The vaults key and recovery

Your vaults key is the one key that brings back all your recoverable vaults on a new iPhone, together with each vault’s pattern. Paperwise never keeps it, so it can’t give it back to you.

What it is

One key for all vaults. It starts with VK- and has 9 groups of 4 letters and numbers. The last group catches typing mistakes.
Made once, when you first set up Private vaults, and shown once. You keep it on paper: printed, or written down.
Never stored by Paperwise: not on this iPhone, not in iCloud, not on our servers.
Separate from your account’s recovery key. It can’t sign in, restore your documents or erase anything. It only helps bring back vaults, and only with each vault’s pattern.

Every vault has one of two recovery modes:

	Recoverable (the default)	This iPhone only
On a new iPhone	Your vaults key and this vault’s pattern bring it back	Never
Lost iPhone, or a Face ID change	Restore it as above	Lost
Pattern	At least 8 dots	At least 6 dots
Forgotten pattern	Can’t be recovered	Can’t be recovered
Sync & Backup and the iCloud backup	Yes, as ciphertext (with Back up vaults on)	Never synced; the iCloud backup holds only ciphertext that can never be opened
Good for	Almost every vault	The decoy, and anything that must stay gone

The app says: “Recoverable: if you forget this pattern, this vault can’t be recovered. Anyone with your vaults key and this pattern can restore it, even after an emergency erase.”

Step by step

Choose a vault’s mode

You choose when you save a new vault. To change it later:

Open the vault and tap the settings button (the gear) → Recovery.
Tap Change… and confirm with Face ID.

Changing to This iPhone only “deletes this vault’s copies from Paperwise sync and your other devices. Its old backup copies become unreadable once your devices have updated and after tonight’s iCloud backup.” Changing to Recoverable may ask you to draw a longer pattern (8 dots or more).

Check your vaults key

Go to Account → Private vaults → Check my vaults key….
Type the key and tap Check.

It answers “This is your vaults key.” or “This isn’t your vaults key.” Nothing is counted or stored.

Make a new vaults key

If you lost the key, or someone may have seen it:

Go to Account → Private vaults → Make a new vaults key… and confirm with Face ID.
Save the new key as at set-up: Print or Write it down, then type it back.
Open each vault once. Until you do, a vault can be restored only with your old key, and anyone who has the old key and that vault’s pattern can still restore it. Inside a vault that hasn’t moved yet, you see “Recovery uses your new vaults key after you open this vault once.”

Free and Pro

The vaults key, both modes and checking or replacing the key are free. Syncing recoverable vaults to your other devices needs Pro.

Privacy

The phone keeps only the key’s public half. It can lock recovery copies, never open them.
A recovery copy opens only with the vaults key and that vault’s pattern. Without the key, nobody can try patterns against your backup, us included.
A device uses a vaults key only after it was typed or made on it.

Tips

Keep the key on paper at home, away from your iPhone. Don’t keep it in iCloud Drive, Files, Photos or Notes.
Never write a pattern next to the key.
After making a new key, open each of your vaults once, then destroy the old paper.

What if…

What if I lost my vaults key?

Your vaults keep working on this iPhone. Make a new key straight away (above), then open each vault once, so they can be recovered again.

What if I never saved the key and lose my iPhone?

Recoverable vaults can’t come back without the key. Nobody, us included, can recover them.