Backup and recovery

Because your files never leave your phone, you are the only one who can get them back. Spend five minutes on this page and you will not lose them.

The most important rule: write down your recovery code and keep it away from your phone. We do not have a copy and cannot reset it for you. If you lose both your PIN (or biometrics) and your recovery code, your files cannot be recovered by anyone.

Your recovery code

When you first set up Ciphergrove, it shows a recovery code of 24 letters and numbers in groups of four. It is a second way into your vault, and it is shown once.

  • Write it on paper, or store it in a password manager. Keep a copy somewhere other than your phone.
  • Don’t keep it only as a screenshot or a note on the same phone. If the phone is lost, so is the code.
  • Anyone who has the code and your backup file can open your vault, so keep it private.

If you forget your PIN

  1. On the unlock screen, tap Forgot PIN? Use recovery code.
  2. Enter the 24-character code. Wrong codes cause a growing wait, so type it carefully.
  3. Choose a new unlock method (a new PIN, or biometrics). Your files are all still there.

If your phone’s screen lock changed

If you remove your phone’s screen lock, Android can invalidate the key that protects biometric unlock. The vault itself is not damaged. Use Can’t unlock? Use recovery code and set a new unlock method.

If you lost your recovery code

If you can still open the vault, go to Settings and choose New Recovery Code. This creates a new code. Once you save it, your old code stops working. Do this now, before you need it.

Make an encrypted backup

  1. Open Settings and choose Backup & restore.
  2. Create a backup and save it somewhere safe: Google Drive, your computer, or a USB drive.
  3. Make a new one after you add many files.

A backup is a single file that only your recovery code can open. It does not contain your PIN. Without the recovery code it reveals only how many files there are and how big they are.

Back up to your own server, SD card or USB drive

Besides a backup file, Ciphergrove can send the same encrypted backup straight to a place you choose: a NAS or another server you control (WebDAV over https, SFTP or a Windows share), or a folder on an SD card or USB drive.

  1. Open Settings, choose Backup & restore, then Back up to my own server.
  2. Choose Add a server, pick the kind, and enter its address and login. For a folder, SD card or USB drive, pick the folder with Android’s own folder picker. Ciphergrove gets that one folder only.
  3. For a server, the app shows its fingerprint once. Approve it if it matches your server. Later the app refuses to talk to a different server at that address.
  4. Tap Back up now. The backup keeps going if you leave the app, with a notification you can cancel from.

Only the encrypted backup reaches the place you chose. Nothing is sent to us, and you still need your recovery code to restore it. A backup is stored as numbered parts with a list written last, so an interrupted backup is never mistaken for a whole one and leaves nothing behind. The three newest backups are kept, and older ones are removed only after a new one is safely stored. Server addresses and passwords are stored encrypted inside the vault and are erased by a panic wipe. This is offered from the first vault only.

Back up automatically

Switch on Back up automatically for a place and choose weekly or daily. A backup needs the vault key, so it starts when you unlock the vault and the last backup is older than the time you chose, then carries on in the background. It needs your recovery code to be set up. The backup screens also show Files not backed up yet: how many files were added or changed since the last backup.

Keep files on an SD card, or archive them to a server

SD card. Settings, Storage, Where files are kept moves the vault’s encrypted files to an SD card and back. Every file is copied and checked first, so nothing is lost if the move stops. The files are encrypted in both places, but uninstalling the app or formatting the card removes them, and the vault cannot open while the card is out (the app tells you instead of breaking). Keep a backup.

Archive. Select files, open the menu and choose Archive to server. Each file is copied, read back and compared before it leaves the phone, and then the phone’s copy is removed. The file stays in the gallery, dimmed and marked as archived. Tap it to retrieve it; the server must be reachable. Storage shows how many files are archived and has Retrieve all.

Archived files are not in backup files, transfers or exports, and the server holds the only copy. Back up the server too, and retrieve the files you want before you move to a new phone. Archive is offered from the first vault only.

Restore a backup, or move to a new phone

Option A, backup file:

  1. Install Ciphergrove on the new phone, open it, and complete the first-time setup (choose an unlock method and note the new recovery code it shows).
  2. Open Settings, choose Backup & restore, and pick your backup file.
  3. Enter your old recovery code, the one that belongs to the backup. Your vault replaces the empty one on this phone, and the app then asks you to save a new recovery code.

Option B, direct transfer: on the old phone choose Send to another device, and on the new phone choose Receive from another device. Compare the pairing code on both screens, then confirm. The transfer goes directly between the two phones, and nothing passes through a server. The vault only replaces the new phone’s vault when you tap Finish.

Option C, from your own server, SD card or USB drive: in the same setup on the new phone, open Back up to my own server, add the place again, choose a backup in the list of backups stored there, and enter your old recovery code. A backup with a missing part is shown as incomplete and can’t be restored.

If your phone is lost or broken

Install Ciphergrove on a new phone and restore your backup file with your recovery code. If you have no backup file, the files on the lost phone can’t be recovered by us.

Quick checklist

  • Recovery code written down and stored away from the phone
  • A recent encrypted backup file stored away from the phone
  • If you archive files to a server, a backup of that server as well
  • You know where both are

Questions? See Support.