Desktop app very slow encryption and decryption

Help Desktop App
#1

I just started using cryptomator and I’ve found the encryption and decryption on the desktop app very slow. I have the cryptomator on Dropbox (like the getting started tutorial) and I’ve uploaded a folder with around 95 items summing to 165MB (the vault has this as a folder, not all files at the root of the vault). The encryption throughput never went over 4.2MiB/s and the decryption even less than that with my computer being unusable every 20s. It took more than 15 minutes to copy the files with encryption. Copying the folder over to dropbox (with no encryption) takes one minute.

Is this normal? I don’t really know what to expect… Should have all the files at the root of the vault?
Am I using cryptomator in a way not intended to? When I tried on the app in iOS the decryption is much much faster.

I’m using the latest FUSE and the latest Cryptomator on mac os 10.13.6.

EDIT:
Obviously my setup has some problem since opening an image on my vault on my iOS takes at least 10x less time than on the computer. The desktop app is essentially not usable. Can please someone gimme some hints on what I can do to improve this?

#2

No, this is not normal. Having the files spread across multiple directories doesn’t do any harm (it might even speed up directory listings - but this is not noticable unless your directories have thousands of files).

Can you tell us a bit more about your setup? Maybe any other software that might affect file system accesss (anti virus…)?

#3

I’m on a macbook pro 2.2Ghz 16gb ram. Mac os 10.13.6 as I mentioned before.
It is a company laptop so unfortunately I’m stuck with ESET Antivirus and cannot do anything about it.
Other than that the vault is in dropbox which is running at all times. Don’t know what other detail to mention really…

I did some testing now and turned off dropbox syncing (paused it) and doesn’t really solve it. So I’m guessing it isn’t that.

When I unlock the vault it takes a bit to open the vault drive (30s). When I open the folder in the vault that has 95 images (most of the ones in the vault) this is when the blocking occurs and it doesn’t stop until all images have a thumbnail, after which I can open every image without any problems. What I find odd is that during the generation of these thumbnails, cryptomator has a low cpu (10%) and no application has any relevant cpu in fact. There is no activity on the encrypt/decrypt chart. After the thumbnails are generated and I start browsing the pictures (through quick-view on finder) the decrypt chart has activity and the browsing is super quick then.

So what is it doing and where is it blocking when these thumbnails are being generated…

#4

I can only make an assumption, I don’t know whether this is the case for you. For functionality purposes, most Cloud services save the files in 2 ways. One way is the actual saved file on your computer. The other way is the file’s icon on the computer, that occupies zero space, but it indicates that this file exists, on the Cloud. Once you click on that file, it then downloads the data and the file opens. Do you see what I mean? You see the file, the file has zero data, you double click, and at that moment the file gets downloaded through the Cloud service and opens on your computer.

If this is so slow for you, I would assume that you are synchronizing Cryptomator with the virtual files that do not exist locally on your computer, and every time Cryptomator gets a command to decrypt and open such a file, it first waits for the file to download, and then it decrypts it and opens it. So, the slowness is not because of Cryptomator, but because of the internet. Do you see what I mean?

A simple way to test if this is the case, go offline and see how Cryptomator behaves. If my assumption is correct, then in offline mode Cryptomator shouldn’t be able to decrypt and open the file at all.

#5

Hello,
Hello,
a question from a new Mac user.

I have the same symptoms (fair speed on iOS, very slow access to documents on macOS : accessing any file from the Finder almost brings my MacBook Pro to a freeze)

Am I using cryptomator in the wrong way on the desktop?

I’m using iCloud as a cloud provider and FUSE.

#6

Sorry for bringing up this old topic, but I just wanted to ask if anyone has a solution to the above mentioned problem?

I am using Cryptomator together with Dropbox on a M1 Mac Mini and browsing the encrypted files in the finder slow down my whole machine, constantly getting the spinning rainbow ball when moving into another folder. I also have the same issue when I want to upload an image from my encrypted folder from a web interface, for example when I am writing a blog post with Ghost and want to select an image from my vault, the finder opens up but I literally can not do anything because the finder freezes whenever I access the folder. I am also using macFuse.

Any ideas what I could try to solve the problem, or what the cause could be?

#7

I have the same problem on my MacBook Air M1 in conjunction with WebDAV.
When I want to copy about 300 images to my vault, it takes about 1 to 2 hours. When the folder is accessed, it takes about a minute to show me the folder contents. This is not a reasonable way to work.

EDIT: MacBook Air M1, 8GB, 512 GB; macOS 12.2.1, Cryptomator 1.6.5 (dmg-3397);

#8

I recommend to not use WebDAV but FUSE instead.

1 Like
#9

Thanks for your tip.

I have been using Cryptomator for some time, but did not pay attention to it when installing it on my new MacBook Air.

On my old Mac I use FUSE of course … and now also on my new one :smile:

#10

Hi & Sorry for coming back to this. Could you find a solution, your problem is very similar to mine and should be caused by a specific setting (I can’t imagine most users can reasonably work this way if they have the same issue).

#11

Well, I am sorry to tell you that I did not manage to solve the problem, also there were no responses from the community or support, which ultimately led to the decision to uninstall Cryptomator, because just like you mentioned there was no chance for me to use Cryptomator when it slows down not only my cloud but my whole computer that.

#12

Hi all,

I was testing Cryptomator Vaults with MacFUSE on Nextcloud on Premise and it seems I encountered the same performance issues.
It occurred with Word and Excel documents but also with photos.
I did the tests with a Vault quite empty (less than 30 items).
It is not a constant issue which is disturbing.

This test was because I wanted to use it professionally but it is not possible with this trouble.
Users won’t accept to waste time like this.
It seems to be a very good product and it would be a pity having to choose another one because of this.

I would really appreciate if someone could bring information on where it could come from.

I am not a developer and cannot help this way but I can give time debugging this.

Thanks in advance

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