Guides/Use case
Encrypt family photos without handing them to a cloud
The photo archive that matters most is often the one you least want indexed. Elba lets you keep family photos in a sealed folder on your own drive — safe to back up to any cloud, because what the cloud sees is only a locked box.
One vault, or one per year
For a lifetime archive, a vault per year keeps unlock times short. For a working ‘favourites’ folder, a single vault is fine.
Sharing without unsealing everything
When someone wants a specific photo, unlock the vault, export it, and re-lock. The album is not on Facebook, but the one photo grandma asked for is on its way.
Questions people actually ask
- Are large libraries fast enough?
- Sealing several gigabytes takes minutes, not seconds. Once sealed, opening and reading files is fast.
- Can I still browse thumbnails?
- Only while the vault is unlocked. When sealed, the folder looks like ordinary encrypted bytes.
Take the island
Elba is one HTML file. It runs locally in a Chromium browser, seals a folder with AES-256-GCM, never phones home, and becomes open source on 1 January 2030.
- €49MMXXVI· now ·
- €39MMXXVII2027
- €29MMXXVIII2028
- €19MMXXIX2029
- FreeMMXXX2030
the price falls each year · free to all 1 jan 2030
pay once · no account · nothing leavesRelated guides
- File encryption for photographers: RAW files, sealed
A local, offline way to seal a folder of RAW files and unreleased shoots. One HTML file, one folder, one password.
- How to encrypt files in Dropbox, iCloud, or Google Drive safely
Seal the folder first, then sync it. A short recipe for using cloud storage without letting the cloud read your files.