[SvanteSpectator]

Hello Krumberg,

We need to know your exact email address and probably learn more about what the problem is, so the best here is that you email us at support att axcrypt dott net . Please tell us your account email, and if you can include a screen shot of where you are stuck it will also be of great help.

How to take a screen shot is explained here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/13776/windows-use-snipping-tool-to-capture-screenshots .

[SvanteSpectator]

Hello hukam,

Why do you say it has no context menu? It does.

What do you mean with ‘popuplanguage’? The base language is always english, so if the translation is incomplete you’ll get english – not some other language.

When you say ‘fails to encrypt folder’ – It works the same as AxCrypt 1, i.e. it can encrypt all files in a folder, but not the folder itself.

I’d really like to help you out, but can you send some screen shots?

Here’s how to take a screen shot: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/13776/windows-use-snipping-tool-to-capture-screenshots .

 

[SvanteSpectator]

Hello Thiago,

I think you may be running an older version of AxCrypt? The most current version is 2.1.1464 . Please ensure that you are running this version (or later).

[SvanteSpectator]

Hello,

Thanks for the info. It’s really hard to tell what’s happening.

Can you (just for troubleshooting purposes) try to use it in a way where you really close down Excel and Word between opening documents (not just closing the document)?

Also, I wonder if you’d be willing to take the time to run a screen sharing session where we can see this issue ‘live’ and/or receive beta software where we enable a few options on how files are handled?

[SvanteSpectator]

Thank you i_sol,

I’m not sure, but you should get the same right-click integration with AxCrypt 2 as AxCrypt 1. Are you saying your right-click / double-click functions are not working in your “two-window based commander”? If so, please let me. It should.

The extended user interface is not required to use, it’s there for situations when it can’t integrate and to expose extended functionality.

Grateful for the other comments too! We do ask for email, but that’s actually the extent of the agressive data collection – that’s not too bad is it? Really?

In any case, we’ll be taking yours and others feedback and try to find a better balance between the old and the new.

Once again, thank you!

PS – You might want to read on the blog about the subscription vs license and our thoughts on that: http://www.axcrypt.net/blog/subscription-vs-license/ .

[SvanteSpectator]

Thanks Thiago, I’ve responden in your own thread.

[SvanteSpectator]

Hello Thiago,

Thanks for contacting us about this.

It seems indeed very strange that the files are left in the work folder, but AxCrypt considers it’s state clean.

Your use case with Notepad++ and Excel is nothing unusual about, although you often do have to actually exit the application to get AxCrypt to automatically clean up. But that’s not the problem here apparently.

Do you open the files via Windows Explorer, or the AxCrypt Recent Files view?

Are the files in AxCrypt 2 format and open without further password prompts when you are signed in to AxCrypt 2?

I’m wondering if the following could be what happens:

1) You open the file.
2) You edit and save it. AxCrypt has the broom icon red and active.
3) You close and restart AxCrypt, or the scren saver goes active and AxCrypt actually cleans and clears the broom.
4) You still have the file open in the editor, and now you resave it. Now it may be possible to have it both in the temporary location and AxCrypt considers itself clean.

We have very few reports like this, it’s essentially you and the other you refer to, so there’s something about this situation. We do have a few things on the to do list to further make it robust for various edge cases, which includes checking the work folder and verifying that there’s really nothing there, even if there should not be anything there.

[SvanteSpectator]

Hello Winsy,

The most common reason for this happening is that the file was damaged because of early removal of a USB drive, or a disconnected network drive.

If the file is actually damaged to this extent, no, it can’t be fixed. The data is just not there to decrypt it.

It can also happen when users mistakenly rename non-AxCrypt files to end with .axx, in which case renaming back to it’s appropriate extension will fix the issue since the file was never encrypted in the first place in this scenario.

[SvanteSpectator]

Hello Paul and i_sol,

Thanks for the feedback! We’re working on tweaking AxCrypt 2 to be more easy to adapt to for existing users.

