As NordLocker continues to evolve, we are making significant changes to enhance your file security and accessibility. This article provides essential information on the discontinuation of local locker functionality and provides steps for migrating to cloud lockers.
While we are removing the option to create new local lockers, for now, you can still access files in existing local lockers. However, soon we will be releasing new Windows and macOS desktop applications and only cloud lockers can be accessed with the new desktop applications. As we will continue to inform you about these changes, we strongly recommend moving files from local lockers to cloud lockers to avoid any future inconvenience.
You can read more about the reasons why we will no longer support local lockers and our plans for NordLocker at the end of this article: Why NordLocker will not support local lockers anymore?
How to move files from local lockers to cloud lockers
Follow the steps below to move your files from local lockers to cloud lockers on macOS or Windows application:
- Locate your local lockers in the My lockers list. Local lockers have computer icons next to them.
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Select all files and folders inside the locker, right-click, and choose Export Decrypted Copy.
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Choose the location where you want to extract selected files on your device. Make sure you have enough space on your computer.
Important: be aware that files and/or folders will be extracted to your computer in the same structure as selected and will use additional space (similar to extracting from an archive).
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Create a cloud locker in the application. To save space on your device we recommend setting the sync setting “Save on cloud only” on the cloud locker (right-click on the locker -> Sync Settings -> Save on cloud only).
- Upload extracted files (from Step 3) to your cloud locker.
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Ensure all files in the cloud locker are fully synced by checking their availability on https://cloud.nordlocker.com/.
- Once files are securely transferred and synced, you can safely delete the local locker to free up space on your device.
Why NordLocker will not support local lockers anymore?
Local lockers are only available on our desktop Windows and macOS applications. Local lockers is our legacy functionality. NordLocker started 4 years ago as a local encryption tool, soon we evolved into a secure cloud storage solution.
While we’ve built the new infrastructure and have introduced new cloud lockers, we have decided to keep local lockers functionality for the time being. As we are now preparing for the next phase of NordLocker product, it was decided to gradually sunset local lockers functionality.
Key reasons why we are stopping local locker functionality:
- Our key focus is providing users with best-in-class end-to-end encrypted zero-knowledge cloud storage solution. We want to maximize our desktop apps performance. Having to maintain legacy functionality makes it hard to achieve our performance goals.
- We are building new desktop apps that will integrate into native macOS (Finder) and Windows (File explorer) experience and offer significant performance and usability improvements. Users will be able to choose two states for their files:
- cloud only (file will be only stored on cloud storage).
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available offline (file will be kept on cloud and local storage).
- Local hard drive encryption has become a default in recent years, as newer devices with macOS and Windows operating systems offer local storage encryption pre-enabled (we strongly recommend enabling local drive encryption). Thus our local lockers functionality loses its purpose.
- We focus on providing encrypted cloud and apps through which user can safely access their encrypted files from any device, anywhere.
- We continue to follow the strictest security principles and use the latest encryption methodologies. Files are still encrypted on the client side before the upload to the NordLocker cloud. We remain committed to our zero-knowledge principles so that our users can remain the only owner of their files.
- We aim to simplify the file management experience for our users and make sure that our functionality does not stand in the way of the user, but the security is always there.
If you have questions or require additional support during this transition, please reach out to our support team at support@nordlocker.com. Our goal is to make this transition as smooth as possible for you.