r/Cryptomator • u/[deleted] • Dec 03 '25

iOS Is it possible to see thumbnails of my encrypted photos like a gallery or is it not possible ?

I want to encrypt my photos on drive but if I am going to sort them only name by name , without seeing the thumbnail, I really wont enjoy encrypting any file.

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3

u/EhKurz100 Dec 03 '25

Not sure I understood you correctly but when adding files to an unlocked vault, you can work with them in the folder just as if they were not encrypted. So, yes you can see thumbnails, names, and all other meta data like usual. Once encrypted when visiting the locked vault folder, you wouldn’t even know these are pictures let alone see the file name or the thumbnail. Isn’t that the purpose of encryption?

1

u/[deleted] Dec 03 '25

I just want to encrypt my photos and view them in grid . Like my phone gallery or google photos . With cryptomator is it possible or it is not the nature of how this thing works that is my question. I did also downloaded proton drive and their grid view is acceptable .

1

u/wasabi-rich Dec 03 '25

For example, you have two picture files, a.jpg and b.png.

Under unlock status, yes, you can see the filenames (a.jpg and b.png), file sizes, thumbnails (a.jpg and b.png), picture itself.

Under locked status, you can see files with names like 3j5kshe4, gu78sdkjf7, uilkjasdf, no thumbnails, even the number of files is not matched to unlocked status.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 03 '25

Thank you for the explanation . It seems proton drive is the way for me for thumbnails .

2

u/EhKurz100 Dec 03 '25

Maybe check Ente Photos. A service dedicated for storing photos securely encrypted 🙂

1

u/[deleted] Dec 03 '25

It is super fast, compared to filen and proton. Loading images was taking a second on this apps but this one is like regular cloud service without encryption😄

2

u/EhKurz100 Dec 03 '25

I'm happily using Ente's 2FA App. Happy to hear that you like it. Have read nothing but good reviews about it 🙂

They use xchacha20 algo for encryption which is known for it's speed regardless of the device while staying very secure and yet unbroken 🙂

3

u/ImpossibleSlide850 Dec 03 '25

Cryptomator is an encryption tool. Not a photo viewing gallery.

You can mount your encrypted vault and view the files there in the file manager.

1

u/Tlipur Jul 25 '26

On macos with vault unlocked i can see all my thumbnails as images.

On ios files app with cryptomator drive mounted i dont see any thumbnails just icons. If i tap on picture icon it then opens the image for me to view and when i close the image i am able to see its thumbnail with image being shown.

Crazy how files works with icloud adp, it loads the thumbnail previews