1Password 4
1Password 4 is now available, with some great new features like multiple vaults, 1Password mini, security audit, favorites, and a better browser extensions user interface. I still don’t really like the idea of browser extensions, as there seems to be no way to audit where they are sending my information.
There’s much to like in the new interface, however:
- The non-widescreen layout is gone. I’m now forced to view the items list in a narrow column, with a large font and a two-line display that truncates much of the text.
- Custom fields are now hidden behind a popover (“Show web form details”) even when there would be plenty of room to display them in the window.
The blog post mentions 96 beta releases and 20,000 beta testers, so I was surprised to find version 4.0 a little rough:
- Unlike in 1Password 3, text in Secure Notes is not fully searchable.
- The pop-up menu for changing vaults activates on mouse-up instead of mouse-down.
- The multiple vaults feature is not supported by the iOS app (or iCloud), and if you move your primary vault the iOS app won’t be able to find it.
- There’s no good way to move items between vaults. The Item ‣ Share menu looks like it will let you copy multiple items, but it only copies one at a time. You can export from one vault and import into another, but this entails writing all the decrypted data to your hard disk.
- The Basics section of the manual refers to an “In Depth” section that doesn’t seem to exist.
- The Preferences window simultaneously says that Dropbox is not running (with a button to install it) and that it is running.
- When I created a new vault, it continued to show the password detail pane for an item in my old vault.
- There was much talk earlier about the new Cloud Keychain format that’s more secure. However, 1Password 4 does not seem to actually be using this with Dropbox. Perhaps it’s only for iCloud? [Update: AgileBits support has confirmed this.]
- It can no longer export to a regular CSV file, only to its custom JSON-based format.
Update (2013-10-03): Not related to this release, but I wanted to note: 1Password users who have an iPad 1 are now out of luck. 1Password 3 for iOS uses the old Dropbox API that’s no longer functional. 1Password 4 for iOS requires iOS 6, so the iPad 1 can’t run it.
Update (2013-10-07): Some users are reporting data loss and other Dropbox sync problems. Dropbox syncing is not working well for me, either, since the update to 4.0. I’ve made changes on both my mac and iPhone that have not propagated to the other device.
Update (2013-10-08): The Dropbox syncing problems seem to be caused by a bug in its sandbox code:
10/8/13 10:15:16.012 AM 2BUA8C4S2C.com.agilebits.onepassword-osx-helper[191]: 400200 [SYNC:0x7fcba4255c20:<OPAgileKeychainSyncer (Dropbox) 0x7fcba40466a0>] E setupKeychainProfile | Cannot sync, failed to load keychain profile: Error Domain=com.agilebits.onepassword.ErrorDomain Code=100 "Failed to load profile" UserInfo=0x7fcbab813b10 {NSURL=file://localhost/Users/mjt/Dropbox/1Password.agilekeychain/data/default/.1password.keys?applesecurityscope=626663396665363865323330313061613433663164306265336362366163323738383463626332363b30303030303030303b303030303030303030303030303032303b636f6d2e6170706c652e6170702d73616e64626f782e726561642d77726974653b30303030303030313b30313030303030343b303030303030303030303139313339663b2f75736572732f6d6a742f64726f70626f782f3170617373776f72642e6167696c656b6579636861696e, NSLocalizedDescription=Failed to load profile, NSUnderlyingError=0x7fcbab806d30 "The file “.1password.keys” couldn’t be opened because you don’t have permission to view it."}
10/8/13 10:15:16.101 AM sandboxd[81765]: ([191]) 2BUA8C4S2C.com.a(191) deny file-read-data /Users/mjt/Dropbox/1Password.agilekeychain/data/default/1password.keys
10/8/13 10:15:16.122 AM sandboxd[81765]: ([191]) 2BUA8C4S2C.com.a(191) deny file-read-data /Users/mjt/Dropbox/1Password.agilekeychain/data/default/.1password.keys
Here’s another thread of other users having the problem. You can work around the bug by putting your 1Password.agilekeychain in ~/Dropbox/1Password.
Update (2013-11-09): I had a problem where some old bank accounts (probably from 1Password 2.x or 3.0 and last edited in 2009) were showing up blank in 1Password 4. At first I thought the data file was corrupted, but I found that I could view the bank information in 1Password Anywhere. So I think the problem was simply that 1Password 4 didn’t fully recognize items from an older format.
Update (2013-12-20): 1Password 4.1 restores the ability to search the notes. To do this, you have to select Search All Fields in the menu.
