Create a simple encrypted folder

zmaint

If I need to travel for work I will need to encrypt my folder that contains customer proprietary/confidential information (mostly drawings of plant floors and equipment). How do I do this simply? Looking for a 5th grader level easy mode.

Thanks!

Axios

zmaint I have used the previous truecrypt (defunct) and Veracrypt (repo) is what I use now
never had any issues with container files.
Make a big enough encrypted container file then you just mount it when needed and it shows up as a
drive copy your stuff to it.
When done unmount it.

I like containers they seem to be fool proof and very reliable over the years.
Its menu driven to make a container and then just passwords to mount and unmount.

Use Aes-Twofish and Sha512 for containers.

zmaint

Axios Thank you I'll give this a try!

zmaint

Axios Question... I made an encrypted drive. Unfortunately sometimes Veracrypt will not unmount the volume. It says the drive is "busy". I have tried forcing it via the command line sudo veracrypt --text --dismount --slot 1 --force but it still says it is busy. It's just spreadsheets/docs. Libreoffice is closed, none of the processes or files are still hanging open that I can see. So far the only thing that I could think of that worked was to use the good old magic syskey and force an unmount that way.... which is of course highly inconvenient. It looks like this is a pretty wide spread issue even including on windows systems. Is there any fix? So far I've not turned up anything in my searches.

Axios

zmaint I have not used encrypted drive for years anything still connected to that drive
even sometimes in the buffers would cause that.
More of a Os issue than veracrypt.
If you use a encrypted container not the whole drive should not have that issue unless like in file manger
you left it open to that container then it would give an error close any program accessing it before unmounting.

Create a small container and test it going be same no matter if its 1g or 100g

I know what your saying will have to research it some I use containers only time is when I forget to close filemanager windows is worse doesnt release it quick sometimes but Linux never had an issue with a container file

Hope that helps some

This pretty much describes your issue and how to tell if its not flushing.
https://fluca1978.github.io/2020/07/16/VeracryptDeviceMapper.html

I was just thinking it may treat drives and containers different so as why I dont have that issue with containers.
Not really sure how linux would map the two,

Sebastian

zmaint . I made an encrypted drive

Are you referring here to an external hard drive or USB Key? If so, or even if it is a separate partition on your hard drive you could use luks2 for encryption. Luks is also what Solus uses If you chose whole disk and encryption when installing.
I have my root partition, data partition and USB key encrypted with luks2. (it's a linux standard. would you need to read the device on a non-linux system?)
With luks2 I just insert my USB key. On mounting I get ask for a password. When done, I just unmount.
I believe setting up luks2 encrypted devices is straight forward with GNOME Disks utility.
With luks, you can't encrypt single folders, only whole devices/partitions.

zmaint

Axios I checked out /dev/mapper and it looks like the magic syskey unmount worked and left no stragglers. I'll test today when I can to confirm it's working. Terribly afraid to mess with anything in that folder as I don't want to risk deleting the contents of my drive.

Just wanted to update and say that the old magic syskey did unmount, left no stragglers, and the container is still working correctly. Might be a solution for anyone else that runs into this. So far I have not had any more trouble.

zmaint

Sebastian I was going to do just a folder, and it is only for use on Linux. It turned out that it made more sense for me to just encrypt the entire portable hard drive. If Veracrypt keeps doing this I may just have to set aside a day to move everything back to my main drive and then try to set this up using LUKS.

Axios

Thats a great way of doing it for Linux.
I use mine on other systems Linux winders mac so veracrypt works good.
Soooooo many great ideas come around on this forum.

MetaNorm

Cryptomator is another sophisticated tool for encrypting individual folders. You can add or create selected folders, if you encrypt them they are even invisible.

Harvey

I do not know what DE you use but for Plasma you can use plasma-vault (Don't think it'll work elsewhere).

Once installed, it will not appear in your system menu it appears as "Vaults" in your "Status and Notifications" section (Click the ^ arrow near clock).

Its pretty simple.

Axios

Kde is slowly becoming my go to after using it this year. (Seems like they have their act together)
Plasma Vault seems cool.
https://linuxconfig.org/create-encrypted-folders-with-plasma-vault