Need Suggestions: Password Protected Folder Or Virtual Disk With Btsync

[zkyevolved]

Hello, I'm looking for some suggestions. I want to password protect a folder in Windows with some app or some solution that's also syncable with BT Sync. I have tried creating a virtual disk within Windows 10, and selected a size of 4GB, which is enough for now since my data is 2.5GB. Virtual disk didn't really sync well with changes, by nature I suppose, between my work computer, laptop and home computer. 

 

I also tried Folder Protector, which works VERY well on the original PCs, on the destination PCs that password protected folder is searchable and explorable with very little skill set (without knowing the password). All I had to do was put in the windows search at the folder location: <anything> and it would search the "invisible" com1.{folders} and find the data! Then, right clicking and open folder location and done, complete access.

 

So... I'm sure there are more people here that do this, I'd like to know your solutions. I need to encrypt a folder in a file or the folder itself so that it's not viewable or searchable without a password. I'd need it to open up in a windows-explorer-esque style (previewing images, videos, documents, etc.). 

 

Any suggestions? Thank you

[Moe]

Well you can sync a Truecrypt/Verycrypt container with sync. There are plenty of threads on here regarding that kind of usage.

[zkyevolved]

Well you can sync a Truecrypt/Verycrypt container with sync. There are plenty of threads on here regarding that kind of usage.

Really? Thank you for the idea, but, Veracrypt doesn't work. It's identical to creating a virtual hd. It creates all the space already, therefore BTSync doesn't see any file changes or size changes. Just in case, I also tried Veracrypt to verify this as well, and sure enough, I created a 500 mb file empty, synced it over across devices. Opened it on another device, added a file to it, demounted the file, gave it like 5 minutes, and nothing. 

[RomanZ]

@zkyevolved

If you are syncing container itself (not the files inside), you need to ensure that:

1) whatever-crypt is updating either file size or timestamp. Otherwise Sync won't be able to detect that file has been changed.

2) that other node whatever-crypt is not running, as it may prevent Sync from changing container.

 

Its more simple if Sync is working with virtual disk instead of container. In this case, it will simply stop syncing as soon as you unmount virtual disk, and start syncing again when you mount it.

[Moe]

@zkyevolved: Yes there is a setting in Veracrypt/Truecrypt to save timestamps and you have to turn that on like Roman said.

 

@Roman: The only reason I would not sync a vitrual disk is logging.

The logs and the sqlite databases will store all filenames in clear text accessible to anyone having access to the system. If one wants to avoid that he needs to sync the container instead.

[RomanZ]

@Moe

Your are right here. While logs can be disabled, DB can't. Another option is to run Sync from inside container.

[zkyevolved]

@Moe, thanks, I'll check it out. I played a little more around and I found that a VHD with Dynamic size worked well, so I'm going to test it out for a few days  

[goli]

Hey there.

 

As mentioned by Moe, there are plenty of threads around regarding this use case. Just searching for "truecrypt" should give you tons of information.

 

As for my personal preference:

 

• I started with Truecrypt myself long time ago but realized it wasn't really a good idea, long before there was any sign of btsync on the horizon. That's basically because of write lock issues, block sizes, growing containers and fragmentation. This can be solved by container settings of course, but I just don't feel very well with those, so I dropped container based encryption at all.
• Then I moved to encfs. It's file based encryption and thus solves nearly every issue container based encryption has when being synced. That's not only related to btsync but to any kind of synchronization tool in general, so diff and rsync have the very same prerequists to a container being structured to play nicely.
• After some performance issues and stability issues with encfs on Windows I finally reached Boxcryptor. They have two products, the current proprietary one which nearly only works with other Boxcryptor clients and the "Boxcryptor Classic" which is 100% compatible to encrypted folders created by encfs.

 

And here I am, using a plain encfs compatible encrypted folder with Boxcryptor Classic on Windows, OS-X and Android, nicely synced by btsync.

 

 

You see: When it comes to synchronization, I'm a huge fan of encfs nowadays .

 

 

Regards,

Stephan.

[stuartray2]

Well Password protecting Folder is always better with My LockBox 3 ( http://fspro.net/hide-folders/protect-dropbox.html ) . And it is easy to BtSync it. I do it for my folders . It is just a click away . Very Easy to USe.. And they give awesome support