#1

Hi everybody. I’m a therapist and I’m considering using a dedicated vault for my work notes. I like the idea of having it based on local files and not going to a cloud service. Is there a way to encrypt a vault in a way that only I can access and read the files? I don’t mind putting a password in everytime I enter said vault.

Thanks.

#2

Obsidian doesn’t have an inherent encryption layer.

If you’re a Mac user and storing files locally, you can encrypt the folder that contains your vault. See “Encrypt folders” from this Tech Radar guide.

To encrypt the data, go to the Finder > Applications > Utilities folder. Choose ‘Disk Utility’. On the top of the menu, select File > New Image > Image from Folder. Choose the folder you wish to add a password to, then click ‘Choose’.

On the next screen, choose your level of encryption (128-bit or 256-bit AES Encryption) and your password. Click ‘Choose’. Next, next to ‘Image Format’, selection ‘Read/Write’. Select ‘Save’ to exit the window.

Once the system finishes encrypting the folder, click ‘Done’. Exit ‘Disk Utility’.

Angel

#3

thanks. unfortunately, not a mac user.

#4

Hope someone else comes up with a solution for you.

Angel

#5

Look into veracrypt or cryptomator

#6

I’ve heard good things about Vault, but I haven’t tried it myself. It looks fairly technical, but very versatile and local. Encrypting your entire hard drive would probably be easier, but Vault gives you more control and more options.

For an easier but cloud-based solution, Keybase has very easy to use encryption. You just install it and drop your files into the Keybase file system, and everything is magically encrypted. It’s like Dropbox but with end-to-end encryption built in, and it makes it easy to control your own keys so you can be sure that no one is snooping on your files. Sadly though, I’m not sure there’s a way to use it without the cloud features.