Lost "masterkey.cryptomator"

[GxK]

I moved one of my vaults from my nextcloud folder to another folder, as I no longer wanted it stored in my nextcloud but rather on my computer locally. However, the “masterkey.cryptomator” did not transfer over. Now, I am unable to find this “masterkey.cryptomator” anywhere on my computer. My encrypted files are still there in the new folder I moved them too, but now I can not unlock them because cryptomator cannot locate the vault.

[SailReal]

Hey and welcome to the Cryptomator Community ,

You have a few options to get back to your files, if one of the option will help depends on your setup:

1. Check (if available) your local backups
2. Check the trash bin of your Nextcloud using https://URL_TO_YOUR_NEXTCLOUD/apps/files/?dir=/&view=trashbin or the trash can in the bottom left of the files app in Nextcloud
3. Check if you created and stored a recovery key

[GxK]

Thanks for responding. I created a recovery key upon setting up the vault, will it be able to help me?

[SailReal]

Awesome!

We need to enhance the process of recreating a masterkey file from the recovery key but this still works:

Recover masterkey file with recovery key?

Honestly, it’s a limitation on an application level. In theory, you could create a masterkey file out of the recovery key. So if you really only have the recovery key and lost your masterkey file, you could do the following workaround: Create a new vault. Copy masterkey file from new vault to old vault that has a missing masterkey file. Select old vault in Cryptomator. Go to “Vault Options” and select “Password”. Select “Recover Password”. Use the recovery key. Assign a new password. Edit: Yo…

[GxK]

I tried the steps provided, however, when I reveal the drive, it is empty, despite the new masterkey being in the same folder of the contents of my encrypted files/

[SailReal]

This could have at least to possible reasons:

1. As mentioned in the quoted message

   @tobihagemann

   Edit: You should only use this workaround if you are absolutely sure that your vault contents match the latest vault version. If you recover a masterkey file via this method and your vault contents actually match an older vault version, the new masterkey file won’t necessarily “fit” the vault contents.

   Have you made sure that both vaults have been created with the current cryptomator version or have been opened before using this version? By current version I mean Cryptomator in version 1.5.x

2. You have not only lost the masterkey.cryptomator but at least also the root-folder which causes the vault to appear empty. This could be checked with the sanitizer which is still being made fit for the current version.

[GxK]

I just created the vault yesterday, so it should be on the latest version. I am not sure what this root-folder is. Are you referring to the folder labeled as “d”?

[SailReal]

The directory structure is obfuscated with cryptomator. I meant one of the level 3 dirs, e.g. d/xx/yyyyyyyyy... . One of these folders is the root directory. The folders in it have this root directory as parent node. If the root directory doesn’t exists anymore, the vault appears empty although there are many files and folders in it but these can no longer be found .

What could help is the log file. Can you take a look if there is anything with error / warning while or after unlocking the vault?

Where is the log file located?

When restarting Cryptomator, a new log file is created. The log file of your latest launch is cryptomator0.log, the one before is cryptomator1.log and so on until cryptomator9.log. Usually you want to look at cryptomator0.log which is stored here: Windows: %appdata%/Cryptomator/ OS X: ~/Library/Logs/Cryptomator/ Linux: ~/.local/share/Cryptomator/logs/ pre-1.4.6: ~/.Cryptomator/ You can access this location by clicking on “reveal log files” from within Cryptomator’s preferences window: …

[infeo]

In the following article the problem of a lost /not synced root folder is described:

[1.5.0 - 1.5.19] Empty Vault, but still allocates Space

This article applies to: Cryptomator Desktop Version 1.5.0 to 1.5.19 Error Description After unlocking the vault, it appears empty. Also, your Cryptomator version is below 1.6.0. Reason Most probably this is due to either an incomplete sync or a file/folder conflict. Each Cryptomator vault has a root folder as the entry point to the vault content from which you can reach all other content. To this root, like any other directory inside a vault, corresponds one encrypted directory. If your s…