HOW EXACTLY do I unlock my backup copies of sparse bundle files?

Started by lifeatsea, November 12, 2013, 12:35:02 PM

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lifeatsea

Hi-
I made a copy of one of my V3 folders as instructed by Tao effect ( see screen shot)

I don't seem to be able to open it, however.  The password it asks for is not my master password.

Am I supposed to copy down all the unique passwords assigned to each folder by Espionage?  Not a good idea.
I plan to make backup copies with software, but if they don't work, what is the point?

My concern is to be able to recover from a HD crash either with my primary file HD ( an external HD), or maybe worse, a Mac crash where I have to reinstall espionage and get my files to open.

Has anyone actually done this yet/  I need to be able to do it as a test.

greg

Hi there,

Quote from: lifeatsea on November 12, 2013, 12:35:02 PMI made a copy of one of my V3 folders as instructed by Tao effect ( see screen shot)

Sorry, I don't know what screenshot you're referring to, none is attached to your post, nor is there a link to one.

What instructions were you following? What did you copy?

Please see the help for details on how to backup E3 disk images: http://www.espionageapp.com/EspionageHelp/pages/usg-backup.html

Regarding the unique passwords for each disk image: as long as you have a copy of Espionage's database, and you place the disk images where it expects them to be, you don't need to remember any of those passwords, just your master password(s).

The database is located here:

/Users/[your username]/Library/Application Support/com.taoeffect.Espionage3/database

Espionage also creates backups of it just in case the database gets corrupted. Those backups are stored here:

/Users/[your username]/Library/Application Support/com.taoeffect.Espionage3/Backups

Finally, if you absolutely must know the password to the disk images, simply click the "Copy password" button in the folder details view.
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lifeatsea

Thanks Greg-
I did indeed forget to post the screenshot: see below as "Screen Shot-Esp backup copy"

I will review the link, thanks.

I have a couple of issues to be certain about, and I would like to tackle them one at a time.

My first  concern is regarding what to do in the event of a total Mac hard drive failure- that takes out both database copies.
It would also take out the sparsebundles in "data", except I am using external hard drives and I am asked where I want to put them (see "Screen Shot placing mount point ") and I place them on the same external HD.
I am using Time Machine however; so in the event of a total Mac hard drive failure do I then replace my hard drive(or computer) and restore fromTime Machine  and all is well??
Once I have your answer I will move on to the next question.
Thanks again,
Frank (aka lifeatsea)

zsolt

Hello, I think there is a bit of a confusion here.
If you protect a folder which is on your internal disk, then the disk image will be placed in your
homefolder/Library/Application Support/com.teaoeffect.Espionage3/Data folder.
If you do a backup of your Mac, then normally, this folder will be included in the backup automatically, because homefolder/Library is anyway a folder you want to backup as it contains various settings from applications and other data which is needed, like your emails.
So if you use TimeMachine for example, there is no need to setup anything special, or to make duplicate of these disk images. Just let TimeMachine backup your Mac, and the disk images will be saved too.

If you protect a folder which is on your external drive, then Espionage will ask you where to put the disk image. You can select any place you want, and then just make sure you backup that too.

Regarding the disk image passwords: as Greg said, as long as you have the Espionage database file (which will be backed up too, and which does backup copies on it's own, it is the Backup subfolder of the aforementioned folder), and you know the master password, you can always get to the disk image passwords.

If you really want to be able to unlock the disk images without Espionage, then you have to copy out the passwords for each folder you protect, by clicking onto small "i" near the folder name, and clicking the "copy password" button. This will copy the password into clipboard, and you record into some document, to which disk image it corresponds.

So in case of disaster, yes, you just recover the homefolder/Library/Application Support/com.teaoeffect.Espionage3 and the folders on your external hard drive which contain the disk images, if any, and you should be fine.

Rgds
Zsolt
Follow @espionageapp on twitter for news! | For general Mac support, please visit Mac Me Support

lifeatsea

Thanks for the reply-

If you protect a folder which is on your external drive, then Espionage will ask you where to put the disk image. You can select any place you want, and then just make sure you backup that too.

-Since I will backup the disk image to a second dedicated external drive, I will not be able to Use Time Machine, which uses its own designated hard drive for all the other non encrypted files on the Mac.  Could I use another program such as CrronoSync or DataBackup to do this job, and should I allow them to run only after the files are locked?

zsolt

Yes, you can sync the disk image to a location picked up by TimeMachine.
Note however, that a disk image is in fact a folder, so you need to use Mac file system aware application, just in case you would use some online sync or syncing out of parallels or VMW Fusion...I've see it all :-)

Yes, I would advise that you sync once the folder is locked. The TimeMachine should have no problems even if the disk image is unlocked, but adding another layer on top, like this sync software, I would rather stay safe and do it when all is locked.

here are some of my tests and comments on backup in general:
https://www.taoeffect.com/forum/index.php?topic=636.msg2210#msg2210

I hope this helps

zsolt
Follow @espionageapp on twitter for news! | For general Mac support, please visit Mac Me Support

lifeatsea

Thank you Zsolt-

I will not use Time machine, since I do not want to place my espionage backups with all the rest of my mac backups.
So I will need to use  third party software for espionage backing up, probably DataBackup.

Let me get that running and I will then try a test of the backup files.

zsolt

You can leave it with other data. Without disk image password you cannot open them, and without espionage master password you cannot decrypt the database to get the disk image passwords out. So as long as your master password is safe, the backups are safe too.

But I leave it up to you

Rgds
Zsolt
Follow @espionageapp on twitter for news! | For general Mac support, please visit Mac Me Support