worldtravelgeek Posted January 25, 2016 Report Share Posted January 25, 2016 (edited) Hi!I am thinking of buying the pro version till end of January to take advantage of the anniversary rebate, however I have questions regarding the the encryption folders. Let me tell you my usage scenario first:I am planning on having various local folders on my main PC to sync not only to folders on my laptop but also to the cloud (one or multiple cloud providers) using odrive which maps cloud drives as subfolders into a folder named odrive in Windows Explorer. This should probably work with BT sync. So far so easy.However, I would like the cloud drives to contain encrypted versions of my files for security reasons so I was initialled planning on using boxcryptor to encrypt and later easily decrypt the files in the cloud drives on the fly. Then I read about sync offering encryption folders so I could probably skip using boxcryptor however the question is:How will I be able to decrypt the files in the cloud drives? I am planning to access them using my my Windows PCs and my Android phone so I am wondering how decryption works. Is it seamless like with the boxcryptor Android and desktop apps? In Boxcryptor I can easily see and work with the decrypted files in the virtual drive it creates. How will I be able to access the files in encrypted folders with BT sync? Is it seamless or will I have to manually decrypt each file (and even copy it to local storage) before I can use them? The information on encrypted folders I have seen so far does not really talk about decrypting and accessing the information stored in the folders so I hope you can shed some light on this subject. Sorry, if I am misunderstanding the concept though, maybe encrypted folders in BT Sync work differently from Boxcryptor.Thanks for your answers! Edited January 25, 2016 by worldtravelgeek Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Helen Posted January 26, 2016 Report Share Posted January 26, 2016 worldtravelgeek, Encrypted peer (the one with F-key) cannot decrypt the files. So if you want them decrypted, you need to 1) have a peer with D or E key, and 2) (!!!) never remove the encrypted folders (with F-key) from Sync, so that its doesn't loose its database. SO if you want to decrypt the files: just connect to the F-peer with E or D key and sync the filed from it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
worldtravelgeek Posted January 26, 2016 Author Report Share Posted January 26, 2016 (edited) Hi Helen, thanks for the quick answer. I think I will need to read up on those key file things. Are those files encryption keys? Ok, so it seems like simply accessing the encrypted files (in cloudstorage) from the cloudstorage providers webinterface will be impossible, right? I will always have to sync the whole folder to either a local PC or an Android phone, exactly? Can you confirm, that I can decrypt the files by syncing them with the android client? Will this decryption work reliably and quickly on a phone at all? (limited ressources of a 2015 Android phone with Snapdragon 810 soc)As for your comment about never removing the encrypted folders ... what exactly do you mean by that? I will never be able to remove those files or the whole folder from cloud storage ever??!?Maybe you guys can add another howto to your documentation about all of the practical issues with encrypted folders and accessing files in them. Maybe others will find this helpful too.Thanks,Alex Edited January 26, 2016 by worldtravelgeek Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbhouchen Posted January 26, 2016 Report Share Posted January 26, 2016 Keep in mind that Sync cannot sync two folders on the same computer, even if they are on different hard disks. It sounds like you might be wanting to do this in order to populate the encrypted folders in the cloud. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RomanZ Posted January 27, 2016 Report Share Posted January 27, 2016 @worldtravelgeek Ok, so it seems like simply accessing the encrypted files (in cloudstorage) from the cloudstorage providers webinterface will be impossible, right? I will always have to sync the whole folder to either a local PC or an Android phone, exactly?That's correct. You'll need to Sync them first. No any "Cloud access". Any app running on "cloud" with encrypted folder has no means to open and unencrypt files - therefore web access is not available. Can you confirm, that I can decrypt the files by syncing them with the android client? Will this decryption work reliably and quickly on a phone at all? (limited ressources of a 2015 Android phone with Snapdragon 810 soc)Yes, you can. Although note, that accessing Encrypted folder is a heavy task for mobile device: it has no HW support of encryption and it will have to decrypt files twice comparing to regular folder. As for your comment about never removing the encrypted folders ... what exactly do you mean by that? I will never be able to remove those files or the whole folder from cloud storage ever??!?Every Sync instance has its service folder where it keeps internal data. To actually decrypt files Sync needs: files, keys AND this service data. So if it happens that you disconnected folder on your encrypted peer (=deleted service data) or damaged by some accident Sync service data - encrypted peer won't be able to seed files anymore. Maybe you guys can add another howto to your documentation about all of the practical issues with encrypted folders and accessing files in them. Maybe others will find this helpful too.Definitely. We'll expand our KnowledgeBase with all the peculiarities around Encrypted Folders. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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