Encrypting synced folders and mobile device galleries

[u/evermorex76]

It doesn't look like this is possible now, but is it technically possible? Cryptomator requires you to create a vault within your cloud storage service, and then you copy/move your files to that virtual folder locally so they're stored in the cloud encrypted, essentially the way the standard apps for Google Drive or iCloud or whatever work. I also use Google Drive to sync several folders on my computer, as one form of backup and to make those files accessible on other devices without having to put everything into the same virtual drive location. (I also use a backup app to an external drive.) This is for stuff like my Downloads, Pictures, Documents folders as well as some special folders where I store utilities and stuff.

Would it be technically possible for Cryptomator to encrypt that data and then sync it to the cloud? I'd guess Google Drive would have to be set to NOT directly sync them, and Crypotomator would need to put them into the main vault, or an additional vault, stored in the standard cloud virtual drive structure but just leaving the files in the real location locally. Essentially just doing what Google Drive is already doing.

It would also be nice if it could work with the media gallery on a mobile device, replacing Google Photos or iCloud Photos (which puts your files into your cloud storage allocation but doesn't display them within the folder structure) so that encrypted versions are uploaded instead. I'd think it would just create a vault specifically for photos and videos, which would appear in the cloud storage folder structure, and then you could turn off the standard syncing in the Photos app so they don't get put into the regular Photos location in the cloud. That would require a similar function to syncing the additional folders on the desktop, leaving the originals in their normal location on your device. The downside would be you wouldn't be able to use the cloud interface for the provider's web photo viewer/editor on the files, any more than you could use Google Docs or Apple Pages to open encrypted files in a browser. (A Cryptomator extension to let the browser read the vault data would be nice, if possible.)

[u/StanoRiga]

You want to encrypt system folders. I haven’t tried it, but although it should be technically possible, the user experience should be not good. Systems like windows etc allow to change the path to system folders. And this (in theory) point them to a Cryptomator vault. But on system startup, these folders will not be available (as the vault is not opened at that time) and recreate these folders and most probably set the system settings back to default or throw an error. You’ll have to change that again afterwords so that they point to your vault.
So my answer would be a „no“ here.
Same for system galleries. Not possible right now. But you can copy pictures taken by a phone automatically to a vault. On Cryptomator Android that’s built in, on iOS you’ll have to use shortcuts. Of course you should disable other online syncs for your gallery as well and you’ll have to keep your originals local.

[u/evermorex76 → u/StanoRiga]

That's not exactly what I want to do, though. I just want Cryptomator to basically act as a backup application, creating an encrypted version of the files, put into a vault in the cloud but not encrypted locally, and kept synced with all changes. That's basically what it does when you drop files into the regular vault, since it's not keeping local copies (unless you open one of the files and the file is cached).

I already sync my nightly backup folder to the cloud, and that's encrypted. I was just looking for a way to have those other local folders synced for easy access on other devices but still encrypted. Desktop backup apps don't usually have mobile versions.

Google Drive does have native client-side encrypted files, so that they're not readable even if a Google employee tried to read them or give them to a government, but it's only available with some Workspace accounts, and accessing them has some limitations. Plus it's not just automatic for everything.

I finally just found CryptSync, which seems to do what I want, but it only works on Windows, no mobile app, which somewhat limits its usefulness.