” which has always been glacial in my experience. And since the move to subscriptions, the times I had to interact with their techs they always made a point of telling me that if we would simply “upgrade” our license, everything would be much better for us going forward.
Long story short, they were not able to figure out what happened much less fix it. I dealt with a different tech every time I was in contact with the company (at least 6 people) which meant we had to start from the beginning with each new person. My impression is that they did not bother to read anything related to our open trouble ticket. The level of expertise they exhibited was the lowest I have ever experienced and we were never transferred to a higher-level of support.
It took them 3 days to get around to tell me how I could revert to 1P7, a process which was complicated by the fact that as part of upgrading to 1P8 I was mired in their online system. Fortunately, prior to initiating the upgrade I had created .PIF and .CSV files of my 1Password data. Of course it was inconvenient but at least I had access to my credentials for doing essential things online such as accessing our financial accounts.
The straw that ultimately broke the camel’s back was when I was informed that our 2-week free-trial was about to end and if I wanted to continue receiving tech support, we would need to pay-up for a 1P8 subscription. I vaguely recall that out of the kindness of their hearts they offered us a 10% discount for the first year. . .
I opted to decline their offer. I had been in the lengthy process of researching our password manager alternatives and within a few weeks we made the switch to Strongbox, which we are still using.
If you decide to upgrade, of course I suggest making backups like we did. Our situations are different in that we had stopped syncing our password manager data before the 1P debacle, as we prefer to use our Macs vs. our iOS devices. If we did sync, we would use the Strongbox WiFi-sync option so we do not need to rely on anybody else’s servers & security (or the lack thereof).
Sorry, but I don’t understand that reasoning (“Since it’s no longer in development, 1Password 7 could stop working with any update to macOS”). (1) As responder Swaney wrote (and I agree, regarding my own “old” iMac running Monterrey), our machines can’t be updated to a new “macOS”, so there’s little chance of that unfortunate scare-scenario happening; (2) what carries a much bigger risk is that all 1Password customers running any version of 1Password could find it not “working with an update to macOS” and especially if they stop paying to update 1Password. (God forbid anyone loses their job, their income, their health or can’t afford the rat race anymore because they’re on fixed income.) The whole architecture depends on these companies agreeing to work together and for us to keep trudging along, ersatz slaves that we are to them. Yes, that’s putting it strongly, but only because the basic risk seems to be so casually dismissed if not ignored. If old age has taught me anything, it’s that we can’t rely on old norms persisting. Even if it’s open source, I want the architecture to be responsive and preventive.
In TidBITS, I largely cover new things. New versions of OS, new apps and versions of old apps, new Apple hardware and peripherals, how to use new features.
I’m simply uninterested in how to avoid staying current with technology. I don’t mind the occasional discussion about it here, but if your goal is to avoid upgrades at all costs, you’ll find more helpful and supportive information elsewhere.
Got it. Sorry you misunderstood, sir; updating itself is definitely not the basic problem. I fastidiously update when I can. Like you, I too am “simply uninterested in how to avoid staying current with technology.” Don’t know where you got the idea “avoid updates at all costs.” That’s not the point.
My old machine can’t be updated (even tho it runs fine so far). Why don’t I just replace it? Am I just being stingy or stodgy?
My old-age income simply isn’t up to par. Like dozens of your ex-subscribers, due to aging out, I can’t afford a new machine; thought that was obvious.
I’ve fallen off the treadmill, had to, aged out (myself and my machines), and necessarily can never return to a world demanding currency or being current.
I looked at tha5 myself…but unfortunately it lacks some essential to me features. Still on 1PW v7 at this point and I a.ways save a copy of my vault before any macOS upgrade just in case. Unfortunately…they sold a large (possibly controlling but I don’t know that for sure) position in the company to some VC buzzards and they demand return on investment…so the company has pivoted to focusing more on high volume and thus high profit business customers. Too bad…because the app is still more useful than anything else if one uses all the features. One can possibly replace the Secure Notes option with App,e Notes secured entries but I’m not sure how much security the latter actually provides. IMO…a long time Apple specific comyhas sold out to VCs and maximizing profit vs catering to long time users…and that’s just sucks.
I understand the disappointments with 1Password if you”ve used it for many years (as I suspect many of us have) however subscription based software in the main is the only way to ensure the developer has the resources to ensure the ongoing development of a fairly complex product like 1Password. If they are gouging the market, competitors will jump in. If their product isn’t as bang-for-buck as it used to be, nothing forces us to stay with them.
I acknowledge I have the luxury of being able to afford the family plan for 1Password and still being in the workforce, I prioritise ‘just works / minimal hassle’ over cheaper / more mucking around options. I’m sure I’ll reassess when I leave the workforce.
I apologize for overreacting. I interpreted your comments about “the much bigger risk” of not paying for 1Password 8 as implying that users would lose access to their data if they stopped paying, which is not the case and which I’d already written earlier. Since you were replying to my suggestion of moving to something in active development, which 1Password 7 very much is not, I extrapolated that to your being against updates in general.
I’m happy that the discussions here can help people with older Macs and software, but the emphasis by some on how they are NOT upgrading gets tiring when I spend my days writing about new things.
