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STATUS_FILE_NOT_ENCRYPTED
The selected operation assumes EFS state that the file does not have
STATUS_FILE_NOT_ENCRYPTED matters most when the caller has chosen an encryption-specific path. Windows EFS provides per-file encryption on NTFS, and its raw backup interfaces are specifically designed to preserve an encrypted file without decrypting it. A plaintext file does not have the encrypted streams and EFS metadata expected by those workflows.
Before changing the file, identify which API or driver path required encryption. A normal backup or copy routine should process an unencrypted file as ordinary data; a raw EFS export/import routine should only be selected for an encrypted source. Treating this status as an access-denied error and changing permissions does not create EFS state.
The status is also different from STATUS_RWRAW_ENCRYPTED_FILE_NOT_ENCRYPTED, which explicitly names a raw encrypted read/write operation. Here, keep the diagnostic focus on the operation that expected encryption and the actual encryption state of the file.
What to inspect
- The exact API or file-system request that required an encrypted source.
- The source file system and whether the file is actually EFS-encrypted before the operation begins.
- Backup or migration code that chooses between ordinary file I/O and the raw encrypted-file workflow.
References
- Microsoft: File Encryption
- Microsoft: Backup and Restore of Encrypted Files
- Microsoft: OpenEncryptedFileRaw
- Microsoft Open Specifications: Encrypting File System overview
- Microsoft Open Specifications: NTSTATUS values
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