Recovering data from an encrypted SD card?

[AC Question]

I encrypted my phone and SD card last year because of work. It has caused a huge set of headaches ending in my now factory reset phone not working with the SD card. So I was never able to back up (even with Samsung remoting in) using Kies, never could update the software for the OS, etc. On the phone with Samsung yesterday, they backed everything up to my SD card because Kies wouldn't work and then we factory reset the phone. Now I see the files on the SD card but can't open any of them. Suggestions? I have thought of reencrypting the phone with the same password to see if that will work but hate to redo what I do have now set on the phone. Thanks for any help.

 

[Rukbat]

Nope. The encryption is salted, and part of the salt is variable, so the same encrypting now won't be the same as it was last year.

The whole purpose of encryption isn't to make it difficult for someone to steal the data, it's to make it impossible to steal the data. (Given enough data, a fast enough supercomputer and enough time, any encryption can be broken, but do you really have data on there worth trillions of dollars? If not, getting your data is a losing deal. [The UK was willing to spend any amount on breaking Enigma, that's one of the reasons such a good encryption method was broken. If they had set a limit of one clerk for one week, they wouldn't have even gotten started.])

This is why EVERYTHING important should be backed up. (And why Iron Mountain, and companies like that, use armed human guards as the "encryption" of last resort. If no one can get to your backup, it's safe, even if it isn't encrypted.)