# All files lost after encryption

**URL:** <https://help.nextcloud.com/t/all-files-lost-after-encryption/205135>\
**Category:** ℹ️ Support\
**Tags:** external\_storage, encryption-server\
**Created:** [September 28, 2024, 12:26pm UTC](https://help.nextcloud.com/t/all-files-lost-after-encryption/205135 "2024-09-28T12:26:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Yuri\_Van\_Hamme](https://help.nextcloud.com/user_avatar/help.nextcloud.com/yuri_van_hamme/32/65271_2.png) [@Yuri\_Van\_Hamme](https://help.nextcloud.com/u/Yuri_Van_Hamme)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2024, 12:26pm UTC](https://help.nextcloud.com/t/all-files-lost-after-encryption/205135/1 "2024-09-28T12:26:56Z")

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Hi, I just ran the occ encryption:encrypt-all and my external storage drive with over 20GB of my life is just purged. I see that the drive has 0KB data on both nextcloud and on my storage box panel. Only the folders persisted.

Is everything gone? Or did I miss something?

Thanks and kind regards,  
Yuri

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**Author:** ![jtr](https://help.nextcloud.com/letter_avatar/jtr/32/6_22734026db12803ebb3e059622ac3534.png) [@jtr](https://help.nextcloud.com/u/jtr)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2024, 1:23pm UTC](https://help.nextcloud.com/t/all-files-lost-after-encryption/205135/2 "2024-09-28T13:23:09Z")

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What version of Nextcloud? And how did you set up encryption (i.e. default/master key, per-user key; home directory encryption enabled/disabled)?

How long did the command take to execute? It should have taken a material amount of time for 20GB of data.

Please check your Nextcloud log as well, from just before you ran the `encrypt-all` to just after.

If the files are still there, you should be able to browse them via the OS (albeit encrypted). What do they look like from the OS level?

Lastly, by “external storage drive” do you mean an _External Storage_ mount in Nextcloud or do you mean a physically external drive?

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**Author:** ![system](https://help.nextcloud.com/user_avatar/help.nextcloud.com/system/32/29333_2.png) [@system](https://help.nextcloud.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [December 27, 2024, 1:23pm UTC](https://help.nextcloud.com/t/all-files-lost-after-encryption/205135/3 "2024-12-27T13:23:41Z")

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