Sync & Backup

Paperwise Sync & Backup keeps your documents on all your devices and keeps a backup of them on our servers, end-to-end encrypted. With one device it’s a backup; with several, it also keeps them the same. If you lose your phone, your recovery key (or another device of yours) brings everything back.

What it is

Sync & Backup is part of Pro and uses your Paperwise account, which you create with Sign in with Apple. Each of your devices holds your account key. Every item gets its own key, wrapped by your account key, and is encrypted on your device before it leaves. Our server stores only the encrypted copies and passes them between your devices.

What it keeps:

documents, with their pages, text, title, type, tags and summary, and their saved watermark, timestamp and area adjustments
files, notes, cards and their attachments
folders and signatures
your Ask conversations, translations and extracted details
Private vaults that can be recovered, while Back up vaults is on. They stay under their own encryption. See Back up Private vaults.

It’s more than a mirror. When something is deleted everywhere, or changed, your backup keeps the deleted item and the earlier version for 30 days, then erases them. So an emptied Recently deleted, a wiped phone or a mistake can be undone. See Get back deleted items.

Each account can use up to 50 GB. Deleted items and earlier versions count toward it.

Sync & Backup or the iCloud backup?

	iCloud backup (free)	Sync & Backup (Pro)
Where it’s kept	Your own iCloud	Paperwise’s servers
Uses your iCloud storage	Yes	No
Devices	One iPhone’s copy	All your signed-in devices
Deleted items	Leave the backup at its next run	Kept 30 days after they’re deleted everywhere
Needs an account	No	Yes (Sign in with Apple)
Opens with	Your recovery key	Your recovery key, or another device of yours

You can use both. Two copies with two companies is the safest choice for papers you can’t afford to lose. See Encrypted iCloud backup.

When to use it

You scan on your iPhone and read or sign on your iPad.
Your iCloud storage is full, or you’d rather not use it.
You want a backup that someone holding your unlocked phone can’t erase.

Step by step

Turn on Sync & Backup

Tap Account in the bottom bar (or your avatar on Home), then Backup and sync.
Tap Sync & Backup. On Free, it shows a Pro tag and opens the plan screen.
If you aren’t signed in, tap Sign in with Apple. The first time, Paperwise creates your account key and shows your recovery key once. Save it somewhere safe, away from this phone.
Turn on Sync & Backup.

You can also start from the first screen of a new install: I use Sync & Backup.

Add your other devices

On your iPad or another iPhone, sign in with the same Apple ID in Paperwise. It asks you to Set up this iPhone: scan a code with a device you already use (see Add a device by code), or type your recovery key. Then turn on Sync & Backup there too. It’s a setting on each device.

Check it’s working

Account → Backup and sync → Sync & Backup shows:

the status line: “Everything is backed up · 2 min ago”, “3 changes waiting”, “Backing up…”, or a plain message when something needs you. Tap Back up now to run it straight away.
Storage: the size of your synced items and your plan’s 50 GB. Near the limit, it also shows the total, history included, and says “Almost full”.
Devices, Add a device by code, Restore deleted items and Recovery key.
Erase backup history now…, to end the 30 days early (see Get back deleted items).

On Account → Backup and sync, the Sync & Backup row reads On with the size, or Off.

It runs when you open the app, shortly after you change something, and every few minutes while Paperwise is open.

How it handles changes

Edits on two devices at once. Paperwise never silently overwrites one with the other. The newer edit wins, and the other is kept as a separate item named “(conflict copy)”, so you can compare and delete the one you don’t need.
Deletions. A deletion on one device goes to Recently deleted on your other devices first, for 30 days. Once it’s deleted everywhere, your backup keeps it 30 more days: up to 60 days in all. See Recently deleted.
Checks. Every change carries a tag made with your account key. Your devices ignore changes that don’t check out, so our server can’t forge your items or pass off an old version as new. It could still delay or hold back changes. If items are held back, the app says so: “Some synced items haven’t arrived yet. Paperwise keeps checking.”

Protection if someone has your phone

Someone holding your unlocked phone has your account key, so they could delete items. With Sync & Backup:

deleted items and earlier versions stay in your backup for 30 days, so you can bring them back
erasing that history, or deleting your account, needs your recovery key to happen at once. Without it, it’s scheduled 7 days later, every device is told, and any of them can cancel it
filling the storage with junk doesn’t push your history out; it only stops new uploads

That’s why the recovery key screen says to keep the key off this phone: it’s also what erases your backup at once.

Once a week, Paperwise may ask for Face ID when you open it. That keeps your devices’ signed permission to update your backup fresh. If it lapses, the status line says “Backup protection paused: open Paperwise with Face ID”.

Free and Pro

Sync & Backup is part of Pro. On Free, the Sync & Backup row shows a Pro tag and opens the plan screen. The iCloud backup is free.

Sync & Backup and Forward by email are account-wide: Pro bought on your iPhone turns them on for your iPad when both are signed in to the same account. Other Pro features follow the App Store purchase on each device; tap Restore purchases on the iPad (Account → the plan card).

If Pro ends: nothing new is uploaded, and your devices keep their copies. Downloads still work, so you can always restore to a device. Restoring a deleted item into your account needs Pro, but Save a copy to this iPhone doesn’t. Your synced items and their backup are deleted from our servers 12 months after Pro ends, unless you subscribe again. Paperwise tells you in Account, with the date, and reminds you before.

Privacy

Privacy: Your items are encrypted on your devices before they’re uploaded, with keys we don’t have. Our server stores ciphertext and can’t read your titles, text, folder names, images or file names. On each device, what arrives is encrypted again with Paperwise’s own key for that device.

What our server can see: how many items and files you sync, their sizes, versions and times, roughly how many pages a document has, which device made each change, and when things are deleted. Sizes are rounded up to fixed steps. It can’t tell which items are in a Private vault. Your device names are visible to us too. See What we can and can’t see.

Note: If you lose every device and your recovery key, nobody can recover your synced items, including us. Keep your recovery key safe, and not on this phone.

Tips

Turn on Sync & Backup on each device. It’s a setting per device.
“Name and sort new scans” works per device: items that arrive by sync aren’t named automatically.
Signing out stops Sync & Backup on that device until you sign in and set it up again. See Sign out.
Signing in on a device that already has documents asks whether to add them to your account first. Sync waits until you answer. See Sign in with Apple.

What if…

What if I see “Set up this iPhone” instead of the status line?

This device is signed in but doesn’t have your account key yet. Tap it and choose Use another device or Enter recovery key.

Paperwise may be waiting for your answer to “You have N documents on this iPhone. Add them to your account?” Until you choose Add to my account or Erase them, nothing goes up or comes down.

What if I see a “(conflict copy)”?

The same item was edited on two devices before they synced. Open both, keep the right one and delete the other.

What if it says “Your Paperwise storage is full”?

You’ve reached 50 GB, counting deleted items and earlier versions. Space frees up as they leave your backup; Paperwise says when the next ones go. To free space now, delete items you don’t need and empty Recently deleted, or use Erase backup history now… with your recovery key.

What if it says “Backup protection paused: open Paperwise with Face ID”?

Open Paperwise and confirm with Face ID when it asks. Your items keep syncing meanwhile; this is about what your backup keeps for Private vaults.

What if I see a banner that backup history will be erased?

Someone asked to erase your backup history without your recovery key. If it wasn’t you, tap Cancel on the banner. Nothing is erased, and every device is told.