Do encrypted files use double the disk space?

Let’s say I set up an encryption folder D:\odrive\encryptor\secret that points to storage folder D:\odrive\acd\secret.

If I copy a 1 TB file to the encryption folder, odrive automatically creates an encrypted file in the storage folder. File Explorer reports both files as taking up 1 TB actual space. Is this accurate? By default then, encryption doubles the storage needed for files?

What is the recommended method to free up this disk space? I would expect that I should just need to unsync the file in the encrypted folder, but the file in the storage folder remains untouched. Shouldn’t the sync status of these files be linked?

Hi @glenreno,
The Encryptor relationship is against “Amazon Drive\secret”, the remote storage, and not connected to the local representation of that storage (D:\odrive\acd\secret). odrive treats them separately.

In order to not take up double the storage, make sure the encrypted sections you’ve set up are unsynced in D:\odrive.

Tony, thank you for the very fast response.

I have set my encryption storage folder (D:\odrive\acd\secret) with the folder sync rules to Download Nothing and “Include Subfolders” and “Save and apply to new files and folders”. New files I put into the encryption folder sync up, and a placeholder is created in the storage folder. Perfect. Now I’m very happy with how encryption works.

1 Like

Great! Thanks for the update.