Documentation Miscellaneous Removing Encryption

# How to Remove Encryption

Please note that VeraCrypt can in-place decrypt only partitions and drives (select System > Permanently Decrypt System Partition/Drive for system partition/drive and select Volumes -> Permanently Decrypt for non-system partition/drive). If you need to remove encryption (e.g., if you no longer need encryption) from a file-hosted volume, please follow these steps:

1. Mount the VeraCrypt volume.
2. Move all files from the VeraCrypt volume to any location outside the VeraCrypt volume (note that the files will be decrypted on the fly).
3. Unmount the VeraCrypt volume.
4. delete it (the container) just like you delete any other file.

If in-place decryption of non-system partitions/drives is not desired, it is also possible in this case to follow the steps 1-3 described above.
In all cases, if the steps 1-3 are followed, the following extra operations can be performed:

- If the volume is partition-hosted (applies also to USB flash drives)

1. Right-click the ‘Computer’ (or ‘My Computer’) icon on your desktop, or in the Start Menu, and select Manage. The ‘Computer Management’ window should appear.
2. In the Computer Management window, from the list on the left, select ‘Disk Management’ (within the Storage sub-tree).
3. Right-click the partition you want to decrypt and select ‘Change Drive Letter and Paths’.
4. The ‘Change Drive Letter and Paths’ window should appear. If no drive letter is displayed in the window, click Add. Otherwise, click Cancel.
   If you clicked Add, then in the ‘Add Drive Letter or Path’ (which should have appeared), select a drive letter you want to assign to the partition and click OK.
5. In the Computer Management window, right-click the partition you want to decrypt again and select Format. The Format window should appear.
6. In the Format window, click OK. After the partition is formatted, it will no longer be required to mount it with VeraCrypt to be able to save or load files to/from the partition.

- If the volume is device-hosted

> 1. Right-click the ‘Computer’ (or ‘My Computer’) icon on your desktop, or in the Start Menu, and select Manage. The ‘Computer Management’ window should appear.
> 2. In the Computer Management window, from the list on the left, select ‘Disk Management’ (within the Storage sub-tree).
> 3. The ‘Initialize Disk’ window should appear. Use it to initialize the disk.
> 4. In the ‘Computer Management’ window, right-click the area representing the storage space of the encrypted device and select ‘New Partition’ or ‘New Simple Volume’.
> 5. WARNING: Before you continue, make sure you have selected the correct device, as all files stored on it will be lost. The ‘New Partition Wizard’ or ‘New Simple Volume Wizard’ window should appear now; follow its instructions to create a new partition on the device. After the partition is created, it will no longer be required to mount the device with VeraCrypt to be able to save or load files to/from the device.