Find all encrypted files in Windows

We were recently troubleshooting an issue where CrashPlan was not reaching 100% complete for the 15 minute backup increments. Since we weren’t seeing any failures in the backup logs to identify which files were not being successfully verified as backed up—the most likely cause was encrypted files or folders.

We found a command that greatly helped us locate the encrypted files causing the backup issues. Run this in Powershell as Admin and it will list out the files so you can either correct the issue or exclude them from the CrashPlan backup and ensure they are being backed up by another method such as Windows Server Backup.

Cipher /u /n > C:\temp\Encrypted_Files.txt

Takes a bit to run, but total lifesaver!

CrashPlan not reaching 100% complete for encrypted files is not necessarily a problem and, in most cases, a sign the encryption is doing its job! The CrashPlan server is prevented from seeing the file or folders contents, so is unable to give a thumbs up all recent changes have been received. All CrashPlan backups are fully encrypted at the archive level and as they are sent offsite, so the data is secure.

Configuring a alternate local solution that is compatible with the encryption type of the files and meets the companies’ security needs is the right way to go. We then tell CrashPlan to exclude those files from its backups so we can get that regular 100% confirmation of completion.

If Cipher fails to show you the files, it is most likely caused by incorrect attributes. Using Total Commander Portable with advanced search options of Hidden/Encrypted will show you the files with issues. Ensure these folders/files have the administrator listed as Owner and that the files aren’t hidden/encrypted.