- New Boxcryptor for macOS Beta
- Boxcryptor is Using a Lot of CPU
- Boxcryptor is Slow
- Icons or the Context Menu are Not Shown
- How to Create a Debug Log
- I Cannot Connect to the Boxcryptor Servers
- How Do I Uninstall Boxcryptor?
- Where can I download Boxcryptor Classic?
- What happens if Boxcryptor goes out of business?
- Advanced Client Configuration
- Outdated Clients
- Cannot open some files
- Legacy System Extension
- Apple Chip-Support
- What is a FolderKey.bch and a .bclink file
- Recover Account Access if Second Factor (2FA) is Lost
Manage Clouds and Locations
Boxcryptor supports a vast variety of cloud storage providers out of the box. Additionally, Boxcryptor works with every cloud provider which supports the WebDAV protocol.
Cloud Storages
Boxcryptor works as an additional security layer for your cloud storage. We handle the encryption, while the cloud storage’s software syncs your files to the cloud. Therefore, Boxcryptor requires the sync client of your cloud provider to be installed on your system.
Most clouds are detected automatically by Boxcryptor, and added as a location to the Boxcryptor drive. If your cloud is not detected automatically, you can add it manually as a custom location.
Individual locations can be enabled or disabled via the Location settings. Right-click the Boxcryptor menu bar icon → Preferences → Locations and alter the checkboxes next to the cloud provider names as you need it.
Note: Free accounts can only activate one location. If you need more, please upgrade here.
Dropbox
Dropbox is not compatible with macOS 12.3 because the Dropbox client is not fully supporting Apple's latest operating system yet. If you choose to update to macOS 12.3, you will experience issues opening online-only files in Dropbox with some third-party apps. Dropbox will not automatically download them anymore.
The latest version of Boxcryptor contains a mitigation for this incompatibility so that opening encrypted online-only files works in Boxcryptor as expected. We strongly recommend to use Boxcryptor version 2.46.1668 or newer on macOS 12.3. The latest version of Boxcryptor can be downloaded here.
Did you know about the next generation of Boxcryptor for macOS? It does not require a Dropbox client and fully supports macOS 12.3. Learn more about it in our blog.
OneDrive
Due to technical restrictions of the new OneDrive client with updated Files On-Demand experience, Boxcryptor cannot open encrypted online-only files on the first attempt. Online-only files are only available online and not locally on your Mac.
Thus, the first attempt to open an such an encrypted file in Boxcryptor always fails. At at the same time, Boxcryptor displays a corresponding notification and automatically triggers the download of the file. After the file has been downloaded by OneDrive, it can be opened as usual in second and subsequent attempts as long as it is locally available on your Mac.
Despite receiving an error message when you try to open an encrypted online-only file for the first time, your encrypted data is never at risk. OneDrive's updated Files On-Demand experience does not support downloading and opening encrypted files at the same time, so Boxcryptor must perform these actions separately. For locally available files, Boxcryptor works with OneDrive without any restrictions.
We are working on a completely reworked Boxcryptor for macOS version which will not depend on the OneDrive sync client anymore. You can learn more about it here.
Google Drive
Boxcryptor automatically detects both your Google Drive mirrored and streamed locations. Any additional backed up folder is not added automatically.
Only content synced using the Google Drive tab is available on other devices. Folders from My Computer are not accessible on other computers or in the mobile Boxcryptor apps. If you want to encrypt files in any backed up folder, you can manually add it as a custom location.
Shared Drives are currently only supported in streamed locations.
Maximum file name length
While Google Drive itself does not have a maximum file name length limit and synchronizes any file name length from a Mac to Google Drive, it restricts the maximum file name length when synchronizing a file or folder from Google Drive to a Mac.
While mirrored locations have a maximum file name length of 255 bytes, streamed locations allows only up to 250 bytes for a file name. If a file name exceeds these limits, Google Drive synchronizes the file but truncates the name so that it meets the limit. Please note that the length is not limited in the number of characters, but the number of bytes required by the name. One character used by Boxcryptor's file name encryption can occupy up to 4 bytes.
If an encrypted file name is truncated, Boxcryptor cannot decrypt the file name anymore because the whole encrypted file name is required for successful decryption. In this case, you must shorten the file name so that it does not exceed Google Drive's limits and is not being modified by Google Drive.
iCloud
Due to technical restrictions by Apple, Boxcryptor for macOS differentiates between iCloud and iCloud Drive (Mac & PC only). If you plan to use Boxcryptor on your iPhone or iPad as well, make sure to use iCloud, because iCloud Drive (Mac & PC only) is only available on Mac or PC devices.
The fact that there is an iCloud Drive (a typical cloud provider) and an iCloud (where all your apps and their cloud space are managed by Apple) makes setting up encryption across platforms a little more complicated, compared to other clouds. Some additional steps are necessary in the beginning. But once your iCloud in combination with Boxcryptor is set up, working with the data is as simple as on other platforms.
Make sure to use the same Apple ID on your iOS device and your Mac.
How to encrypt iCloud Drive and make all your data available on mobile and desktop devices
If you want to have your encrypted data available on all your devices you have to take the following steps:
Install Boxcryptor on your iPhone or iPad and also on your desktop devices.
Make sure that you are signed in to iCloud on all devices.
Add the iCloud provider in Boxcryptor for iOS.
Upload an encrypted file to iCloud via Boxcryptor for iOS.
Apple will then create a Boxcryptor folder in their cloud.
Open Boxcryptor on your desktop and access the iCloud location on macOS or iCloud Drive → Boxcryptor on Windows. You will find the encrypted file from your iPhone or iPad there.
To make files from your Mac or PC available on your iPhone or iPad, move or copy the files to the folders mentioned above. You will then have them available on your mobile and desktop devices.
Files stored only in iCloud
Due to technical restrictions, Boxcryptor requires files to be downloaded and available on the Mac. Files available only in iCloud and not stored on the Mac are not available in the Boxcryptor drive. Those files must first be downloaded in iCloud Drive before they appear in the Boxcryptor drive.
I Cannot Activate the iCloud Location
Before you can activate iCloud as a location, please add iCloud in your Boxcryptor for iOS app. Upload a small dummy file so that the Apple System creates a Boxcryptor folder.
Network Drives and USB Devices
Removable USB drives are detected automatically by Boxcryptor, too.
Network drives are not yet automatically detected Boxcryptor. You can add network drives as a custom location as described below.
How to disable removable drive auto-detection
You can disable this feature by modifying the autoDetectRemovableDrives hidden preference.
Custom Locations
If your favorite cloud is not listed as a supported provider or if you want to encrypt a specific folder on your machine, you can add those as well:
Click the Boxcryptor menu bar icon → Preferences → Locations → 
and then choose your very own location.
If your chosen location is not a sync folder of a cloud provider, nothing will be uploaded to the cloud. The data stays on your PC locally, just like any other folder, but encrypted.