(Archived) Updating/changing my encryption password

[kirkinalamo 0]

UPDATED:

When using encryption for the first time it asked me for a password. I used a simple password and now want to change it. How can I do this? I cannot find a way back to the password utility. The two screen shots below show what I'm running into. There is no way to change the existing password. If I enter a new password (in the first of the two images below), what happens to the first password....is it over-written with this new one?

Yes, it's newcomer question and I'm grateful for whatever support I can get.

Thanks,

K

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

You have to select the encrypted text icon, right click, decrypt permanently. Then reselect the text, right click, encrypt.

[kirkinalamo 0]

Thanks for your note, but how do I change the existing password?

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Thanks for your note, but how do I change the existing password?

You have to select the encrypted text icon, right click, decrypt permanently. Then reselect the text, right click, encrypt.

If you mean you forgot it so you can't decrypt it, then too bad. True security/encryption means no one (IE, in this case Evernote) has the encryption password (except for yourself). If you forget it, you are (as my dad used to say) SOL. (If you don't know what that stands for, the polite version is "So Out of Luck." )

[kirkinalamo 0]

I have the first password and it was a test password. So I guess to change the password system-wide for all notes is to (in any single note) right-click, permanently remove the encryption for that file...and then enter a new password. Right? The little pop-up says it's not recommend. Any idea why?

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

I have the first password and it was a test password. So I guess to change the password system-wide for all notes is to (in any single note) right-click, permanently remove the encryption for that file...and then enter a new password. Right?

Right.

The little pop-up says it's not recommend. Any idea why?

I don't know but if I had to guess, it would be b/c people tend to not remember or keep track of their passwords. EN's not in the password manager business. But they did incorporate this little bit of encryption into their system. Once you introduce this feature, you're damned if you do or damned if you don't. Meaning someone's going to be peeved if you (translate EN) know their encryption password b/c that means it's truly not "secure" vs those who forget their encryption password & are peeved that EN cannot provide it to them. Certainly a can of worms I would not want to deal with. So I'd guess the recommendation to not change is to prevent them (EN) from getting hate mail when people forget they've changed or used multiple passwords & cannot retrieve their info.

Or it could be because of something totally different.

[antilles1980 1]

A quick question here:

I have two pieces of text, A and B.

I encrypt A with the password "passwordA".

Then I try to encrypt B with the password "passwordB".

I'm prompted with the dialogs shown in the OP's post above.

If I select to create a new password, are both A and B now encrypted by "passwordB"?

Or do A and B now have different encryption passwords?

I'm guessing A and B do have different passwords now, otherwise this could be a security hole...

Thanks,

Ben

[kirkinalamo 0]

Good question Ben, I am wondering the same thing. I am not slamming the encryption ability in EN at all, but it is really lacking on operational information. The knowledge base is not helpful on this subject.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

A quick question here:

I have two pieces of text, A and B.

I encrypt A with the password "passwordA".

Then I try to encrypt B with the password "passwordB".

I'm prompted with the dialogs shown in the OP's post above.

If I select to create a new password, are both A and B now encrypted by "passwordB"?

Or do A and B now have different encryption passwords?

I'm guessing A and B do have different passwords now, otherwise this could be a security hole...

Good question Ben, I am wondering the same thing.

Did either of you try this to find out?

[jbenson2 2,149]

These are two perfectly legitimate questions. I'd like to know what would happen to all my encrypted phrases as well.

If you try to change the passphrase, Evernote comes up with a 2nd popup window with a warning to either

• 1.) Try again
  2.) Create a new passphrase (not recommended)
  

When a software program says an action is "not recommended", there is usually some reason why.

And that reason is usually not good for the user.

[antilles1980 1]

Admittedly, I haven't tried it out myself, I was hoping for an answer from the dev team as to what the outcome is supposed to be.

The thing that stopped me from trying it for myself was that I encrypted some details in a note a few weeks ago.

Then, earlier this week, I tried to encrypt some different details with the same encryption password as I used before.

But I was still prompted with the dialog saying that my password did not match, even though I was using the same one (I checked, by decrypting the previous note and verifying this several times).

So - then I got scared and wrote on the forum, in case the encryption on my previous notes was going to be ruined by performing this operation.

Ben

[jbenson2 2,149]

The thing that stopped me from trying it for myself was that I encrypted some details in a note a few weeks ago.

Then, earlier this week, I tried to encrypt some different details with the same encryption password as I used before.

But I was still prompted with the dialog saying that my password did not match, even though I was using the same one (I checked, by decrypting the previous note and verifying this several times).

The exact same thing happened to me as well.

[Schooner 28]

Has the question of multiple encryption passwords been definitively answered?

i.e. is it impermissible or for some reason unwise to deploy multiple encryption passwords

My purpose is to use one ENC pw for private notebooks, a shared ENC pw for shared notebooks with a key individual.

The "not recommended" dialog scares one off.

/Schooner

[gieglas 0]

I dont know if this helps but this is what i found on evernote help: https://support.evernote.com/ics/support/KBAnswer.asp?questionID=1637

[Wrong George 0]

If you put in a different password than the old encryption password you have been using and then change it (even though "not recommended"), it will change it only for that one note. For other notes with encrypted text, the encryption password will remain the same. So you can have multiple encryption passwords for different notes. I think you con only have one per note, though.

[Wrong George 0]

My last post said you can only have one encryption password for encrypted text per note, but that was mistaken. You apparently can have encrypted text with one password and in the same note have other text encrypted with a different password.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

My last post said you can only have one encryption password for encrypted text per note, but that was mistaken. You apparently can have encrypted text with one password and in the same note have other text encrypted with a different password.

This is one reason I never abandoned my true password manager. One master password that you can change at will. The right task for the right job & all that jazz.

[EdH 1,670]

My last post said you can only have one encryption password for encrypted text per note, but that was mistaken. You apparently can have encrypted text with one password and in the same note have other text encrypted with a different password.

 

So the whole "(not recommended)" thing is unnecessary?

 

I want to use at least 2 pass phrases in Evernote, one for my personal stuff, and one for business stuff.