Fixing 1Password Database Connection Issues

I've used 1Password ever since it came out for Windows, and it was one of those apps that always tempted me to switch to a Mac back in my PC days. Consequently, it was also one of the first Mac Apps I purchased when I did switch, and was able to snag it in a bundle along with other must-have Mac apps. Later last year, I also upgraded to 1Password 3.9 from the Mac App Store as soon as it was available. It's been great.

Well, all except for one thing. Ever since I've upgraded to 1Password 3.9 from the Mac App Store, I've had problems off-and-on with 1Password's Chrome and Safari extensions saying they had trouble communicating with the database. For the most part, it hadn't impacted my workflow, and I never had any data lost. The most annoying part was the red dot on the extension icon, reminding me something was wrong.

Today it turned into a problem that had to be resolved, though, when 1Password on Chrome wouldn't let me login and see any of my passwords. Without passwords, I can't work. So I started digging deeper. It seems the problem was that 1Password 3.8, the pre-App Store version, didn't get fully removed when I'd installed the App Store version. Thus, I had two copies of the 1Password helper trying to run, or something in that direction.

Here's how I fixed it today. I uninstalled all of the 1Password extensions, then uninstalled 1Password from Launchpad. Then, I went through and manually removed all 1Password files other than my password database, using this guide from 1Password. I restarted my Mac, checked to make sure no 1Password processes were running, then opened the App Store, reinstalled 1Password, and installed my browser extensions. Voilá. It's all working perfectly now.

Hopefully that's helpful to someone else besides me. I know I'm sure glad to have the connection error solved, and bet I'm not the only one seeing it.

By the way, if you're not using 1Password, go get it for your Mac or PC now. It's the only way I stay sane managing over 200 passwords for work and personal use. Plus, it's the only way I remember all my debit card PIN numbers. Seriously.

Update: The 1Password team today reached out on Twitter, letting me know a terminal command that would fix the problem if it was due to an old 1Password helper running:

@techinch Sorry to hear. This Terminal command would've sufficed:launchctl unload -w ~/Library/LaunchAgents/ws.agile.1PasswordAgent.plist

— 1Password (@1Password) April 10, 2012

Unfortunately, that still didn't clear up the issue. A bit more digging, and they replied again to tell me:

@techinch Stable browser builds are what are supported, so that will resolve it. Or we also have a MAS (3.9) beta here: forum.agilebits.com/index.php?/top…

— 1Password (@1Password) April 11, 2012

Oh. So, instead of switching to a beta 1Password, I just switched back to Chrome stable. And guess what: it's working. Hopefully that'll be the end of this saga.

Thoughts? @reply me on Twitter.