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Sign out

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Documents on this iPhone belong to whoever is signed in. When you sign out, Paperwise asks what to do with them: keep them on this iPhone, or remove them.

What it is

“Documents” here means everything in your vault: scans, notes, cards and files. Hidden is separate: signing out never touches it.

When you sign out you choose between:

  • Keep them on this iPhone: the documents stay here as guest documents, belonging to no account until someone signs in. Sync and Forward by email stop on this iPhone.
  • Remove this account’s documents from this iPhone: the documents are deleted from this iPhone, with Recently deleted, folders and saved signatures. Copies already synced to your account stay in the account and come back when you sign in again.

When to use it

  • Before you give, sell or lend the iPhone, after making sure your documents are safely in the cloud.
  • When someone else will use Paperwise on this iPhone with their own account.
  • If you want to stop sync and Forward by email on this iPhone but keep what’s here.

Step by step

Sign out

  1. On the Vault, tap your avatar to open Account.
  2. Tap the plan card at the top (Paperwise Free or Paperwise Pro) to open Plan & account.
  3. Tap Sign out.
  4. Choose Keep them on this iPhone or Remove this account’s documents from this iPhone.
  5. If you chose to remove them, confirm with Face ID (or your iPhone’s passcode).

Signing out also removes the account key from this iPhone. To sync here again, sign in and set up this iPhone with another device or your recovery key.

Are my documents safely in the cloud?

Paperwise checks before you choose. Your documents are safely in your account only when all of this is true:

  • sync is on (Pro),
  • nothing is waiting to upload, and
  • the last sync finished.

If not (sync is off, you’re on Free, or changes are still uploading), the screen says why and says plainly: “Erasing deletes them for good.” Then Keep them on this iPhone is the highlighted choice. If you want them in your account first, keep them, wait for sync to finish, then sign out again. The iCloud backup follows this iPhone, so it drops removed documents at its next backup.

Signing in again, or someone else signing in

  • “You were signed out” (your sign-in ended on its own) and you sign in with the same account: nothing is asked; the documents are already that account’s.
  • After you sign out yourself, or when another account signs in: if there are documents on this iPhone, Paperwise asks “You have N documents on this iPhone. Add them to your account?”:
    • Add to my account: they stay on this iPhone and become that account’s. With sync on (Pro), they’re uploaded, encrypted on this iPhone first.
    • Erase them: after a confirmation and Face ID (or the iPhone’s passcode), they’re deleted from this iPhone, with Recently deleted, folders and saved signatures, before the account’s own documents arrive. Share links made from them are turned off when possible. Hidden isn’t touched.

N counts documents, notes, cards and files that aren’t in Recently deleted or Hidden. With nothing to count, there’s no question. Until you answer, sync and Forward by email wait: nothing goes up or comes down. If you close Paperwise without answering, it asks again next time.

Free and Pro

Signing out is free. Sync, which is what keeps a copy in your account, is Pro. On Free, nothing on this iPhone is in your account, so removing documents when you sign out deletes them for good. The iCloud backup follows this iPhone, so it drops them too at its next backup.

Privacy

  • Hidden isn’t touched by signing out, or by the question when someone signs in. To erase Hidden, open Hidden, tap Forgot passcode?, then Erase Hidden on this iPhone…. See Recovery key and Forgot passcode.
  • The iCloud backup follows this iPhone. If it’s on, documents you remove or erase here leave the backup at its next run.
  • Removing documents needs Face ID or the iPhone’s passcode, so someone holding your unlocked iPhone can’t wipe them with a tap.

What if…

What if Paperwise signed me out by itself?

For example after 90 days without use, Paperwise says you were signed out. Your documents stay on this iPhone. Sign in again with the same account and nothing is asked.

What if I removed documents that weren’t synced?

They’re gone from this iPhone, and from the iCloud backup at its next run. Without a synced copy in your account, they can’t be brought back. That’s why the screen warns you, and why Keep them on this iPhone is the default then.

What if I want to delete my account too?

See Delete your account. It has its own choice to erase everything on this iPhone.

Still stuck? Write to support@paperwise.app.