Summary: Drying of deformable porous media results in their shrinkage, and it may cause cracking provided that shrinkage deformations are hindered by kinematic constraints. Herein, we focus on slow drying of an initially water-saturated sample of a microheterogeneous poroelastic material damaged by parallel mesocracks. The cracking risk is analyzed by means of the thermodynamics-based microporoelasticity model described in the companion paper [Int. J. Numer. Anal. Methods Geomech. 34, No. 2, 135–157 (2010; Zbl 1273.74084)], which is extended toward consideration of the hierarchical organization of cracked argillite. Drying of a material sample is studied in a framework where macrodisplacements in direction of the crack normal are blocked, while elsewise macrostress-free boundary conditions prevail. The model implies that the opening/closure behavior of the cracks is governed by an effective pressure, in which the average crack (under)pressure, making the crack opening smaller, competes with the average micropore (under)pressure that makes the crack opening larger. The driving force for crack propagation is a quadratic function of this effective pressure. The model proposes that if drying shrinkage deformations are hindered by kinematic constraints, onset of cracking becomes possible once air entry into the cracks is observed.