The short answer
Install Vault9 on the new iPhone and choose Open from iCloud backup. The app asks once for the Secret Key from your Emergency Kit. Then you enter your pattern or passphrase.
Find your kit before you touch the old phone. The new phone cannot open the vault without it.
Why Quick Start does not move the vault
Apple lists Quick Start, iCloud and a computer as ways to set up a new iPhone. Vault9 keeps the vault out of all of them, so none of them brings it over.
The Secret Key also stays in the Keychain of the old iPhone, set to “this device only”, and the iCloud backup never holds it. The new phone gets the key from your kit. The iCloud backup is a backup, not sync, and only one iPhone (the active iPhone) saves to it.
Check the old iPhone first
Do this while the old phone still works.
- Run the kit test. In Settings, tap Emergency Kit, then Test my Emergency Kit. It checks that the kit still matches your vault.
- Look at the kit. Your pattern or passphrase must be written on it, or you may lock yourself out later.
- Open the Gallery and look for All backed up to iCloud. If an error shows instead, for example full iCloud storage, fix that first.
Open the vault on the new iPhone
- Set up the new iPhone and sign in with the same Apple Account. Install Vault9.
- Choose Open from iCloud backup.
- Scan the QR code on your kit, or type the Secret Key.
- Enter your pattern or passphrase.
- Turn Face ID on again if you use it. It is off on a new phone until you do.
Items download in the background. An item you open downloads first. Until then it shows as “not downloaded”.
If the new iPhone already holds a vault, the app shows both vaults. For each one you see the number of items, the date of the last change and the iPhone model. We never merge two vaults. You choose one of three:
- Open the iCloud backup. The app deletes the vault on this iPhone.
- Delete iCloud backup and back up this iPhone.
- Cancel. Nothing is deleted.
Keep the old iPhone until you have tested the new one
Open a few old items and a few new ones on the new phone. Check that the photos, videos and documents you expect are all there. Wait for the downloads if you must.
Once the new iPhone uses the iCloud backup, the old one is no longer active. It keeps its local vault. At its next unlock it says that its changes are not backed up. Do not add items on the old phone from now on.
When the new iPhone works, delete the vault on the old one. This does not delete the iCloud backup, because the old iPhone is not active. Vault9 has no Recently Deleted album, so a deleted item is gone for good.
Then erase the old phone. Anything that is not in the iCloud backup is gone after the erase. Apple lists the steps in what to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your iPhone or iPad. The erase option is in Settings, General, Transfer or Reset iPhone, Erase All Content and Settings.
Common questions
What if I lost my Emergency Kit?
If you still have the old iPhone, print the same kit again from Settings. If someone else may have seen the kit, change your pattern or passphrase at once.
What if the old iPhone is lost and I have no kit?
You cannot open the iCloud backup on another phone. Items that are not in the iCloud backup are gone.
Does deleting the app on the old iPhone delete the backup?
No. Deleting the app deletes the vault on that iPhone. You get it back only from the iCloud backup.
Sources
- Apple Support: Move to a new iPhone or iPad (checked 2026-11-06)
- Apple Support: What to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your iPhone or iPad (checked 2026-11-06)
