Entire database can't be decrypted on some devices

Support
1

I'm in a bit of a pickle.

I've been using Joplin for years, synched across loads of devices -- a few Windows 10 PCs, a Mint 21 laptop, an Android 10 phone (Samsung Note 9) and an iPhone 12, without issue. Everything syncing to OneDrive, never an error message or issue.

In the past few days, the iPhone, the Mint 21 laptop and one of the Windows 10 PCs started reporting that "some items couldn't be decrypted". It was recently created stuff -- they show up as a key in the note list with the name "Encrypted". Another Windows 10 PC, and the Android 10 phone, is still absolutely fine -- zero issues, still able to access/sync these notes, create new notes and do everything. All are running Joplin 2.11.11.

I thought I'd try to resolve the issue myself by clean-slating the affected devices. So I did the following:

  • Went to the working Windows 10 PC, where I can see all notes without problems, and under the Synchronisation options, I forced it to re-upload everything to the target from this local device, which was successful
  • Went to the Mint 21 laptop which was facing the "some items cannot be decrypted" issue, and under the Synchornisation options, I forced a local delete and re-download from the target

I seem to have made everything worse... now every single note and notebook is showing up as encrypted, with a key icon, and a red banner along the top saying "Some items cannot be synchronised.".

I can look into generating more detailed debug logs, but I'm scared to touch anything in case I make it worse and lose everything.

Any pointers? What could be causing it to not be able to decrypt absolutely anything over a few devices all of a sudden?

Please let me know if there's anything else I can provide.
Thanks a lot!

2

This sounds very similar to Some items cannot be decrypted . Joplin recently switched from AES-128 encryption to AES-256 and the new version adds support for decrypting AES-256.

Please double-check that all apps are updated to 2.11.11.

(We're working on making the error messages better, so hopefully this will be easier to debug in the future!)

3

Thanks for the response! Yeah this seems a likely culprit, but something still isn't adding up.

Looking at the "About Joplin" dialogue in just two devices as an example:

Windows 10 (working fine)
Joplin 2.11.11 (prod, win32)
Sync Version: 3
Profile Version: 43
Keychain Supported: Yes
Revision: 6886f6f

Mint 21 (everything stuck encrypted)
Joplin 2.11.11 (prod, linux)
Sync Version: 3
Profile Version: 43
Keychain Supported: No
Revision: 6886f6f

I'm launching the Linux version directly from the AppImage from the releases page just to make sure.

Looks like the versions should be correct?

Here's a screenshot of an affected version:

image
image957×627 57.9 KB

4

If you click on "View them now", then "Retry all", does it work?

5

Um embarrassingly, yes, that has fixed it :joy:

In my defence, I saw it saying "Decrypting items: 1/xxx" above the Synchronise button every time I opened Joplin, so I assumed this was it already attempting to "retry all". A hasty assumption on my part it seems.

Alright I'll go around the rest of my devices and do the same, thank you very much for your help and time!

1 Like
6

This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.