One of the challenges being that we’re also trying to solve some actual problems experienced with the old version:

1) Users losing data because they mistype or misremember a password. By keeping a single password that is verified to be correct before encrypting any data, this risk is minimized.

2) Bad user practices, such as having several different passwords for personal use. It’s just a bad idea.

I also have to comment on i_sol’s statement “4-5 step method with a pop-up (!) window, wich goes minimized (!!) on exit (cannot set otherwise), asking for a login password all the time”.

This is partially incorrect.

1. If you double-click a file in Windows explorer to open it for example, the number of key presses and clicks is *exactly* the same as with version 1. There are no 4-5 steps.
2. Yes, if you are not signed in, there will be a pop-up windows. So will it be with AxCrypt 1. However, yes, the windows is bigger, because it has functionality that AxCrypt 1 simply does not have. We know it’s perceived as intrusive though, so we’re working other ways to expose it.
3. Minimized on clicking the red cross for is quite normal behavior in many similar softwares. If we didn’t do that you’d have to sign in over and over again. To really exit, just use “File | Exit”.
4. I do not quite understand the comment about askig for a login password all the time. We get some comments on the fact that we *do not* ask for a password for every file being opened. If you’d like to explain further, I’d appreciate it.

Thanks for the comment about asking too much detail to comment the forum, I’ll check what we can do there. We ask for three things, Name, Email and Website. We don’t need the website info, it’s just because of WordPress’s history as a blog tool I think. Name is nice to have so it’s not so anonymous, but we don’t need to require it. Email is only used so you can get notified of responses.

We do *not* use any of the information asked for to post here for marketing information, or for anything else than mentioned above. Name because it’s nice to have a handle on the person we’re talking to. Email so you can get notified. Website not at all.

[SvanteSpectator]

Hello TXStateMom,

No, it’s probably not an anti-virus issue it was probably a transient situation with our server, probably connected to ongoing security testing.

We take security very seriously, and no matter how much we test in development and staging environments, in the end it’s how the production systems are set up that matters. Therefore we occasionally have the need to actually run certain tests during regular operations. This we did this afternoon.

Hopefully it all cleared up quickly.

[SvanteSpectator]

Hello Alain,

We’d like to know why you want to revert of course, but here’s how:

1. Uninstall AxCrypt 2.x.
2. Install AxCrypt 1.x (you’ll find the download on the legacy old site http://www.axantum.com ).

If you’ve encrypted or converted any existing files to version 2.x format, the best way is to separately download the portable / standalone version of AxCrypt 2 from http://www.axcrypt.net and use that to decrypt the files as needed, and then re-encrypt them with AxCrypt 1.x .

Please be aware that AxCrypt 1.x is no longer actively maintained.

[SvanteSpectator]

Hello Mathieu,

That version is long since outdated. Why would you want to download it, and where did you find a reference to it? The current version is 2.1.1464.

[SvanteSpectator]

Hello Ryan,

This is the “Secured Folders” feature. It means you can designate a folder, typically a synchronized folder with your cloud service that is being monitored for updates and changes. If you have iCloud, One Drive or Google Drive installed AxCrypt will automatically create a “My AxCrypt” folder there also.

[SvanteSpectator]

Hello Brooks,

Ok, it’s a little more complicated but I usually try to simplify it with the statement “An AxCrypt-encrypted file will always be possible to open if you know the original password used to encrypt it”.

Perhaps a better wording than “the original password used to encrypt it” would be the “the password used when the file was most recently (re-)encrypted”.

With AxCrypt 2, there are other factors involved as well. Here’s a more detailed description:

– The actual key used to encrypt the file is a purely random 128 or 256 bit key generated internally by AxCrypt. You never see this key. It’s called the Master Encryption Key in AxCrypt, in the literature it might be called a Session Key.

