Help / Set up your Vault

Set up your Vault

A locked place inside FirstHour for photos, videos, files and notes you need to keep but don't want left out in the open. Have a pen and paper ready.

Step by step

  1. Open the Vault tab and choose how to lock it: a pattern through 6 or more dots with at least one turn, or a 6-digit PIN. Don't use your iPhone passcode or a birthday.
  2. Write down your recovery phrase on paper, in order. FirstHour gives you 12 words, or you can use your own phrase, as long as it's hard to guess. Nobody can get it for you later. Don't take a screenshot: it would sit in Photos, where anyone with your iPhone could find it.
  3. Prove you wrote it down by typing the last word.
  4. Decide about a decoy vault. You can set one up now or later. It has its own pattern or PIN of the same kind, and you put a few ordinary pictures in it yourself.

Adding photos and videos

  1. Choose how. Tap + in the open Vault to choose from Photos or use the camera, tap Vault on a picture in Protect, or tap Vault all in a Protect group.
  2. Wait for the check. FirstHour copies each one in, then checks the locked copy opens and matches.
  3. Answer iPhone's question. iPhone asks before removing the originals. If you say no, they stay in Photos and the copies stay in the Vault.

Adding files and notes

  1. For a file, tap + in the open Vault and choose Choose from Files. PDFs open right in the Vault. Most other kinds open read-only when you tap Open. A few, such as web pages, SVG drawings, very large files or kinds iPhone can't show, can only be saved or shared.
  2. Delete the original if you want it gone. It stays in Files, and FirstHour doesn't remove it.
  3. From another app, open its Share menu and choose FirstHour, one file at a time. It waits on the lock screen until you unlock the Vault. If you don't unlock, the waiting copy is removed, and the original stays where it was.
  4. For a note, tap + and choose Write a note. The first line becomes its title, and it saves by itself as you type.

Finding things

Open an item and tap Rename to change its name. A note's name is simply its first line. The menu above the grid sorts by newest, oldest, name or largest, and can show just one kind. The search box looks through names, file names, labels and the words in your notes. It can't read words inside pictures, PDFs or Word and Excel files.

Backing up

  1. Open the ••• menu in the open Vault and tap Back up.
  2. Type your recovery phrase. This proves it still works before you rely on it.
  3. Choose where to save the file, such as the Files app.

To bring it back, open the ••• menu, tap Restore from a backup, pick the file and type your phrase. Backups aren't automatic, so make a new one after adding things.

Good to know

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