Forgot the passcode of your private photo vault app? What you can and can't recover

Sometimes. Apps that store content in the cloud under an account can often reset access by email. Apps that keep everything encrypted on the phone usually cannot, because there is nothing for anyone to reset: the passcode is the key.

Which kind you have is in the app's own wording. Look for a Forgot link on its lock screen, a note in its settings or help pages, or its privacy policy. A line like “we have no way to recover your passcode” means exactly that.

Be careful with websites and tools that promise to crack a vault for a fee. If the app's encryption is sound they cannot do it, and you would be handing your photos to a stranger.

1. 1Stop guessing. Many apps slow down or lock out after repeated wrong codes, and some can take action such as taking a photo of the person trying. Think first, then try a few calm guesses: old phone passcodes, birthdays, the code you used on a previous phone.
2. 2If the app unlocks with Face ID or Touch ID and it is still working, use that to open it now and move out anything you cannot lose. Keep in mind that changing a passcode often asks for the old one.
3. 3Look in the app for Forgot, Reset or Recovery options.
4. 4Look for a backup you saved earlier: a file in iCloud Drive, Google Drive or Files, or a note with a recovery key.
5. 5If none of that exists, contact the developer through the App Store listing and ask what is possible, without sending them your photos or codes.

• Do not erase or restore the iPhone to get past the lock. App data lives on the phone, so erasing it removes the vault, and without the key a backup of the app cannot be read.
• Do not delete and reinstall the app hoping for a reset. For apps that store everything on the device, that usually deletes the content.
• Do not install “vault unlockers”. They are a common way to lose both photos and money.

Lockboxy is an iPhone app that keeps photos, files and notes in an encrypted vault behind its own passcode. It keeps no copy of your passcode and has no reset link, and its Terms say forgotten-passcode content is lost for good. That is by design, not something support can lift.

The one way back is a Recovery Key. You set it up in advance: in the app, open Settings → Security → Set Up Recovery Key and confirm your current passcode. It generates an 80-digit key, shown once. Write it down and keep it away from the phone. If you set one up again later, the new key replaces the old one.

To use it, tap Forgot your passcode? on the lock screen, type the Recovery Key and choose a new passcode. You do not lose anything in the vault. Wrong Recovery Keys are counted like wrong passcodes.

Setting up a Recovery Key is part of Premium. Using one you already have is never locked behind Premium, so a lapsed subscription does not keep you out. Face ID is free and works as a convenience, but it does not replace the passcode: generating a Recovery Key and changing the passcode both ask for the current one.

Lockboxy can create one encrypted backup file of your vault (Settings → Back Up Vault, a Premium feature) that you save to iCloud Drive, Google Drive or Files. The file opens only with your passcode or your Recovery Key, so a backup does not help if you have lost both. If you have the Recovery Key, restoring the file on the same or a new phone brings the vault back.

Restore it from the app's first screen with “I have a backup file”, or from Restore from Backup: it creates a new vault and does not touch what is already there. Verify Restore checks that a saved file will restore without changing your vault, so test it before you need it.

Neither feature is a way around the passcode for someone else: both still need the passcode or the Recovery Key. The free plan holds up to 30 photos or videos and 10 files. See How to back up your iPhone photos without iCloud for more on copies, and How to move private photos to a new iPhone for switching phones.

• Choose a passcode you will remember and do not reuse your phone's passcode.
• Put the recovery key or a recovery note on paper, away from the phone, not in the same Photos library or notes app.
• Make a backup and test it once.
• If you lose the phone itself, see What to do when your iPhone is lost or stolen.