The auto generated sparsebundle password no longer works when app is unlocked.

[terrill13]

Before upgrading to vs 3, I unlocked and removed all of the folders from Espionage 2. I upgraded to Maverick, ensured I had the latest version of Espionage 3, and encrypted a file, by dragging the folder to the Espionage window. It created a sparsebundle file. For the first few days, it all worked fine, I would unlock Espionage, and it would unlock my sparsebundle file. I understand that a feature of vs3 generates it's own password for the folder. However now, it no longer works. As I was using Espionage 3 to lock my list of passwords/login, this is particularly disheartening. I've been an avid promoter of Espionage (to my students and fellow designers) since it was first created. Frustrated to see a trusted software app fail to work. 

[zsolt]

Hello, thanks for being avid promoter, and if there is anything we can help you with here, we surely will.
When you say it does not work, what do you exactly mean? Do you get any error message?
Is the folder still listed in Espionage?
If it is, if you click onto small "i" near the folder name, does it show a proper disk image and mount point folder linked to that folder?
If you click onto copy password, and paste it into a text file, do you get anything?

Looking forward to hear further details from you,

Zsolt

[terrill13]

Thank you for the quick response. I know it's impossible to identify, and troubleshoot thousands of users! I actually don't see any folders listed in the Espionage window. My understand is that, it's a new feature, to not show anything listed? I may have gone about encrypting it wrong. I dragged the folder to the blank/open window, and that's when it created the sparsebundle file. By not working, I mean it rejects my password, or the main password I used to unlock Espionage. My understanding is that the new feature on v3 is that it auto generates a complex password for the sparsebundle file. Thank you for your time and feedback.

[zsolt]

Hello, the things you are saying do not match up.

If Espionage rejects your password, then you cannot unlock it.
If you cannot unlock it, then you cannot see if there is any folder in the list or not.

Yes, Espionage 3 generates the sparse bundle passwords automatically for you, all you have to remember is the master password to unlock the espionage, Espionage takes care of the rest.

If you forget your master password, then we are stuck, there is no way you can decrypt the disk images, unless you exported the disk image passwords at some earlier time, while you were still able to unlock Espionage.

And the fact that Espionage was accepting the master password for a while and now it does not do it any more, was not reported so far in this latest version, we had similar problems at very early versions of Espionage 3, but these were fixed a while ago.

Let me know if you have further questions, or if I missed some point.

Rgds

Zsolt

[terrill13]

Thank you Zsolt for your reply and questions. I'll try and explain it a little better. When I click on the icon shortcut to Espionage on the top of the screen, it accepts my password, and opens the app. Next I double click on the sparsebundle file, which prompts me for a password. It used to accept my password (same to unlock the top icon shortcut) and then open the folder. But now it rejects that password. I appreciate your patience in trying to sort this out. Cheers - Terrill

[zsolt]

Hello, would it be possible to send me a screenshot from Espionage when you unlock it with the espionage master password?
And another one where you see the disk image you want to unlock?
Or if you prefer, we can make a remote session, I will be available tomorrow at evening (gmt +1 time zone)

Rgds
Zsolt

[terrill13]

Thank you. I emailed you with screenshots. Cheers - Terrill

[zsolt]

Hello,

Thanks for the screenshots, then do give an idea what you are talking about...

In Espionage 3, when you add a folder to it, say Documents/Secret, what happens is that Espionage generates a sparse bundle with some random name, in folder Library/Application Support/com.taoeffect.Espionage3/Data.
If you are protecting a folder on your boot disk, like in example above, then you will not be asked where to put this disk image, it will be saved in the folder I mention above, with no questions asked. If you are protecting a folder on some external disk, then it will ask you where do you want to save the disk image.

Once this part is done, Espionage copies the data from the folder you are about to protect into the disk image and the original content is moved into trash. The, now empty, folder you protected, becomes a mount point, through which the content will show up, once you unlock the folder from Espionage.

On your screenshot, there is a disk image with "human readable" name, and in some folder other then the one I mentioned above.
I have no idea how did you get the disk image appear there but this is not the way you should be using Espionage.
The disk images are not meant to be used/opened without Espionage, although it is possible, if you really wish to do so.

So, please, test with some dummy folder

Create an empty folder in your Documents folder, put a some file into it, unlock Espionage, drag the folder to Espionage window, wait until it encrypts and then try to unlock/lock it. When the folder is locked, it will appear empty in Finder, when it is unlocked, your dummy file should be visible.
You are free to visit the folder I mention above, and you will see one sparse bundle disk image containing the data.

Once this works, and you understand why and how, then you can tell me what exactly do you want to achieve, and I will try to explain if it is possible, and how.

Rgds
Zsolt

[terrill13]

Ok - this make sense. I added a second SSD drive to my laptop. The folder I wanted to encrypt was on the secondary drive, that's why I was prompted to save it in a folder. I was surprised by the request, because I had never been asked previously. But how you explained it makes sense. So the way I understand it, is that Espionage is only designed to encrypt files on the boot disk, and not external drives.

With ESP2, I had only encrypted files on boot disk, which worked flawlessly. When i try to encrypt on an external disk, I receive this screenshot, asking where I want to save the image location.

Thanks again - Terrill

[zsolt]

Hello Terill, no, Espionage is perfectly fine for protecting folder on your external disks too, it is just that to make the process simpler for an ordinary user, we do not ask for disk image location when dealing with folders from internal disks, as we assume that the user wants to store the data to the same disk as it was originally, and does not bother much about where it will be stored, so we place it in a "safe" folder, ie. in a folder which will not get in the way to the user's normal daily mac usage.
But when you want to protect folders from external disk then there is no default folder structure we can rely on, so we cannot "predict" where does the user want to store it, therefore we ask for disk image name and location.

My suggestion is that if you want to protect multiple folders on your external disk, you create one "storage" folder, and save all disk images there, it is also easier to manage it that way in regards to backup.

Let me know if you have any further questions.

Zsolt