Moving your vault to a new phone
Short answer. ZeroBox saves your whole vault into one encrypted file. You carry it to the new phone on a drive or a card and choose "Transfer a vault" on the first screen. Nothing goes through a cloud. Delete the file from the drive when the new phone has it.
Step by step
- On the old phone open Settings and choose "Transfer to a new phone". ZeroBox saves all albums, files and your keys into one file. Your old vault stays untouched.
- Choose what protects the file: your recovery key (recommended) or your PIN.
- Carry the file to the new phone on a drive or a card.
- Install ZeroBox on the new phone and choose "Transfer a vault" on the first screen. The new phone must have no vault yet: the file becomes its vault.
- Enter the PIN or the recovery key you chose.
- Delete the file from the drive.
PIN or recovery key
The recovery key is the 25-character key from your paper. It cannot be guessed from a copy of the file. The new phone needs ZeroBox 0.6.2 or newer for this.
A PIN is quick, but a short PIN can be guessed offline from a copy of the file. In our own measurement a 4-digit PIN took about 7 minutes on one processor core. A file protected by PIN also reveals the PIN of the vault. Choose the PIN only if you move the file right now and delete it at once.
What does not travel with the file
The file carries one vault. A second vault, the fingerprint and, when you protect the file with a PIN, the recovery key are not included. Set them up again on the new phone.
If the file is damaged or made by a newer version of ZeroBox, the app tells you and changes nothing.
Why not the phone's own backup
ZeroBox switches off Android's automatic backup for its data, on purpose. Android's Auto Backup uploads app data to the user's Google Drive unless the app opts out, as the Android documentation describes. Your vault should not leave the phone except in a file you chose to make.
What this does not protect
- The file on the drive is a copy. Whoever gets it can try to guess the PIN offline. The recovery key makes that impractical, a short PIN does not.
- The start of the file shows that it belongs to ZeroBox. The file is protected, but it is not hidden as an object.
- A file left on the drive after the move is a spare copy of your vault. Delete it.
- This is not a backup. If the phone is lost or broken and you made no file earlier, the vault is gone, because there is no server holding a copy.
Questions people ask
Does the move need the internet?
No. The file travels by a drive or a card, not over a network.
Is my old vault deleted?
No. Saving the file only reads the vault. The old vault stays as it was until you delete it yourself.
Can I move to a phone that already has a vault?
No. The new phone must have no vault yet, because the file becomes its vault.
Which protection should I choose?
The recovery key, which the app recommends. Choose the PIN only if you move the file right now and delete it afterwards.
Can I move a second vault too?
A file carries one vault. A second vault is not included: set it up again on the new phone.
What if the file is damaged?
ZeroBox says the file is damaged or made by a newer version, and nothing is changed.
Related
- Forgot your vault PIN or got a new phone? How ZeroBox recovery works
- Is a vault app really encrypted, or does it just hide your photos?
- Two PINs, two vaults: how the second PIN works
Official documentation
