Hello,

Like many people, I have many files (text, pictures, …) on my Android smartphone; Files I don’t want to lose. I could use Google Drive or similar software to have a copy of files in the cloud in case my smartphone is destroyed/lost/stolen, but files would be stored unencrypted server-side, so we don’t want that. I’m looking for an E2EE solution to have a copy of the files in my phone on some cloud.

A common situation : you are on holidays, you only have your phone with you (no computer…). Near the end of the holidays, you break/lose your phone (or your backpack with your computer and phone is stolen). If your files are not synced/backed up in some cloud, you lose all your more recent files (including holidays pictures).

I searched for solutions, but found nothing good so far.

  • I considered Cryptomator for Android, but after 5,5 years the Document Provider API is still not implemented, despite the promises of the developers (they didn’t bother with a roadmap for 2023 for Cryptomator, it’s half abandoned with only cosmetic/bug fixes updates). There is no support for automation tools neither. So it does not seem appropriate.
  • Maybe a local encryption app, combined with a standard cloud sync app, could do the trick, but I have not found an efficient solution yet.

I’d like to know how you solved this problem for yourselves, or if you have any advice. It seems to be a common use case, I think it can be useful to many people.

note: I use Syncthing on a day-to-day basis to sync my files between my devices, but it won’t help in these situations.

(I hope my English is not too bad, it’s not my mother tongue, sorry)

  • @RunisOPEnglish
    2•1 year ago

    I’d like to use Cryptomator (I have it on my phone), however it does not support the DocumentProvider API.
    Because of this, using files inside a Cryptomator vault is very problematic with some apps. It is only possible to select a file in Cryptomator, and open it in an app. It is not possible to open a folder (unless I missed something).
    For example, as far as I know it is impossible to open an Obsidian vault (a folder with markdown files linked between them) in Obsidian, if files are in a Cryptomator vault (and Android). It’s only possible to select one file in Cryptomator, and open it in some app. Same problem with some other apps.
    Instead of using files inside the Cryptomator vault, an alternative could be to send a copy of local files in the Cryptomator vault. But because of the lack of the DocumentProvider or automation app support, it does not seems possible to automate this copy…