Forgot your photo vault password? What you can and cannot do
If you set up a Recovery Phrase or a Recovery PIN in StrongRoom, tap "Forgot your pattern or passphrase?" on the lock screen, enter it, and choose a new pattern or passphrase. Your items are untouched. If you have neither, the Vault cannot be opened by anyone, including us, because we never held the keys.
Why nobody can reset a Vault for you
Most apps handle a forgotten password by emailing a reset link. That works because the company holds something: an account, a copy of a key, or access to your data. StrongRoom holds none of those. There is no account, no email address and no server, and the app makes no network connections of its own. The key that opens a Vault is made on your phone from your pattern or passphrase together with a secret inside the phone's Secure Enclave. We never see it, so a support request cannot unlock anything. That is what makes the Vault private, and it is also the price.
So the useful question is not "who can reset it" but "which of the two recovery routes did I set up".
Option 1: the Recovery Phrase
When you created the Vault, the app showed you 12 words, once, and asked you to write them down. The app keeps no copy and cannot show them again.
- On the lock screen, tap "Forgot your pattern or passphrase?".
- Choose Phrase.
- Type the 12 words. They are English words from a fixed list whatever language the app is in, so the order and spelling matter. If a word is misspelled or missing, the app says to check the words, and that mistake does not count as a try.
- Choose a new pattern or passphrase for the Vault, and enter it again to confirm. It has to be one that is not already opening another Vault on this phone.
- Your items are exactly as you left them.
The phrase only works on this phone. It is combined with the secret inside the phone, so on its own it opens nothing and the words cannot be used to read your files from another device. For a new phone, you also need an Export Package: see how to transfer a Vault How to transfer a photo vault to a new iPhone
Option 2: the Recovery PIN
A Recovery PIN is optional: a number of 6 to 12 digits that you can add in Settings or during set-up for people who will not write twelve words down. It does one job. From "Forgot your pattern or passphrase?", choose the Recovery PIN option, type the digits and set a new pattern or passphrase. It never unlocks the Vault from the lock screen, and it works only on the phone where you set it.
It is weaker than the phrase, and the app says so. Twelve random words have far too many combinations to guess in practice; a short number can be. That is why every try counts toward the guess limit, described below. If you are not sure whether you set one, just try it: a Vault with no Recovery PIN looks the same as one with, so the screen will say only that the Recovery PIN did not open anything.
Option 3: neither
If you have no phrase and no Recovery PIN, and you cannot remember your pattern or passphrase, the Vault is lost. We cannot recover it, decrypt it or guess it for you. You can still start a new Vault, and if you made an Export Package earlier you can restore it on a fresh install, but that also needs the phrase.
If you only half remember the credential, you can keep trying, but see the next section first.
The guess limit and waiting
StrongRoom slows guessing, whatever you try. After ten attempts in five minutes, each further attempt waits longer, starting at 30 seconds and doubling up to an hour, and there is a daily allowance on top so a slow trickle is slowed too. A well-formed wrong Recovery Phrase or Recovery PIN counts as an attempt like any other. A phrase with a misspelled word, or a Recovery PIN that breaks the rules (for example, fewer than 6 digits), tests nothing and does not count. Nothing on screen says whether an attempt matched, so a Vault that opens nothing shows an Empty Vault rather than "wrong". If a pattern opens an empty Vault, you may have drawn a different one from the one you set. The slowing is real: do not spend your attempts on random guesses.
For the full list of limits, see what StrongRoom does not protect against
Preventing it next time
- Write the 12 words on paper, in order, and keep the paper somewhere you trust, away from the phone. Do not photograph it or save it in a notes app on the same phone.
- Take the check when the app offers it. After the words are shown, the app asks you to type some of them back. If they do not match what you wrote, you find out now rather than in a year.
- Add a Recovery PIN as a second route if you worry about having the paper to hand. It is weaker, so treat it as a convenience and not a replacement.
- Make an Export Package and keep it with a copy of the phrase kept somewhere separate. An Export Package is not for forgotten patterns, but it is what saves you when the phone itself is gone
- If you rotate the phrase (Settings, New Recovery Phrase), the old phrase stops working for the Vault. Write down the new one and make a new Export Package.
More on how the phrase and the Recovery PIN differ: Recovery Phrase or Recovery PIN
Frequently asked questions
I forgot my pattern. Can I get my photos back?
Yes, if you have the Recovery Phrase or a Recovery PIN and you are on the same phone. If you have neither, no one can open the Vault.
Can StrongRoom show me my phrase again?
No. It is shown once and the app keeps no copy. If you can still open a Vault, you can make a new phrase in Settings.
Can I use the phrase of one Vault to open another?
No. Each Vault has its own phrase.
Does a wrong phrase lock me out?
Not permanently. Attempts are slowed after ten in five minutes, but a correct phrase works whenever its turn comes.
Sources
- None needed: this page states no Apple platform behaviour.