Abstract: A multilayer manifest enables any file written to an object store using a proprietary storage process, including large virtual machine backup images, to be recovered without being dependent on the proprietary storage process. Upon synchronizing a file written to an object store in cloud-enabled storage, a multilayer manifest process generates a family of manifest files in a self-contained format that represents all the necessary information required to reconstruct the file. The family of manifest files includes an ancestral record used to initiate retrieval of a file, and multiple layers of manifest files associated with the ancestral record. During retrieval, each of the one or more multilayer manifest files is successively reconstructed and used to securely retrieve the next manifest file until no further manifest files remain in the family. Reconstruction of the last multilayer manifest file results in the recovery of the file for which the manifest files were generated.