– This master key, is in turn encrypted essentially with your password. In AxCrypt 2, this is the password you used to sign in to AxCrypt with.

– With AxCrypt 2, you also get an AxCrypt ID which in technical terms is a RSA 4096-bit key pair. This is used for the key sharing feature, where an encrypted file can be shared with others and they can open it with their own passwords.

– Your own AxCrypt ID is also used to encrypt the master key. So for each file, the master key is encrypted at least twice – once with your password, and once with the sharing (public) part of your AxCrypt ID.

– If you use the key sharing feature, the same master key will be encrypted once for each recipient you share the key to the file with.

Now, if you change the password for your AxCrypt account, what really happens is that the secret (private) part of your AxCrypt ID is re-encrypted with your new password.

Let’s for this example also say that you’re sharing the key with one recipient.

You’ll be alice@axcrypt.net. Your friend recipient will be bob@axcrypt.net .

You have an AxCrypt password for alice@axcrypt.net : Secret4Alice

Your friend bob@axcrypt.net has password : Bob4Ever

You sign in to AxCrypt with ‘Secret4Alice’.

You encrypt a file ‘CoolStuff.txt’.

AxCrypt generates a master key and encrypts ‘CoolStuff.txt’ into ‘CoolStuff-txt.axx’, and embeds the encrypted master key twice: once using your password ‘Secret4Alice’, and once using your AxCrypt ID.

You share the key to the file with bob. Now the master key is encrypted three times in the same file: once using your password ‘Secret4Alice’, once using the ‘alice@axcrypt.net’ AxCrypt ID and finally also using ‘bob@axcrypt.net’ AxCrypt ID.

It can now be decrypted with the password ‘Secret4Alice’ since it for one can decrypt the master key directly in the file, but since that is also the key to the encrypted AxCrypt ID you have, the master key can also be decrypted using that.

It can also be decrypted by Bob, since he has access to his private AxCrypt ID part, and can thus also decrypt one of the three copies of the master key embedded and encrypted in the file. Bob uses ‘Bob4Ever’ as his password for AxCrypt, so that’s the password that he is using to open the file.

—

Now you (Alice) change your AxCrypt password to ‘NewGood2Go’. This causes your (Alice’s) AxCrypt ID to be re-encrypted with the new password.

—

The situation we now have is that the file ‘CoolStuff-txt.axx’ can be opened with three different passwords:

1) The original password used when the file was encrypted: ‘Secret4Alice’.

2) The password to Alice’s AxCrypt ID: ‘NewGood2Go’.

3) The password to Bob’s AxCrypt ID: ‘Bob4Ever’.

This is what I mean that the file can always be decrypted with the original password used to (re-)encrypt the file.

—

Finally, you Alice decide to open the file and edit it. This causes ‘CoolStuff-txt.axx’ to be re-encrypted. Since you changed your AxCrypt sign in, you’re now using the password ‘NewGood2Go’ as the ‘original’ password. The file can now only be opened with two passwords (but actually in three ways):

1a) The original password used when the file was encrypted: ‘NewGood2Go’.

1b) The password to Alice’s AxCrypt ID: ‘NewGood2Go’.

2) The password to Bob’s AxCrypt ID: ‘Bob4Ever’.

—

Ok, I need to write this up with a few illustrations ;-)

 

[SvanteSpectator]

Ok,

Thanks for all the info.

Actually, what you’re saying about the install of the latest version makes me think that there is a problem is with your machine, possibly in combination with some problem with AxCrypt.

There is really no way that the AxCrypt installer could do remotely what you describe, unless something in your system is severely broken. There is also absolutely no difference whatsoever between the 2.1.1460 and 2.1.1464 installers, only very minor differences to the actual executable being installed.

You’re also on a rather old system, with a lot of history presumably (unless you happened to install Windows 7 recently of course). You might not by any chance be using some kind of Windows Explorer replacement or similar software as well?

[Author]

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