Locked digital folders?
 

Ugh....more computer problems. Now I can't use a lot of my digital kits. When I try to open them, a locked icon shows and when I try to open them it is blank.

I just switched to Windows 10 this wk and didn't know this was happening b/c some of my kits will open but then I discovered today that many of Kristin's kits won't open for me now. Then I started checking some others and its random but lots won't open now and some will.

Anyone else have this problem? Any ideas?

ack!! if you can't find a solution i'll try and figure out a way to get you the kits of mine you own

Thx Kristin....I'm just sick about this. I have about 70 kits of yours so a lot of the older ones aren't available anymore and it looks like most of my purchases this year are locked, so probably about 15 or so kits. Also, Jennifers (SPD) are all locked so I lost 15 kits of her's. Haven't gone thru my other designer folders yet.

I am just devastated by this. I don't understand why windows 10 did this. It has to be something with windows 10 b/c everything was working in windows 7.

I'm getting off the computer for the night b/c I feel sick about this now. I need to get away from scrap stuff for the night.

I do appreciate your sweet offer to help with some of the files....maybe we can figure that out later. Right now I'm getting out of here and going for a walk to cool off. I asked the tech who serviced my computer if he knew why this happened and he doesn't have any idea, so he's no help to me on this.

What solutions have you tried? I'm on a Mac, so I don't know what works for Windows, but I've had something similar happen and have managed to find something that worked.

https://windowsreport.com/access-is-denied-windows-10/
https://www.easeus.com/file-recovery...-password.html

I'm so sorry this happened. It's not the first time I've heard of this, though.
This is why I'm scared of new stuff.

I found it happens if the designer uses a MAC. I never found a solution unfortunately but it isn't a Windows 10 issue. It happened to me many years ago, and hasn't since thankfully.

I've been going thru folders and it looks like I've lost at least half or 2/3 of my kits. I could cry over the the many hundreds of dollars I've lost in digi kits, most within the last yr or two, it just randomly encrypted. I have tried multiple methods of decrypting, nothing is working. It destroyed the kits on both of my EHDs so my double backup was worthless. It happened to both drives.

Thx Sheri....I will check those links and try it.

i know its a pain but can you re-download the kits that are still in the shoppe? i can see how devastating that would be!!!


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So sorry, that stinks! Definitely go through your order history and re-download the ones that are still available. I’ve had to do that a few times in the past. I hope you get it figured out.

Oh, that's so frustrating, Rae!! I hope you're able to get it figured out!!

Rae, are you having the issue with zips or with already unzipped files?

Does something like this help?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKqxWUaRxic

Thx for the link Robin....unfortunately that was one of the first things I tried and it didn't work, it doesn't have encrypt box checked to start with so unchecking wasn't an option.

I've tried many different things. I didn't go to bed last night, I stayed up all night watching vids and trying things. I did a system restore and changed my virus protection so hopefully that stops any further damage but it doesn't help at all with all the damaged kits. From info I read online, it could be some kind of glitch in the new windows 10 that was just installed this wk, or malware getting thru my virus protection, or could be any number of other problems. But the sucky thing is that it destroyed hundreds of kits that I had backed up to another drive and always thought having 2 of everything would keep things safe....but sadly no.

Any chance you can post a screenshot of what you're seeing Rae?

The first folder I have cataloged is Kristin's and I lost 27/47 kits. Now I will go catalog all my other designers. I'll be buying a new EHD to move all the kits remaining and leaving the damaged ones on the existing drives in case some day someone can help but after talking to two techs this morning, it doesn't seem likely.

This is such a nightmare that I cried in the middle of the night, just exhausted from all the computer drama this last month and then this happening on top of it.

I will have to look at storing off line somewhere. I tried crashburn yrs ago but had trouble with it (I'm sure it was my fault not knowing how to use it properly) so don't want to use that but need to look into something. At this point, I'm afraid to shop anymore, knowing this can happen.

Oh Rae, I'm so very sorry! That is so awful! You'd think having the backup of everything would keep those safe. I don't understand how those who get infected too if they were on a separate EHD. :( Hugs friend!

What if you tried your backup drive on another computer?

Jen - I did that and the double files on the 2 EHDs are showing encrypted there too. It also won't let me drag and drop, copy or move any of the files. They aren't just locked, they are damaged. Here's a screen shot of what I see now and when I open one it just says error, empty file.

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...jGq9wP9-X3.jpg

Do you have your downloaded zip files stored anywhere? A total starting over, if you will, will suck, but it'd get your files back. :(

I'm so sorry, Rae. I would be just sick if this happened to me. Have you tried renaming one of the "locked" folders? (I'm wondering if this is an administrator issue.) Or even one of the files?

This may be too soon, but if you are interested in an online backup, I have really good luck with BackBlaze. You can set it up to back up EHDs, so you could backup both your computer and EHD. That means maybe the files in the cloud on BB wouldn't be harmed? IDK, but just an idea.

Again, I'm so sorry!

ACK that is sooooo crazy. I wonder what they did, I switched to Windows 10 earlier this year and it went smoothly. Sorry I'm no help.

I wonder though, if the ones on the EHD are really damaged? Can you plug the EHD into another PC/laptop that's running Windows 7 to try??

Maybe its a corrupt profile?

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...c-68b599b31bf5

https://appuals.com/how-to-remove-pa...on-windows-10/

Another possibility

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...b-5b3f278f902d

Thx everyone for suggestions and letting me rant about my disaster. I spent most of yesterday downloading from the store (whew...so lucky to get lots back) and Kristin was so sweet to send me links for a lot of the corrupted kits. Wendy offered too but I was able to retrieve the damaged ones for her too. Haven't checked all Ru's kits yet but it looks like most of them are intact.

