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Getting 1Password Working in Snow Leopard

1Password helps you devise and store passwords for any occasion, and takes the work out of memorizing and securing them (see “1Passwd Eases Password Pain,” 2007-06-18). The current version of 1Password (2.9.31) doesn’t work in Safari in Snow Leopard, since Safari by default runs in 64-bit mode. 1Password 2.9.31 does reportedly work normally in all other Web browsers in Snow Leopard.

Agile Web Solutions planned to complete a Snow Leopard-savvy version of 1Password before Snow Leopard was released. Unfortunately, 1Password 3 isn’t yet available, but Snow Leopard is, thanks to Apple’s early ship date. Fortunately, the folks at Agile Web Solutions have some interim workarounds.

If you use 1Password and want to upgrade to Snow Leopard right away, you have three options:

  • Use this as an excuse to try a different browser, such as Firefox or Camino. The main downside here is the pain of migrating your bookmarks and potentially learning a different interface.
  • Run Safari in 32-bit mode, which enables it to work with 1Password 2. The steps are posted on the Agile Web Solutions Web site, but they involve opening the Get Info window for Safari in the Finder, selecting the Open in 32-bit Mode checkbox in the General section, and then relaunching.
  • Upgrade to the Agile Keychain format and then upgrade your copy of 1Password 2 to 1Password 3. You’ll end up with a beta version of 1Password 3. TidBITS editors Rich Mogull, Jeff Carlson, and Joe Kissell all report that they’ve been running the 1Password 3 beta under Snow Leopard with no problems.

To upgrade to the Agile Keychain, you should upgrade to 1Password 2.9.31 by choosing Check for Updates from the 1Password application menu. Once you have it, follow the detailed steps posted on the Agile Web Solutions Web site to upgrade your keychain.

It’s best to upgrade to the Agile Keychain before you update to Snow Leopard to avoid accidentally upgrading to 1Password 3 (which requires the Agile Keychain format) before you’re ready.

After upgrading to the Agile Keychain, go ahead and update to Snow Leopard. When you first launch 1Password 2 under Snow Leopard, 1Password will ask you if you want to update to 1Password 3, and it will download and install the update automatically.

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