Emergency Kit
Your Emergency Kit: one page, your way back
The Emergency Kit is a one-page PDF that the app makes on your iPhone. It holds the spare copy of your Secret Key. You need it to open your vault on a new iPhone.
Write 1 in the first dot, 2 in the second, and so on.
Contents
What is on the kit
- Your Secret Key, as text and as a QR code.
- A Kit ID, which shows which kit belongs to the vault.
- An empty field where you write your pattern or passphrase by hand. For a pattern, a grid of empty circles: you write 1 in the first dot, 2 in the second, and so on.
- The app never prints your pattern or passphrase.
After you create your vault
Make your kit from the Gallery
You can add photos first. Until you save or print the kit and prove that you can read it, the Gallery shows a banner that you cannot close.
Printing
Print it safely
- Print on your own printer at home. Not at work, in a shop, or with a printer app that prints through the internet.
- The app prints directly from memory, with no preview and no file.
- The app warns you if the printer does not encrypt the print job, or is not on your Wi-Fi.
- Scan its QR code only inside Vault9, not with the Camera app.
- No printer of your own? Print a blank kit. It has no Secret Key and no QR code. You write the Secret Key on it by hand, and the app checks that you wrote all of it correctly.
Storage
Where to keep it
Yes ✓ KEEP IT HERE
- On paper, in a very safe place (for example, a safe or a locked drawer at home)
- In a password manager (as a secure note or the QR code)
- On another device that uses a different iCloud account
No ✕ NOT HERE
- In iCloud Drive or iCloud Photos
- In Notes or Passwords
- Inside the vault
- A photo or screenshot of the kit in any of these places
A kit with your pattern written on it opens your vault for anyone who also has a copy of your files. Keep it like a passport.
Test
The kit test
In Settings, scan or type the kit to check that it still matches. The app reminds you 3 months after the last test. The reminder is on by default. You can turn it off in Settings.
Problems
If something happens to the kit
You lost the kit, your iPhone is fine
Print the same kit again from Settings.
Someone may have seen the kit
Change your pattern or passphrase at once. The Secret Key stays the same, so the vault is then as safe as your new pattern or passphrase. Older copies of the vault still open with the kit and the old pattern.
