Guides/How-to
How to encrypt files locally, in under a minute
The shortest honest answer to ‘how do I encrypt files locally?’ is: pick a tool that runs on your machine, give it a strong password, and back that password up somewhere physical. Here is that flow with Elba, in four steps.
The four steps
1. Download Elba.html and put it wherever you want (Documents, a USB stick, an external drive).
2. Double-click the launcher for your OS. Elba opens in a Chromium browser tab.
3. Point Elba at the folder you want to seal. Enter a password of at least 12 characters (a four-word passphrase is fine).
4. Close the tab when you're done. The folder is now sealed at rest.
The part everyone gets wrong
Write the password down. On paper. Put it somewhere you'd put a spare key. There is no reset link — that's the whole point — so treat the password like the deed to a house, not a login.
Questions people actually ask
- How strong does the password need to be?
- Twelve characters minimum. Four random words (a ‘passphrase’) is easy to remember and strong enough.
- Can I change the password later?
- Yes. You can re-seal the folder with a new password at any time from inside Elba.
- What if I forget it?
- The contents are unrecoverable. This is by design and is what makes Elba trustworthy — see our guide on forgotten encryption passwords.
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.
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the price falls each year · free to all 1 jan 2030
pay once · no account · nothing leavesRelated guides
- What happens if you forget your encryption password?
The honest answer, with Elba: nothing gets in. There is no reset link. Here's how to make sure you never need one.
- How to encrypt a folder with a password (properly)
The right way to encrypt a folder with a password: local, strong algorithm, and no recovery link. Elba does exactly that.
- AES-256-GCM, explained without a maths degree
AES-256-GCM in one page — what it is, why Elba uses it, and what it does and doesn't protect against.