Sovereign Vault · Support
Locked out, moving phones, or something not working? Start here.
Sovereign Vault is made by one small company. Mail goes to a person, not a ticket system: support@barcalabs.com.
Your recovery code gets you back in
Tap “Forgot your PIN?” on the unlock screen
Enter the 25-character recovery code you wrote down when you set up the app.
Set a new PIN
Your records are all still there. You can turn Face ID or fingerprint back on in Settings.
Lost the code as well? Then nobody can open the vault, including us. We hold no copy of your records, your PIN or your code. That's what keeps them private, and it's also why we can't rescue them.
If you can still get in but have lost your code, make a new one in Settings. The new code replaces the old one right away. A backup only opens with the code that was active when you made it, so make a fresh backup right after you get a new code.
Bring your vault with a backup file
Your phone's own backup won't bring your vault back. This will:
On your old phone, make a backup
Data → App Settings → Back Up My Vault. Save the file to iCloud Drive or Google Drive, so it's there on the new phone. Keep your recovery code somewhere else, like a password manager.
On your new phone, install Sovereign Vault and restore
When the app asks you to create a PIN, tap “Restore from a backup file.” Pick the file (it ends in .svbackup) and enter your recovery code.
Set a PIN for the new phone
Your old PIN doesn't come across with a backup. Turn on Face ID or fingerprint afterwards in Settings.
Make a backup before you change phones. If the old phone is gone and you never made one, the vault can't be brought back. Not by you, and not by us.
And what nobody can
We can
We can't
Worth checking before you write
Your watch can stop sending data without telling you
Sovereign Vault reads what Apple Health or Health Connect holds. If the app that writes to Health stops (a permission changed, an update reset something, a companion app signed out), the data just stops arriving, and nothing announces it. If a number looks stale, check the app that owns it first. Not every watch writes every metric, either. Some never send HRV to Apple Health, and we can't read a number that was never written.
A rare storage defect
The database engine the app is built on has a known flaw that can, rarely, lose a recently saved entry without warning. No fixed version exists yet. The security page explains it in full. It's one more reason to make a backup now and then.
Every message is read by a person. We won't promise a response time we can't keep.
If you're reporting a problem, these help most: which phone and iOS version, what you did just before it happened, and what you expected instead.
Please don't send us your health records. We don't need them to help, and we have nowhere safe to keep them.