From download to your first vault.
Five steps, in the order you will meet them.
Download
Free from the App Store. No account to make.
Try the demo
Open two sample vaults with two sample passphrases. Nothing real is involved.
Make a vault
Choose a pattern or passphrase. Write down the twelve recovery words.
Bring files in
Import from Photos or Files. Cipher encrypts each one first.
Back up on purpose
Save an encrypted backup file when you choose. Nothing syncs by itself.
The recovery phrase
Cipher shows twelve words once and asks you to confirm them. They are the only way back in if you forget your unlock. Store them away from your phone. Anyone who has them and a backup file can open that backup, so treat them like a key.
Locking and unlocking
Cipher locks when you leave the app. Drawing the pattern or typing the passphrase opens the matching vault directly. There is no list to browse and nothing on the lock screen names a vault.
Getting back in
- Forgot your unlock, same iPhone: enter the twelve words and set a new unlock. Your files are still there.
- New or reset iPhone: restore from a backup file you saved earlier, entering that vault's twelve words.
- No backup file and no phrase: the files cannot be recovered, by you or by anyone else. That is the design.
Backups
Cipher does not back up automatically. When you choose, it makes one encrypted backup file for one vault and hands it to the Files app, where you decide where it lives. Make a new backup after changing a vault's recovery phrase. Details.