The app lock

The app lock asks for Face ID when Paperwise opens, so people who pick up your unlocked iPhone can’t get into your vault. It’s free, and new installs offer it on during the first run.

Your vault is locked with Face ID. IDs, medical, bank and tax papers get extra care automatically: their previews are blurred, opening, sharing or exporting them asks for Face ID, and AI never names them automatically. Anything nobody should even know exists goes in Hidden.

What it is

With the app lock on, Paperwise shows a lock screen, Paperwise is locked, when it starts and when you come back after the time you choose in Lock after. Tap Unlock with Face ID to open your vault. If Face ID doesn’t recognise you, iOS offers your device passcode.

The lock uses whatever your device has: Face ID, Touch ID on an iPad with a Touch ID button, or the device passcode when neither is set up. The setting’s name follows it: Face ID lock, Touch ID lock or Passcode lock.

The app lock is different from Hidden. Hidden has its own keys behind Face ID and always asks for Face ID, whether the app lock is on or off. The app lock protects the rest of the vault on this iPhone.

Note: On a new install, the first run offers the lock switched on, and it turns on after a successful Face ID. Restoring from your iCloud backup during the first run still brings you to that offer. With the lock off, the vault opens without Face ID. If you updated from an earlier version, your lock stayed exactly as you had it.

When to use it

Always, if other people sometimes use your unlocked iPhone.
If you keep IDs, medical, bank or tax papers in the vault. These are protected anyway: they ask for Face ID before they open, share or export, with the app lock on or off. The app lock covers everything else.

Step by step

Turn the app lock on or off

On the Vault, tap your avatar at the top right to open Account.
In Lock and privacy, turn on Face ID lock.
Look at your iPhone. The lock turns on only after Face ID succeeds, and Paperwise says “Face ID lock is on”.

To turn it off, switch Face ID lock off and confirm with Face ID. If Face ID doesn’t succeed, the lock stays on.

Choose when it locks again

Go to Account → Lock and privacy → Lock after. (This row appears only while the lock is on.)
Choose Immediately, 1 min, 5 min or 15 min.

Immediately (the default) asks for Face ID every time you come back to Paperwise. The longer settings let you switch to another app and back without unlocking again. Restarting your iPhone always locks Paperwise.

Protected documents

Some documents ask for Face ID again, even inside an unlocked app. There’s no switch: a document is protected when its type is ID, Medical, Bank statement or Tax.

Its previews show a lock instead of its pages, everywhere in the vault and in search.
Opening, sharing or exporting it asks for Face ID (or your device passcode), whether or not the app lock is on.
If you used Face ID in Paperwise in the last 60 seconds, it opens without asking again.

To remove the protection, change the document’s type with ••• → Change type… (this asks for Face ID first). To protect something else, such as a card or a note, give it one of those types the same way, or use ••• → Move to Hidden. See Protected documents, Never send to AI and Hidden.

Free and Pro

The app lock, Lock after and protected documents are free. The disguised app icon, which also changes the lock screen to a plain “Locked”, is Pro: see The disguised icon.

Privacy

What the lock protects. It keeps people who pick up your unlocked iPhone out of the vault. Everything Paperwise stores on your iPhone (pages, files, photos, thumbnails and the database of titles, text, notes and tags) is encrypted with its own key, kept in this iPhone’s Keychain for this device only. Readable copies exist only while you scan, view, edit or share. Hidden adds keys only Face ID, your Hidden passcode or your recovery key open.
What it doesn’t do. The vault’s key isn’t behind Face ID, so sync and the backup work with the app lock off. That also means something running as Paperwise on your unlocked iPhone could read the vault. Turn the app lock on, and keep papers that need more in Hidden.
The app-switcher cover. When the app lock is on, Paperwise covers its screen in the app switcher, so your documents don’t show in the row of open apps. Whenever Hidden is open, the cover is used even with the lock off. This is best effort: iOS takes the app-switcher snapshot at a moment we don’t control.
A clock you can’t wind back. Lock after and the 60-second grace for protected documents use a clock that keeps counting while the phone sleeps. Setting the date back on the iPhone doesn’t skip the lock.
Nothing leaves your iPhone. Face ID is handled by iOS. Paperwise only learns whether it succeeded.
The lock is a setting of each device. Turning it on on your iPhone doesn’t turn it on on your iPad.

Tips

Keep Lock after on Immediately if you often hand your iPhone to others.
Move anything you’d rather not open by accident in front of someone, like a payslip, to Hidden with ••• → Move to Hidden.
If you hide Hidden from the Vault (with Show Hidden in vault off), open it from Account → Lock and privacy → Open Hidden.

What if…

What if the switch says to set up Face ID in the Settings app?

Your device has no Face ID, Touch ID or passcode set up, so Paperwise can’t lock. Set one up in the Settings app and try again.

What if Face ID stops working?

Tap Unlock with Face ID and use your device passcode when iOS offers it. If you remove both Face ID and the passcode from your device, Paperwise turns its lock off, because it can no longer be unlocked.

What if a protected document opens without Face ID?

You used Face ID in Paperwise less than 60 seconds ago. Or the document’s type isn’t ID, Medical, Bank statement or Tax: check it with ••• → Change type….

What if I restored from a backup and the lock is off?

Settings aren’t part of the backup. If you restored during the first run, Paperwise offers the lock right after the restore; if you skipped it, or restored later from Account, turn it on in Account → Lock and privacy.

What if I see a plain “Locked” screen instead of Paperwise is locked?

You’re using a disguised app icon (Pro), so the lock screen doesn’t name the app.