Of course, with the way the wk has gone....no surprise that last night I took a break from re-downloading and decided to re-install PS and lightroom. I couldn't. The installer would stop and then just do nothing. I had to contact adobe for help and spent almost 2 hrs on the chat line with a tech who went remotely into my computer and got the installer and programs loaded. I was too afraid to try last night in case it didn't work and I think at that point I would have thrown my coffee cup at the computer in frustration. So fingers crossed, I will try today and hopefully I can get into PS and LR and can start all over again loading photos and setting up PS with my brushes, actions, styles, etc. But I am going to go back to downloading from the store links now before I get into all the other stuff today.

Wish me luck. I really appreciate all the help and advice. You guys are the best!

Oh Rae! What a hassle it's been!!! Good luck today!

Rae, just so sorry for you! Hope you will have all back to normal soon and think of you for the donwload part. Send you hugs!:hugs:

I think Robin opened up my DL links b/c I was able to go back quite aways and got back almost all my kits from the last year...yay!!! Thx so much Robin.

Had to contact adobe again b/c ps wouldn't load after adobe remotely loaded it last night (but we didn't actually open it, just figured it was ok b/c it loaded thru the CC app ok). So after dealing with 2 support techs, it is finally up and running and I got a page done this afternoon....yay.

So I'm done downloading SSD stuff, got my tablet driver installed and working again, now I need to install drivers, filters, software and what will take the longest....photos into LR again. So, fingers crossed, this is the end of it, now I can move forward. Whew. What a week!

Again, thx everyone for the support, advice and help during this experience. Hope I never need to go thru this again.

So glad to hear you're getting back on track, I would totally feel the same way. Funny how computers will just do things like that sometimes and you just can't figure it out. As much a pain as it is, it's so nice to be able to re-download stuff you've purchased. That is definitely one of the top reasons why I shop here almost exclusively.

Glad you're mostly back up and running (yay for those download links!). It's still so weird, what happened, but it's great that everything seems to be coming together. Hopefully you have time this weekend to relax and just scrap. Because, if I may, it sounds like you deserve it!

It's the worst when your computer starts acting up like this and you have no way to solve it :( So happy to hear that Robin reset your purchases so you were able to re-download your kits. Such a relief. I hope this will be the last of your computer problems ♥

Nope, SSD is just that amazing and leaves your links (for the most part) available. I've gone back quite a while to redownload things that were corrupt after changing hard drives, etc. I love that about SSD!!

As far as the locked folders, it looks like what I encountered with a few of my MAC designers. When you unzip their files, they have an encrypted lock them on. You can still use them, but when you change the location of the folder/file, they lock them. I've lost so many kits from MAC designers. I don't know how you unzip your files, but I've found that 7-zip unzips my MAC files without that encryption key that allows me to move them from location to location without them being locked. I don't have this problem when I use 7-zip and maybe it might help you, especially with all the product you redownloaded in the store??

I'm so sorry you are going through this. I love my computer, but boy do I hate it when something is wrong. I wish I could give you a hug because I think you need it. Just know that many of us are sending you love and support right now and you aren't alone dealing with this computer issue yourself! :wub:

I got 7-zip today and will use that to unzip in the future if it might help prevent this problem happening again. From now on a zipped copy of a kit will get stored in dropbox in case anything happens to my computer again. I'm going shopping at Costco now and am going to get some kind of yummy dessert. I think I deserve it after all the hassle this wk!

I still haven't opened LR but will start on that tomorrow morning and start reloading photos in there. One thing at a time.....

I'm also getting 7zip. I've never encountered this problem, and I never want to! Thanks for the tip.

Psst, you hit the magic number 10,000 :o

I did this for a very long time after I encountered this issue. Before our move, I just deleted all those zipped folders because with 7-zip, I never had the issue and didn't see the need for keeping the zips on my hard drive.

Enjoy your desserts! They are well deserved!! :wub:

I did!!! I'm wondering if I can hit 12,000 before the end of the year? That's only 500 comments in the gallery each month and I'm fairly certain there are over 500 layouts posted monthly.....debating about shooting for 12,000 or just sticking with 11,000 :D For now, I'm rewarding with scrapping my ptss layouts! :wub:

Omgosh Rae! How frustrating. I'm happy to see you've recovered a bit, but man... what a PITA! Fingers crossed things go smooth for you the rest of the way!

UPDATE: Just unzipped some of Kristin's kits and then copied over to a portable drive....it all worked fine (and a copy of the zipped files are on dropbox now for safe keeping). 7-zip unzipped without the encryption key that destroyed my other files. Still wasn't able to unzip or open the old damaged files but that's ok b/c I was able to re-download most of them....so whew....things are looking up. Maybe now I can go get started on my next summer getaway challenge.

Again....thx everyone...you are all awesome for helping and letting me vent :)

Sounds like a nightmare but I'm glad you've got things sorted now.

I'm so confused about the encryption that you talk of. I am using Windows 10 now, but I've used Windows and Mac for the past several years and even moving files back and forth I've never had any issues. I hope it was just a freak thing for you! I'm glad you were able to retrieve a lot of kits.

I've had it happen to me, too, when I've switched operating systems with a new laptop. It has really only happened to kits that were made using a MAC. There is a box that has to be checked in the properties but you have to do it on the older operating system and then transfer the files to the new operating system. It worked on some and not on others. So frustrating!

While I want to say Thank you for this info, I have to admit it also makes me nervous. Before Rae's post, I had no idea this could be a problem. Now I feel like I have to go through my supplies and make sure this box is checked on everything!