Tuesday 25 August 2015

Tresorit - what to do when you delete a folder accidentally.






I just discovered a flaw in my favourite cloud platform Tresorit (https://tresorit.com/). Tresorit is a cloud based storage provided that syncs files and stores them securely with a secure 256Bit encryption programme. I use Tresorit for my business documents as I believe my clients deserve real security but I need the ability to access the files at any time wherever I am.  Tresorit fits the bill and ticks the boxes.  Up until now I have never had any difficulties with the service,  I am happy it allows access to only three devices as this limits my ability to work to only three work devices. 

I am not sure how, and I know lots of you will have been there and done that, complete with getting the badge, but I accidentally deleted my whole work folder from my desktop. To make matters worse, as I had not realised the error I compounded it by deleting the recycle bin as I had recently deleted a number of other useless things cluttering up my space. Absent mindedly, I added to the mess by installing something whilst deleting the recycle bin and so when the message ‘do you want to permanently delete you work folder’? I absent mindedly clicked ok... Then the penny dropped! But it was too late to cancel.

Fear not I thought. I make regular backups of things, but this will be out of date and not contain the article I had saved that I was writing.  I quickly Googled Downloading folders from Tresorit and found this was not possible.  I could download individual files, but my work folder has many hundreds of thousands of files so this is not a viable option.


There was a lot of concern on the internet that Tresorit is a live sync, so if you delete a file or folder from your Tresor, it syncs this deletion and you have lost your folder (bye bye).  There is no fall back like you get with other cloud sync programmes that allow you to revert to an earlier version, as this version apparently does not exist, according to Tresorit.

I did find a solution though and here it is:

1. Stop your desktop Tresorit programme running, as this syncs folders and files.

2. Search your computer, in Windows Explorer, for the Tresorit folder and click on the icon. 

3. Click on the shortcut to you Tresor.
This brings up you folder stored on your computer under my Tresors which is undeleted as long as the Desktop programme has not synced.

4. Copy and Paste you Tresor into its original programme.

5. Thank whoever you like for catching the problem before your computer deleted your Tresors altogether.

Tresorit add that also If Tresor is sync'd and colleague deletes file, hidden .tresorit/Trash folder contains deleted files.

I hope this helps people who also use this really good programme.  I will still continue to use it and will do manual backups to external hard drives which are encrytped on a regular basis.