Empty folders in vault structure disappered, migrating from vault version 7 to version 8

Hi there - this is my first post. Please be patient with me, if some “is wrong”.
I tried to search before posting, but did not find any topic, that comes close.

System: Windows 10
Cryptomator: Desktop App, latest available version (v1.6.5)

Szenario: I have v7 vaults “packed” into ZIP files.
Why in ZIP files? Because some online storage provides are “more responsive” with ONE (big) file, than with, let’s say, 300 small ones.

As the vaults are ZIPPED, I am pretty sure, they are complete and not changed in any way, although I did not hash them. Those ZIP files are downloaded to my PC, unzipped and then I tried to synchronize the unzipped, unlocked vault folder with new content via FreeFileSync (not pasting a link, because don’t want to advertise).

What happened: I had a v7 vault, containing my Thunderbird “local folders”. Within that vault, there was a certain folder structure. This structure also contains empty “.mozmsg” folders with “ZERO” size. Before opening the vault with Cryptomator, it surely needed to be migrated to v8. After that, when trying to synchronize with the actual / updated content from my HDD, I get a message that some of the folders cannot be created (not “updated”), because they already exist (?!) ALL of the mentioned folders were “ZERO” size “.mozmsg” folders. Those cannot be found within the folder structure of the unlocked vault (via e.g. Windows Explorer) and are just “inaccessible”.

So I believe, the vault got damaged / the folders got lost during the migration process.

No problem, as long as you have the “original folder” still available, but I currently don’t trust Cryptomator for backups with many files and folders or with a complicated folder structure. I am happy, I did not loose an data (3-2-1 backup method), but I am really loosing my confidence for “true, longterm, crypted backups”. I cannot (don’t want to) check each (de-)crypted backup for “completeness”. Currently just use it with redundant and uncritical data, that I just don’t want to share with e.g. G00gle

I know, it is “off-topic”, but as an “emotional” comment…:
Currently, I decided to go back to veracrypt containers for longterm (a year+) online storage, although there are also some obstacles (e.g. changing size). I have old containers that are accessible without any hassle.

A lot of text, a lot of info. Any comments from the community or moderators are appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Hi and welcome.

The migration does nothing else then edit the Masterkey.Cryptomator file and creating the new vault.Cryptomator file. No change to the encrypted files or folders.
You can do some checks to see whether this is a problem with Cryptomator or Freefilesync or the zip process.
There were reports in the past with Freefilesync having problems to deal with 0kb files correctly.

Can you please install the latest desktop version 1.5. and open your fresh unzipped vault and check if the same behaviour occurs? Can you sync with another client, like PersonalBackup?
Which volume type do you use?
Is there anything suspicious in the log file if you goto a folder where you would expect an affected file?
Can you find any 0kb files in your zip archive? (Or at least an other hint that exclude the possibility that these files were not packed?)

PS: you loose one of the main benefits when uploading zip files. I am sure you are aware of this, but I am interested why you want to use a program that is designed that way, when you do not want to have that benefit?

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@Michael Thank you for your quick response and starting points to investigate.
I really do appreciate your support!

Didn’t know that / was not aware of this. I am using FreeFileSync quite regularly for backing up my data (music, pictures, movies, office files,…) and did not realize any problems, so far. Proprietary software might offer better features, but I like to stay transparent and independent from “special” software…

I will try to investigate on the points you stated, step by step. Please allow me some time to do so. X-mas is close and time is valuable :wink:

Let me try to explain: I’m using different online services (e.g. OneDrive, GDrive, WEB.DE SmartDrive, Mega.nz,…).
Different reasons for that. Some I cannot access at work, some I trust more, some I trust less. Some offering good sharing options, etc. But I hate a different client software for each provider. So I tried RaiDrive, NetDrive,… and ended up with AirLiveDrive. All of them offer connections to the different services, but ALL of them are quite slow, handling large amounts of small files, whilst they are handling a small number of big files, quite quickly / smoothly.
So the “zipping” is some kind of workaround, already.
This is my “workflow” at least for less often updated backups.

I will come back regarding the open questions / investigations.
Thanks for your patience.
Season’s greetings and Merry X-mas.

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