Win10/64 21H1 Enterprise: v1.5.17 fails creating a drive letter

[TonyOZ]

Hello!
I’m on win10/64 21H1 Enterprise, trying to install and use Cryptomator v1.5.17 over WebDAV.

My goal is to use a vault that should reside on a WebDAV-accessible storage.
(namely - my service provider is https://wd.mfd.sk)
When I select a custom location for a vault - and point the dialog to use that URL, the provider’s login~password pop-up appears. I supply the credentials and they are accepted, the usual WebDAV address string appears (DavWWWRoot is prepended to the vault’s name).
At this stage v1.5.17 reports it is unable to write at that location, no further progress is possible.

If I let v1.5.17 to create a local vault - it successfully puts its’ directory structure at the selected location, but further progress stops with the Cannot create drive ‘E’ error message. The “E” letter is free to use as a drive name though.

Please advise what do I do wrong.

Thank you in advance.

[infeo]

Welcome to the Cryptomator Community

for the “unable to write to the location”, we have a lengthy thread, but it breaks down to:

Unable to create new Cryptomator vault on a network share mounted in Windows

A small note for this thread: This problem should be fixed with the upcoming 1.6.0 version.

For

@TonyOZ

If I let v1.5.17 to create a local vault - it successfully puts its’ directory structure at the selected location, but further progress stops with the Cannot create drive ‘E’ error message. The “E” letter is free to use as a drive name though.

what error message is displayed?

[TonyOZ]

When a local vault is used - the error I see is when I press the “Reveal Drive E:” button.
It is a lengthy text with the “Location is not available” caption, it says:
“E:\ is unavailable. If the location is on this PC, make sure the device or drive is connected or disc is inserted, and then try again. If the location is on a network, make sure … etc”.

I’ve got the v1.6RC3, will give it a try now…

[infeo]

So the error is not inside the Cryptomator app, but Windows Explorer shows the error. I assume something with Dokany does not work and suggest you try out WinFSP:

WinFSP: How to use it

Hey Community, Remark: Since Cryptomator 1.6.8 we officially ship Crpytomator with WinFSP in the Exe-Installer if you are on Windows and experience trouble with Dokany or WebDAV, since Cryptomator 1.5.9 you can try a new virtual volume provider: WinFSP. We implemented support for it because it might lead to less code maintenance in the long term and it showed promising stability and performance in test runs. Remark Switching from any virtual volume provider to FUSE/W…

[TonyOZ]

Should I have installed Dokany too?
I unticked its’ box because all I needed was WebDAV.

Actually, I did try v1.5.17 with Dokany, same no-go…

Will WinFSP help me, or was that suggestion to developers, not to Cryptomator users?

[infeo]

@TonyOZ

I unticked its’ box because all I needed was WebDAV.

The installer is a little confusing: WebDAV is not for the connection to any cloud/web storage (storage location of the encrypted vault files), but for accessing your decrypted vault content. It is used as an adapter in order to integrate an unlocked vault into the OS. Dokany and WinFSP serve the same purpose. WebDAV on Windows has the limitation that Files greater than 4GB are not supported and it is a little bit slow. Dokany or WinFSP are third party libs which provide better performance.

@TonyOZ

Will WinFSP help me

yes.

[TonyOZ]

So, to summarise it:

1. I install WinFSP before the Cryptomator installation
2. I install the Cryptomator WITH the Docany tick-box CHECKED
   Right?

[TonyOZ]

Yes, having the WinFSP installed before the Cryptomator solves the problem.
Drive E:\ appears.

PS
I did not un-check the Docany component installation.

[infeo]

To clear things up:

Dokany and WinFSP are third party libraries. They are not needed for Cryptomator to function properly, but they offer some features which makes the access to your vault faster/easier.

You do not have to install those before Cryptomator installation, you can install them at any point in time. If you want to use them, you need to restart Cryptomator after there successful installation and select the library in the general preferences, virtual volume tab.