Vault settings and deleting a vault

Every vault has the same settings, whatever else exists on the iPhone. Open a vault and tap the settings button (the gear) at the top.

What it is

Setting	What it does
Name	A name for this vault. “Only shown inside this vault.” Without one, the title reads Private vault.
Lock Screen camera saves here	Off by default. On: photos from the Lock Screen camera, and items shared to Private vaults, wait encrypted for the next vault opened with this on. See The Lock Screen camera.
Show pattern while drawing	Off by default, so the dots you touch don’t light up. The same on every vault.
Change pattern…	Draw the current pattern, then the new one twice.
Recovery	Recoverable or This iPhone only, with Change…. See The vaults key and recovery.
Decoy and emergency pattern…	Pro. See The decoy and the emergency pattern.
Shared links from this vault	“Links to items in this vault are listed only here.”
Delete this vault…	Deletes this vault from this iPhone.

The app-wide vault backup settings are in Account → Private vaults: Back up vaults, Delete all vault backups…, Check my vaults key… and Make a new vaults key…. “Each vault’s own setting decides whether it can be recovered. You change it inside the vault.”

Step by step

Delete a vault

Open the vault, tap the settings button → Delete this vault….
Read the message: “This vault, its pattern and everything in it are erased from this iPhone now. Its copies in your backups stay encrypted.”
Choose:
- Delete from this iPhone, or
- Also delete its synced copies: its synced copies can’t be opened once your devices have updated.

If this vault is the decoy, the emergency pattern still deletes every other vault, but then opens an empty vault instead of a decoy. Choose a new decoy, or turn the emergency pattern off.

Turn vault backups off or on

Go to Account → Private vaults.
Turn Back up vaults off or on, and confirm with Face ID.

Off: no vault is synced or backed up until you turn it back on. On: “Each vault goes back in the next time it’s opened.”

Delete all vault backups

Go to Account → Private vaults → Delete all vault backups… and confirm with Face ID.
Every vault’s copy is deleted from Paperwise sync and from this iPhone’s iCloud backup. Vaults on your devices aren’t touched, and Back up vaults turns off.

If your iCloud backup is kept by another iPhone, Paperwise says so: do this there too.

Free and Pro

Vault settings are free. The decoy and emergency pattern, share links from a vault and syncing vaults need Pro.

Privacy

Settings look identical in every vault, so they don’t tell anyone how many vaults exist or which one is the decoy.
Back up vaults is kept in your encrypted account settings, so our server can’t read it.
Deleting a single vault item is for good: there’s no Recently deleted in a vault. Its backup copy can’t be opened once your devices have updated.

Tips

Name each vault so you know which one you’re in. Only you see the names.

What if…

What if I deleted a vault by mistake?

What was only on this iPhone is gone. If you chose Delete from this iPhone and the vault was recoverable, restore it with your vaults key and its pattern. See Restore vaults on a new iPhone.