Cryptomator’s only task is encryption. The application does not connect to a cloud storage service directly (only applicable to Cryptomator for Desktop). If you would like to use Cryptomator to encrypt your cloud storage, you either have to install a sync tool (e.g., Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.) or mount the server as a network share.
This is a quick guide on how to create and unlock a Cryptomator vault:
- Download, install, and open Cryptomator.
- Create a new vault by clicking the “+” button at the bottom left.
- Set the target location inside either the local sync folder (provided by the sync tool) or network share and give your vault a name.
- Assign a password to your vault and confirm it.
- Unlock your vault, which opens up a virtual drive, in which you can store your data.
We’d like to point out steps 3 and 5. The target location from step 3 only contains encrypted data. To work on your unencrypted data, you’d have to follow step 5 and that’s what the virtual drive is for. You should only interact with the virtual drive and don’t put unencrypted data in the target location from step 3. Of course, you can look inside the target location (i.e. the vault) to ensure that everything inside is indeed encrypted (by checking if the filenames are encrypted).
You can find a more detailed guide on how to use Cryptomator in the user manual. You can also watch the tutorial video that gives you an introduction on how to use Cryptomator.