What's the point of secured folders?

[Alabaster]

What’s the point of secured folders if they don’t automatically encrypt new content that is added to them?

[Prabhukumar RModerator]

Hello Alabaster,

AxCrypt secures files, individually. However, you can designate folders as ‘secured’. The folders will be monitored for new files, and AxCrypt will secure all new files with a single click, or when you sign out. You can also select multiple files, including all files in a folder, to be secured in a single operation. They still remain individual files, and the folder itself is not secured, just the files .

If you are added the new file in a secured folder, then you have to click the “Broom icon”. now your newly added file is encrypted.

Still, you are facing any query, please provide detailed information about the issue and write a mail to support@axcrypt.net. We are happy to help you.

[Alabaster]

Thanks, I’ll try that :)

[Alabaster]

I couldn’t find a “broom icon” anywhere except the File menu for the option “Clean open files”. This did the trick — it scanned my secured folders and encrypted the files there that were unencrypted — but that’s not what “Clean open files” means to the average English speaker. @AxCrypt I would recommend changing this to “Secure folders” or something more clear, with the tooltip “Encrypt all unencrypted files in all secured folders”. Further, you should have a button for it on the main interface.

[Prabhukumar RModerator]

Hello Alabaster,

Thanks for recommended. we inform our team.

You are missing the broom icon. Please contact our support team at support@axcrypt.net . our support team will help you.

[D Triche]

I’m a new user testing out Axcrypt to determine if it will work to locally encrypt my Onedrive folder, and pass that encryption up to the Onedrive cloud so that I’m in control of at least 1 key that they are not.

If I add my onedrive root folder (ex C:\user\david\Onedrive\), will it then secure all files in that root folder AND all subfolders, using the process you mention above – on signout or when manually processed by the broom icon?

 

[Prabhukumar RModerator]

Hello Triche,

Yes, secured folder functionality works the same in one drive also.

AxCrypt Secured Folder:  — AxCrypt secures files, individually. However, you can designate folders as ‘secured’. The folders will be monitored for new files, and AxCrypt will secure all new files with a single click, or when you sign out.

You can also select multiple files, including all files in a folder, to be secured in a single operation. They still remain individual files, and the folder itself is not secured, just the files in it.

If you are added the new file in a secured folder, then you have to click the “Broom icon” or sign-out from the AxCrypt app. now your newly added file is encrypted.

Incase the folder is not listed in the Secured Folder list, then you have to secure the folder again using the Add Secured Folder option from the right click content menu. Now you can click the broom icon. Now your files are encrypted.

Include Subfolders:

You can encrypt a folder by using Secured Folders option. After that if you create a subfolder, it won’t re-encrypt the files of subfolder.

We can include the sub-folder by enabling the feature from the AxCrypt app menu File | Options | Include Subfolders. By default Include Subfolders will be disabled. So Sub-folders are not encrypted without enabling this feature.

Still, if you are facing any issues, please write to Support@axcrypt.net. we are happy to help you.

[Stephen West]

The options menu states the Include Subfolders can be dangerous, and i can see that it could be if it was applied to some part of the operating system. Why can this feature not be enabled on a folder by folder basis, rather than globally, to to Documents, or Onedrive?

[Stephen West]

Apologies, meant ‘eg to Documents or Onedrive

[D Triche]

@Stephen – another danger based on my testing would be if you were to set a root folder (in my case my Onedrive folder) as encrypted and also enable all subfolders – and have close to 1TB of data in that root folder. My testing of a small file set (relative to 1TB) took about 5 mins, I don’t remember the size but I remember thinking “oh, this could be bad if I’d just told Axcrypt to encrypt 1TB of data at once!”

Encryption takes time, this is a given; this is not really a weakness of Axcrypt, just part of the process of encrypting files.  However if the encryption took days to complete it’s possible the OS could hiccup before then and cause file corruption or other issues. I have to guess that this is another reason they mention that “Enable all subfolders” can be a dangerous move if you don’t plan your steps carefully.

Hopefully my minimal testing and post here will save someone from losing data or dealing with major headaches!

 

[Prabhukumar RModerator]

Hello Triche,

AxCrypt performs as much as faster based on the user’s system configuration and the file size.

We are going to start working on the App optimization issues. So users will get the optimized version of the AxCrypt app in the near future.

[D Triche]

My comment was not a “dig” at the app … any encryption app is going to take a certain amount of time to encrypt files, and in my case with my Onedrive having just under 1 terabyte of data, setting the root AND all subfolders to encrypt at once could cause system performance issues.

I commend you all for working on the app optimization, but even a powerful system will only be able to encrypt files so fast – regardless of who’s encryption software is used.  My comment was only to point this out to anyone who might accidentally turn on all subfolders then submit their root data folder, without thinking of the possible time needed to encrypt a huge amount of data.

[Author]

Posts