Windows encrypt folder: Some files not encrypted

Question

I did following two things to encrypt all the content of a root folder named "Foo":

The "Foo" folder has many levels of sub-directories with each having multiple files. All of the files in Foo were supposed to be encrypted, but some problem occurred and now only some files are encrypted. Others remain not-encrypted.

The only thing I can do is hunt down these files and encrypt them individually, but that would take forever. The "encrypted" attribute is set on the Foo folder itself, so I cannot ask the system to encrypt it again!

I want to encrypt all the files which are left out. How do I do it?

@LPChip Yes, that will work. But the problem is, 90% of the content is encrypted. Only 10% of the content (files) are remaining. And the folder is too huge to consider decrypting everything, and encrypt everything again. — Vijay Chavda, Sep 14 '17 at 09:29
So what are you asking then? Either selectively decrypt and encrypt, or encrypt each individual file. — LPChip, Sep 14 '17 at 09:33
Possible duplicate: https://superuser.com/questions/58878/how-to-list-encrypted-files-in-windows-7 — LPChip, Sep 14 '17 at 09:36
@LPChip What I am asking is, is there a way to encrypt the left out files? Because encrypting them individually is impractical (as there are thousands of files scattered across thousands of folders, and I don't know which one's are left out without explicitly checking their attribute or observing the lock in their icon) — Vijay Chavda, Sep 14 '17 at 09:37
See the link to the possible duplicate. That should give you a list. But there's nothing more I can do for you. — LPChip, Sep 14 '17 at 09:54
@LPChip Yes, I did see. And I am finding some of the answers in that link useful. Thank you very much :) — Vijay Chavda, Sep 14 '17 at 10:04

score 0 · Answer 1 · edited Sep 14 '17 at 15:00

It may take a period of time to complete all encryption, based on sub files and folders size. If you can manually encrypt the sub folder with no problem, there may be some factors that disrupts the process(folder/file indexing).

Please try below suggestions to narrow down:

Please confirm that if same problem can be re-produces on same and different folders.
Re-start the system in Clean Boot(with 3rd party process disabled), open "Foo" folder’s properties – Advanced Attributes – Encrypt contents to secure data, then, check the result.
Open "Foo" folder, press Ctrl + A to select all sub folders and files, right click to open Properties – Advanced Attributes – Encrypt contents to secure data, then, check the result.

Windows encrypt folder: Some files not encrypted

1 Answers1