A common question that is asked is, "Can I encrypt my data inside cloud storage?". This is normally asked in terms of encrypting the data stored inside of Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive and other cloud storage solutions.

While DESlock+ does not directly integrate with cloud storage services, you can encrypt data using the granular encryption features of DESlock+ before uploading the encrypted data to your cloud storage. 

Example: How to use Dropbox to store an encrypted file

This example shows you how to use granular encryption to encrypt a text file and then move it into the Dropbox location. For more information on how to encrypt individual files please read this article:

KB317 - How do I encrypt or decrypt individual files?

Step 1. Right-click a text file use the DESlock+ menu to Encrypt the file

Step 2. Confirm the desired Encryption Key or Password that you would like to encrypt the file with

Step 3. Once encrypted, you can copy or cut the file to move it to your Dropbox folder

Step 4. Navigate to the desired Dropbox folder

Step 5. Paste or move the encrypted file into the desired folder

Step 6. Allow Dropbox to synchronize correctly

Step 7. When you want to work on the file you must move the file to a local directory (the desktop in this example) and then decrypt the file by either double left-clicking the file or right-click the file and use the DESlock+ menu to select decrypt. This is so that you can work on the data before re-encrypting the file and moving it back to Dropbox.

By following these steps, you can ensure that only encrypted information is stored within Dropbox. It is important to remember to move the data out of Dropbox before decrypting it, in order to keep the plain data safe from Dropbox's synchronizing. 

Virtual Disks

You may find it more convenient to store data inside of a Virtual Disk that is stored inside your Dropbox folder. By mounting the Virtual Disk, you can access your data as normal. If you decide to use a Virtual Disk inside of Dropbox, then please be aware of the size of the Virtual Disk. Regardless of the contents inside the Virtual Disk, the Virtual Disk will always be the size specified when it was first created. This is important because when using Virtual Disks inside of Dropbox, Dropbox will synchronize the Virtual Disk automatically over the Internet each time a change has been made. The larger the Virtual Disk is, the longer it will take to synchronize. 

For more information on how to create a Virtual Disks please read this article:

KB338 - How do I use Virtual Disks? 

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