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Help how do I open this. the README file says

THIS DIRECTORY HAS BEEN UNMOUNTED TO PROTECT YOUR DATA.

From the graphical desktop, click on:
 "Access Your Private Data"

or

From the command line, run:
 ecryptfs-mount-private

How do I run this so that I can get my data?

Jjed
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Rebecca H
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3 Answers3

8

You are trying to access data from an encrypted directory. To do this, log in as the user owning the data in question (eg sally for /home/sally). If the home directory itself is encrypted, logging in will automatically decrypt the data. If it is a Private directory, there should be a launcher in that folder to click (which may again prompt you for the user password).

If the "Access Your Private Data" launcher fails for some reason, use this command and follow instructions:

ecryptfs-mount-private

If, for some reason, you have the data in question independent of the system it was used in, you will need the private key that Ubuntu's encryption wizard asked you to save on installation.

If you have neither the password for user with that encrypted directory, nor the private key, I'm afraid there is no way to recover the data.

Jjed
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    What if the owner of the home directory does not exist? I installed over the previous installation with a different user name leaving only the old home directory. – zorkerz Feb 08 '13 at 23:44
  • seems to require root's password and not the users? – Neil McGuigan Nov 26 '13 at 22:07
  • Does it need reboot? I executed ecryptfs-mount-private but no difference. It came back to normal operation after reboot! I don't know which one caused this. – SuB Sep 01 '14 at 14:36
  • @Jjed : My situation is different. Please be kind enough to go through this: http://askubuntu.com/questions/681019/cannot-read-files-from-a-crashed-ubuntu-partition-using-running-ubuntu-on-anoth?noredirect=1#comment989046_681019 – kiran bbnl Oct 07 '15 at 19:18
0

This bug happens quite frequently for me on Mint 19.1 Cinnamon for some reason, and without any obvious cause (except time). I find that running the command in an already open terminal does not work. However this works for me:

  1. Open a new terminal windows (don't use an old one)
  2. Run ecryptfs-mount-private without sudo. If it worked, there is no output in the console (no error, no asking for password).
  3. Refresh the files in file browser (nemo) to ensure it worked.
CoderGuy123
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0

Try logging into as the "USER" whose directory you are trying to access. I faced similar problem when accessing information of that of "user" logging in as a "root" user.

Aditya
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