Jrnl: decrypt jrnl file in dropbox on another machine fails

[MarkWh1te]

Bug Report

Environment

• Jrnl version: jrnl version v2.4.4
• Install method: pip
• OS: Ubuntu and MacOS

Current Behavior

I encrypt jrnl file with
jrnl --encrypt
on Ubuntu and keep my encrypted file in dropbox
When I want to add one entry on Mac, jrnl asks me to enter the password. I entered the password. Jrnl keeps telling me this password is wrong. But if I use the same password on Ubuntu, it works.

Expected Behavior

I wish I can use the same password on the different machines.

Repro Steps

encrypt jrnl on a Ubuntu
and copy the file to a Mac and try to add one entry.

Other Information

my config is

colors:       
  body: none    
  date: none    
  tags: none    
  title: none    
default_hour: 9    
default_minute: 0    
editor: vim    
encrypt: false    
highlight: true    
indent_character: '|'    
journals:    
  default:    
    encrypt: true    
    journal: /home/mark/Dropbox/diary/jrnl_linux.txt    
linewrap: 79    
tagsymbols: '@'    
template: false    
timeformat: '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M'    
version: v2.4.4    

[micahellison]

Hi there, thanks for reporting this issue. I haven't seen this before, and I can think of two reasons that might be the cause of this:

• Maybe Dropbox is corrupting the encrypted file somehow during a sync. It could be that it uses special sync logic for plaintext and doesn't realize that your txt file is actually encrypted. We could rule this out if you still get the error after manually copying your journal from one system to the other.
• Maybe you're running different major versions of jrnl on each system. Could you confirm with jrnl --version on each? I don't think this should lead to this problem but it's worth confirming.

[michaelnoguera]

Your config specifies that the journal is located at /home/mark/Dropbox/diary/jrnl_linux.txt.
MacOS doesn't use the same structure for user directories as Ubuntu- your home folder will be at /Users/Username instead of /home/username.
Have you changed the filepath in the config file on the Mac to reflect the change in location?

[wren]

Yeah, I think @michaelnoguera is right and this might be a missing file (@MarkWh1te, please confirm if that's the case).

We should take a look at jrnl's behavior when attempting to read a blank file with the encrypt config on. I'm guessing we have an unhelpful message if the file is missing, blank, or not actually encrypted.

[MarkWh1te]

@micahellison @wren Thanks a lot, I have confirmed this is a missing file.
Thanks again!

[wren]

Don't forget @michaelnoguera! Thank you!