Cryptomater cannot find vault

Hello all,

I have around 350GB of encrypted files in drive C:\D\d, I opened Cryptomater and I got a message saying “Cryptomater cannot find a vault at this path”, I tried the option of adding an existing path but couldn’t find the files vault or masterkey anywhere on my computer! If I go to the folder where I have the encrypted files in I see the encrypted files but cannot open them.

I would appreciate your help

Hank

Hi

Without the masterkey file you can’t open your vault. If you do have a recovery key for your vault, you can try and recreate the masterkey file.
See here: Recover masterkey file with recovery key? - #4 by tobihagemann

If you don’t have the original masterkey file and do not have the recovery key, and if you do not have a backup anywhere, you will not be able to open your vault and decrypt files anymore.

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Thanks a lot, I will try to recreate the masterkey, I already have the recovery key though, would it make a difference at this stage?

Not sure what you mean.
The recovery key belongs to your vault. It does not matter when or if you use it, it will always fit this one vault and nothing else. You can use it at any time, for example if you forgot your password (or want to recreate the masterkey file)

I appreciate your help, I will go to bug the person who wrote the steps on recreating the masterkey now :slight_smile:

I did the steps in the link you sent me and now Cryptomator sees the vault again, which was not the case, but when I enter the password I get an error:
Error Code 8V9J:2L00:2L00
org.cryptomator.cryptofs.ContentRootMissingException: The encrypted root directory of the vault C:\D\D is missing.
at org.cryptomator.cryptofs@2.6.9/org.cryptomator.cryptofs.CryptoFileSystems.checkVaultRootExistence(CryptoFileSystems.java:85)
at org.cryptomator.cryptofs@2.6.9/org.cryptomator.cryptofs.CryptoFileSystems.create(CryptoFileSystems.java:59)
at org.cryptomator.cryptofs@2.6.9/org.cryptomator.cryptofs.CryptoFileSystemProvider.newFileSystem(CryptoFileSystemProvider.java:196)
at org.cryptomator.cryptofs@2.6.9/org.cryptomator.cryptofs.CryptoFileSystemProvider.newFileSystem(CryptoFileSystemProvider.java:86)
at java.base/java.nio.file.FileSystems.newFileSystem(Unknown Source)
at java.base/java.nio.file.FileSystems.newFileSystem(Unknown Source)
at org.cryptomator.cryptofs@2.6.9/org.cryptomator.cryptofs.CryptoFileSystemProvider.newFileSystem(CryptoFileSystemProvider.java:126)
at org.cryptomator.desktop@1.13.0/org.cryptomator.common.vaults.Vault.createCryptoFileSystem(Vault.java:131)
at org.cryptomator.desktop@1.13.0/org.cryptomator.common.vaults.Vault.unlock(Vault.java:150)
at org.cryptomator.desktop@1.13.0/org.cryptomator.ui.keyloading.KeyLoadingStrategy.use(KeyLoadingStrategy.java:79)
at org.cryptomator.desktop@1.13.0/org.cryptomator.ui.unlock.UnlockWorkflow.call(UnlockWorkflow.java:76)
at org.cryptomator.desktop@1.13.0/org.cryptomator.ui.unlock.UnlockWorkflow.call(UnlockWorkflow.java:34)
at javafx.graphics@22.0.1/javafx.concurrent.Task$TaskCallable.call(Unknown Source)
at java.base/java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(Unknown Source)
at java.base/java.util.concurrent.CompletableFuture$UniAccept.tryFire(Unknown Source)
at java.base/java.util.concurrent.CompletableFuture$Completion.run(Unknown Source)
at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(Unknown Source)
at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(Unknown Source)
at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

Looks like you have selected the folder „d“ as your vault. But the parent folder is the actual vault folder. The masterkey file to be besides the folder d, not in it. See here how the vault structure looks like:
https://docs.cryptomator.org/en/latest/security/vault/#filename-encryption

After the vault appeared I tried the points suggested in the link you sent me, it didn’t work and I ran a health check which showed me that there are corrupt files, I pressed “fix” on some of them and now when I go to the vault I only see a folder that says “Lost and Found”, but the files in it are inoperable. I don’t see the masterkey anymore as well. Did I screw up?

Can anyone help please

For the how and what about the “lost and found” folder and why the files are unusable, see

In the last two sections, the guide also points to ways of reidentifying files.

I will try, thanks a lot