For TravelersSome things shouldn't be visible the moment your phone changes hands.
Create a private vault for travel documents and photos you'd rather not have visible if your phone is searched, lost, or handed to someone else for a minute.
What does the work
- Duress Vault
- A third code opens an empty vault and wipes the real ones as it does, for the rare case where you must unlock and the contents must not survive. Afterwards that vault simply becomes your main one, with no empty shell left behind.
- Decoy Vault
- A second code opens a separate vault stocked with files you chose, so a forced unlock shows something ordinary.
- Works on Windows, macOS, iOS and Android
- The same vault on the laptop you pack and the phone in your pocket.
- Encrypted backup to your own Dropbox
- Optional, and encrypted before it ever leaves the device — a copy exists somewhere other than the device that could be lost or confiscated.
- 12-word recovery phrase
- Forgetting your code mid-trip doesn't have to mean losing everything in the vault.
- No account or email to sign up
- Nothing links the vault to your identity when you're the one being asked questions at a border.
What's actually different at a border
A search is a search regardless of what's on the phone — Vaultine doesn't change whether you're asked to unlock it. What it changes is what's visible once you do.
A Decoy Vault opens on a second code and shows a set of files you stocked yourself in advance, so an unlock produces something ordinary rather than nothing. A Duress Vault is a separate, third code: it opens empty and wipes your real vaults as it does, for situations where the contents genuinely cannot be seen. And it isn't left as a conspicuous empty shell afterwards: that vault becomes your main vault, as though nothing else had ever been on the device. Both are set up before you travel, not improvised at the checkpoint.
A copy that isn't just on the phone
A lost or confiscated phone is a real possibility on the road, and the vault itself lives on that one device by default. Turning on encrypted backup to your own Dropbox — encrypted before it leaves the device, so it's unreadable to Dropbox or anyone else without your key — means a copy of your files exists somewhere other than the phone that might not make it home with you.
The 12-word recovery phrase covers the other failure mode: forgetting your code partway through a trip doesn't have to mean the vault is gone for good.
One vault, wherever you're carrying files
Passport scans and travel documents tend to end up wherever you happened to be when you photographed them — sometimes the phone, sometimes a laptop packed for the trip. Vaultine runs on Windows, macOS, iOS and Android, so it's the same vault either way, not separate tools you have to keep in sync.
Frequently asked questions
- What happens if border officials ask me to unlock my phone?
- That's a decision only you can make in the moment. What Vaultine controls is what's in the vault when you do: a Decoy Vault shows a separate set of files you chose in advance, and a Duress Vault opens empty and wipes your real vaults as it does. Once it has, that vault becomes your main vault, so there is no empty shell left sitting there to explain.
- Can I recover my files if I forget my vault code while traveling?
- Yes, with the 12-word recovery phrase generated when you set up the vault. Keep it somewhere other than the phone it protects.
- Does Vaultine need an internet connection to work?
- No — opening, viewing and locking the vault all happen on the device. An optional encrypted backup to your own Dropbox needs a connection when you choose to run it, but the vault itself works with no signal at all.
- What if my phone is lost or stolen?
- The vault's contents are encrypted on the device itself, and there's no account tying it to you that a thief could use to reach anything else. If you turned on encrypted Dropbox backup before the trip, an encrypted copy exists separately from the device.
Try Vaultine
Encrypted on your device, no account, free to start.
One vault across macOS, Windows, iOS, Android.
