Encrypted files on external drive or USB flash drive not opening

Description

A user has a backup of their data on an external drive, but can't open it on a different system because the files are encrypted.

How to identify the problem

When opening a file, a message saying "access denied" or "the specified file could not be opened" is displayed. 

What caused this problem?

This happens because the encryption certificate required to decrypt the files is missing or not available on the current system. This is expected behavior and working as intended. 


EPC does not encrypt data on external drives, so this issue is specific to encrypted data that was manually copied to external drive or USB flash drive, and then files accessed on a different system.

How do I resolve this problem?

To resolve this, you need to export the certificate from the old device, and import the certificate and private key that were used to encrypt the file.

Alternately, a new system can be setup with the user's profile. Discover and Activate the device as normal, and Revoke/Unrevoke the device to import the certificate on the new device if it was backed up previously.

Check if the problem has been fixed

If the certificate has been correctly imported with its relevant private key, the files will open as normal.