Extract text from encrypted files (LOCKED)
To convert LOCKED files to another format, you need M-Files or other Encoded software.
To convert other file formats to the "Encrypted Data File" file type, you need software like M-Files or a similar tool.
A .locked file is most frequently encountered as an encrypted data file, either maliciously modified by Ransomware or legitimately secured by applications like Google Picasa or M-Files. In enterprise environments, M-Files uses this extension for its proprietary SQL journal log files. For home users, it often means a virus has scrambled their personal documents, or they have placed JPG images inside a password-protected Picasa folder.
To interact with legitimate versions of these files, users must rely on the original software. You can read more about the mechanisms of file encryption on Wikipedia's Ransomware page. For M-Files, the central server software processes the journal data.
Users typically search for ways to convert .locked files because they have lost access to their original documents and desperately want to restore them to standard formats like JPG, DOCX, or PDF. The severe disadvantage of the .locked format is that the original data is totally inaccessible without a private cryptographic key or the correct password. Standard online converters cannot magically bypass modern encryption algorithms like AES or RSA.
If the file is a legitimate M-Files journal, the ideal target format would be standard text or an open SQL database export. For ransomware victims, the goal is reverting to the original file format, but this is only possible if a specialized decryptor is available from security researchers.
This file format is exceptionally difficult to open or convert because it is intentionally designed to restrict access. Standard online converters fail to process it because the underlying byte structure is mathematically scrambled. However, you can just drag and drop your file into convert.guru to identify the format, view it, and convert it when possible. While we cannot bypass military-grade encryption, our analyzer can inspect the file's raw hex data and headers. This allows you to identify if the file is a recoverable Google Picasa container, an M-Files log, or confirm the exact malware signature of the ransomware.
Convert.Guru analyzes your LOCKED file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted PDF, LOC, LOCK, DOCX, JPG, BIN, ZIP, SCREEN, SCN and SFC files.
If you want to convert LOCKED file to BASE64, HEX, BIN, ENC, CRYPT, AES, DES, RSA, PGP, GPG, ASC or KEY, you can use M-Files or similar software from the "Encrypted Data or Database Log" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert CER, BIN, PEM, DER, KEY, P7S, PFX, ENC, P12, BASE64, P7B or HEX files to LOCKED, try M-Files or another comparable tool in the "Encrypted Data or Database Log" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our LOCKED converter.