Dropbox acquisition of Boxcryptor

LizP

I don't understand what I need to do to be able to view my Dropbox files that are encrypted by Boxcryptor. I exported my keys as explained on the migration guide and I can see the files on my PC, but not on my other devices. I am not very computer savvy, but I thought I saved these files on Dropbox first and then they were encrypted through Boxcryptor. So, I was hoping there would be a simple way to just reverse the process.

Mattis

LizP You probably copied all of your files from your Dropbox to your local hard drive, which would explain the fact, that you don’t see your files on your other devices. However, it’s highly recommend to install another solution to encrypt your files again to Dropbox, like Cryptomator, which is the beste alternative to Boxcryptor. Maybe you are deterred due to things that happened to Boxcryptor, but I can say that something like with Boxcryptor cannot happen with Cryptomator, because there is no need to create an account or something and the software is open source, which will make it impossible to remove it from the market. The software works 100% offline.

Hope that helps.

Enric

Hi, I am bit confused here. I do use Boxcrypt with Dropbox but I use the old Classic 1.7 version.

I use Boxcryptor Classic 1.7 to encode files in a specific folder of my computer which then I sync with my online Dropbox. Thus, the files uploaded to the cloud (to Dropbox) are already encoded from origin (on my PC).

This termination wouldn't affect my setup at all, right? I mean, I can continue using this setup and I would still be able to access my files, providing of course, I access them from a device containing Boxcryptor Classic 1.7 and containing -in the device- the .enf file which allows decoding in-situ, yes?

PS: Yes, I know, I should update to a more modern solution... but I haven't yet come around to doing so.

Mattis

Enric Boxcryptor Classic should continue to work as expected, but you are right, it’s highly recommended to switch your encryption software. I can recommend Cryptomator, works almost the same than Boxcryptor Classic.

You’re safe, if you can say that you don’t have an Boxcryptor account at all. As long as you are in the possession of your encryption key. 😃

Enric

Thank you for your response Mattis

When you say "work almost the same"... do you mean you don't depend on any "external service/server/company" and that I would be able to continue using it in the event of say Cryptomator developers suddenly disappearing? (I know is OS, but for the sake of it, let's say nobody else was to continue development)

Also, from an operative point of view, is it the same procedure as with Boxcryptor Classic?, that is, (1) setting up an encrypted folder on my PC -key saved in the form of a file -no Registry or alike-, that can be easily transported to a different computer-, (2) placing files in the folder, which get automatically locally encrypted, (3) syncing that folder with my online cloud (Dropbox or any other). Is this straightforward?

And one last question... should I duplicate the setup on a different computer (using the same encryption key file, of course), it's my understanding I would have two computers syncing on the same cloud and files would be able to be decoded automatically in both of them, right?

Thanks alot.

Mattis

Enric You‘re welcome. It‘s never wrong to keep a copy of your encryption key file.

Why Cryptomator is better?

It‘s Open Source, so it cannot be removed from the market,
It is free on desktop and paid (one time fee) on mobile,
Cryptomator has a free filename and even file structure encryption,
Cryptomator will support future operating systems. (Boxcryptor Classic not)

The lack of future software updates is the biggest downside of Boxcryptor Classic.

Enric

And a curiosity... both use the same 256-bit AES encryption, right? Then, why is one better than the other?

dt1807

The performance of the old BC classic is much better than the newer one.
I worked earlier directly in the crypted folder (compiling, debugging ...). With BC 2 it was a pain in the ...
So I tested Cryptomator - same bad performance.
I did these tests about 4 years ago.

At the end I work in uncrypted folders and sync the data into crypted ones.
I only write this because of the "work almost the same".

Enric

Mattis Thanks again.

Mattis

Enric You're welcome.

r3cgm

I have a slightly different but related question. Ever since the announcement of Boxcryptor acquired by Dropbox, I've been working to disengage from BC. I started (in OSX) by right clicking and using the context menu to decrypt the directories I had previously encrypted. To my knowledge, I've completed the process. But the worry is there, that there may have been deeper subdirectories I had encrypted and I don't know how to do a depth-first search across my entire Dropbox to find those with the encrypted (japanese?) filenames. From reading the docs it looks like the recommendation was simply to copy all files out of the BC view into Dropbox, to another location, which would ensure everything got decrypted. But that is impractical for me because: 1. I don't have enough space anywhere to hold a temp copy of the files before transplanting them back, 2. I'm worried I'll mess up and corrupt or somehow change file permissions or ownership on all my stuff. I'd far prefer to find a solution that would just search for and tell me if I have any files left that had been encrypted with BC. I know I could probably just ask ChatGPT to write me a script to do it but does anyone have a tested script or tool that can do this check?