To restore Vault9 on a new iPhone, install the app and tap Open from iCloud backup. Then scan or type the Secret Key from your Emergency Kit, and enter your pattern or passphrase. The iCloud backup is the only copy of the vault outside your old iPhone, so everything here depends on it being complete.
Restore on a new iPhone
You need your Emergency Kit and your pattern or passphrase. The iCloud backup never holds the Secret Key, and the kit is where you find it.
- Install Vault9 on the new iPhone.
- Tap Open from iCloud backup.
- Scan or type the Secret Key from your kit. The app asks for it one time.
- Enter your pattern or passphrase.
Items download in the background. An item that has not downloaded shows as “not downloaded”, and it downloads first when you open it. If you used Face ID, turn it on again on the new phone. For the full move with the old phone still in your hand, read how to transfer your vault to a new iPhone.
What goes to iCloud, and who sees what
Your phone encrypts the vault before it goes to iCloud. The copy lives in your own iCloud storage, not on a Vault9 server, because Vault9 has none.
Apple can see that a backup exists. It can also see the number of items, their padded sizes, the dates of changes and the model of the active iPhone. If you lose access to your Apple Account, you lose the iCloud backup.
A backup, not sync
We built a backup, not sync. The cost is that you cannot use the vault on two iPhones at once. iCloud holds one vault, and only one iPhone, the active iPhone, backs up to it. When another iPhone starts to use the backup, the old one is no longer active. It keeps its local vault and tells you at its next unlock that its changes are not backed up.
The vault is not in the iPhone backup or in Quick Start. If a vault is not in the iCloud backup, a lost phone takes the photos with it.
Check the backup before you need it
The app backs up while it is open, and goes on in the background for as long as iOS allows. It shows progress, and the reason when something fails, for example full iCloud storage. A banner and a status line under the Gallery title mark items that are not backed up yet. If the phone is lost, those items are gone.
Before a planned move, run the kit test on the old iPhone and wait until the Gallery shows “All backed up to iCloud”.
When you change your pattern or passphrase, the backup still opens with the old one until the change is saved. Keep the old one until the app shows that the backup is complete.
When the new iPhone already has a vault
Two vaults are never merged. The app shows both with their number of items, the date of the last change and the iPhone model. For the backup, the date is the last complete upload. You choose one:
- Open the iCloud backup. The app deletes the vault on this iPhone.
- Delete the iCloud backup and back up this iPhone.
- Cancel. Nothing is deleted.
Deleting
You can delete the iCloud backup in Settings. Each delete needs two confirmations: you tap the delete button, then you type a short phrase that the screen shows. Deleting the vault on the active iPhone also deletes the backup, and this needs a working iCloud connection. If the backup cannot be deleted, the vault stays, and you can choose to delete it only on this iPhone.
Deleting one item removes it for good, also from the backup. Vault9 has no Recently Deleted album.
