Encrypting Previously entered data

[ghost]

Thanks for making this. Worked like a charm, but I noticed an unexpected issue when i started using the app. I had a previously unencrypted CharField of first_name and last_name' I installed django-encrypted field and updated my model using the EncryptedCharField. When I enter new data, everything appears as I expected: The view shows me the unencrypted first_name and last_name while the database shows the fields encrypted.

However, with the data that was already entered, the view shows the encrypted fields as they appear on the database - basically gibberish. Is there anything that can be done about this? I'm working with a local version, but want to update the deployed version with the encrypted fields, but I'm a bit concerned that I would freak out users because of the above issue.

[defrex]

The encrypted fields assume that the data in the db is encrypted. So if it pulls some plaintext out of the database, it will be treated as cyphertext, which will turn it into gidderish.

I would recommend a data-migration strategy. There would be three migrations needed.

• Add a new field for the encrypted data with a different name
• Write a data migration that transfers the data from plaintext field to the new encrypted field
• Delete the plaintext field and rename the encrypted field to original name

After running those, you should have all your old data safely encrypted in the new field.