Passwords and encryption

Collection files can be encrypted, using a user-chosen password.  If you choose to encrypt your collection, you will be prompted to supply the password each time you open the collection.  An encrypted collection file is in XML format, just like an unencrypted collection file.  However, in an encrypted collection file, each of the pieces of data about your collection is encrypted into what looks like meaningless characters in the file.  This means that if your computer is ever lost or stolen, your collection data will not be accessible to the person who has it.

When a collection is password-protected, Recollector will prompt you to supply the password each time the collection is opened. If you enter an incorrect password, Recollector will let you re-try entering the correct password. After five failed attempts to provide the correct password, Recollector will abort the attempt to open the collection, though Recollector will stay open. If you ended your last session with a password-protected collection open, the next time you start Recollector it will automatically try to re-open that collection, so you will be prompted, right after the program starts up, to provide the collection's password. (You can click Cancel, in which case Recollector will continue running, but it will not open the previously open collection.)

Once a collection is given a password and the collection file is encrypted, you must remember that password to gain access to your collection. There is no way to recover a lost password! There is no way to unencrypt a file or remove password protection without first providing the current password! Therefore, be very careful to remember the password you assigned to your collection. Otherwise your collection data will be useless, and your effort in setting up your collection will have been wasted.  For this reason, you should probably not password protect your collection unless you feel that the privacy of your collection data is more important that the risk of losing your data by forgetting your collection’s password.

You protect a collection with a password by choosing Set Password from the File menu.  You can also use this choice to change the password.  If your collection is already password protected, you can choose to remove that protection (which will result in the collection file no longer being encrypted) by choosing Set Password from the File menu and clicking the button labeled Remove password protection for this collection.

Notes regarding password-protected collections:

• Password protection is on a per-collection basis. If you have multiple collections, each collection is either unprotected or it is protected by its own password. However, you can choose to use the same password for multiple collections.
• Encrypted collection files are portable between the Mac version and the MS/Windows version of Recollector.  A collection encrypted under one version can be transferred to the other system, and opened on that version of Recollector after supplying the original password.
• As with all passwords, it is a good idea to choose a password that is not too short (8 characters or more is a good idea) and not easily guessed by others. There are no restrictions on either the length of a collection password. Passwords should be comprised of normal keyboard characters (letters, numbers, and the symbols available from the keyboard); do not use non-keyboard characters, such as accented letters, in passwords. Passwords are case-sensitive: abcd1234 is not the same as ABCD1234.
• Encryption and decryption add work to the process of saving and reading collection files. You will probably notice that saving and opening your collection takes longer when the collection is password protected.
• In an encrypted collection file, only the data values for your collection items are encrypted. Other parts of the collection file (metadata, information about picklists, profiles, subset definitions, etc.) are not encrypted. Encrypted collection files are pure text files, in XML format, just like unencrypted collection files. However, if you open an encrypted collection file with a text editor, you will not see readable data values; all data values are replaced by what look like nonsense characters, which are actually the encrypted data.
• When you export your collection for download to the Recollector App, the exported download file is not encrypted, even if your collection file is password-protected and encrypted.  This is because the Recollector App does not include the ability to decrypt password-protected data. Therefore, if you are concerned about the privacy of your collection data, you should delete the exported download file once you have successfully transferred it to your mobile device where the Recollector App is running.
• If you back up your collection, a password-protected collection will be backed up with its password-protected encryption.  If the backup is subsequently restored or copied, its password will need to be provided before the restored or copied collection can be opened.