Recovering encrypted home directory after UID change

Question

When I log into my Ubuntu system I see only two files in my $HOME directory:

I believe this happened because I changed the UID of my user. I can see the files mounted in the /tmp directory if I do:

sudo ecryptfs-recover-private

Do I just copy/move these files back to my home directory? Why is this directory not mounted if I can recover it so trivially?

I am running an encrypted BTRFS /home partition. It also looks like my own user is separately encrypted but I don't have good notes on this.

Yes, it's due to encryption and because you changed your user. That's what drive/folder encryption was invented for. Ans yes, if you can decrypt it, you do what you want with the contents. — user692175, Aug 20 '17 at 0:00
If I move the files back to my $HOME directory are they re-encrypted? Also, what do I do with the two files. Just delete them? — Stephen Rasku, Aug 20 '17 at 0:01
They will if the the target location is encrypted, they won't otherwise (i don't understand the confusion here). Once copied, again, you do what you want with the "old files". — user692175, Aug 20 '17 at 0:07
I guess I don't understand how my private directory was encrypted in the first place. The /home directory is encrypted but it's able to mount it. But it looks like my $HOME directory was encrypted separately in a way I don't remember. I want to reproduce this but I don't know how. — Stephen Rasku, Aug 20 '17 at 0:11
Encryption, full or $HOME only, are options you can choose in the installation process. — user692175, Aug 20 '17 at 0:14

Stephen Rasku · Accepted Answer · 2017-08-20 02:27:16Z

0

I had to change the UID on the encrypted folders. usermod didn't do that for me automatically. Specifically, I did:

sudo chown -R newUID /home/.ecryptfs/myUser

Then I rebooted.

answered Aug 20 '17 at 2:27

Stephen Rasku

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