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3. Personal vault

A personal vault is an encrypted folder with its own password. It is suitable for your own confidential files – for example grade lists, assessments, or personnel records.

Creating a vault

  1. On the overview, under “My drives”, click “+ Add”. If an organization account is connected, a choice appears – select “Personal vault or existing folder …” there.
  2. Leave the format set to “Modern (recommended)”.
  3. Under “Folder for the vault”, click “Browse …” and choose an empty folder, for example a new folder Confidential in your OneDrive. Krywerk creates the vault in it.
  4. Enter a vault password with at least 8 characters and repeat it.
  5. Optionally check “Remember password”. The password is then stored on this computer, protected by your Windows user account, and you don't have to enter it when mounting.
  6. Optionally choose a name (shown in File Explorer) and a drive letter. “Automatic” takes the next free letter, starting at Z:.
  7. Click “Save”.

Important: Without the vault password the data cannot be recovered – not even by IT or by Krywerk. Keep it in a safe place, for example in a password manager.

Adding an existing vault

If you already have a vault – for example one created with the Cryptomator app or with Krywerk on another computer – follow the same steps, but in step 3 choose the vault's folder (the folder containing the file vault.cryptomator) and enter its password.

Mounting and working

  • Mount: In the vault's row, enter the password (if it isn't remembered) and click “Mount”. Afterwards the row shows “Mounted as Z:”.
  • Open: Clicking “Open” shows the drive in File Explorer. You can also open it directly in File Explorer under “This PC”.
  • Unmount: Click “Unmount” when you are done. When you quit Krywerk, all drives are unmounted automatically.

With “Mount automatically” (under “Edit”), Krywerk mounts the vault by itself at startup, provided the password is remembered.

Editing or removing a vault

Under “Edit” (only while the vault is unmounted) you can change the name, drive letter, “Mount automatically”, and “Read-only”. You'll also find:

  • “Delete remembered vault password” – Krywerk asks for the password again the next time you mount.
  • “Remove” – takes the vault off Krywerk's list and forgets the remembered password. The encrypted files are kept; you can add the vault again at any time.

Opening it on your phone

Personal vaults use the Cryptomator format. To open them on the go:

  1. Install the Cryptomator app for Android or iOS (from the respective app store).
  2. In the app, add an existing vault and connect OneDrive (or your storage service).
  3. Choose the vault's folder (it contains vault.cryptomator) and enter the vault password.

Changes made on your phone appear on the computer as soon as OneDrive has synced them – and vice versa.