Switching photo vault apps? Seven things to check before you move your photos
Short answer. If your current vault app annoys you or worries you, do not move the photos until you have compared the old and the new app on seven things: where the files live, whether you need an account, what is encrypted, how the PIN and recovery work, what happens if the phone is lost, what permissions the app asks for, and how it makes money. We answer each one for ZeroBox, limits included, so you can ask the same of any app. We do not rate other apps here: their features and prices change, so check each app's own Google Play page and settings.
1. Where do the files live?
On your phone only, or also on the company's servers? Cloud copies are convenient, because they survive a lost phone, but they also exist outside your control. ZeroBox keeps everything on the phone and has no cloud at all.
2. Do you need an account?
An account means the company knows who you are and can, in principle, restore or lock you out. ZeroBox has no account, so nobody can reset it for you either.
3. What is actually encrypted?
Ask whether the files are encrypted or only moved out of the gallery, and whether the list of file names is protected too. ZeroBox seals photos, videos and the file list with AES-256. The longer version is in Is a vault app really encrypted, or does it just hide your photos?
4. How do the PIN and recovery work?
Find out what happens when you forget the PIN, and whether the vault PIN is separate from your phone's screen lock. ZeroBox has its own PIN, a second PIN that opens a different vault, and an optional 25-character recovery key you keep on paper. Details: Forgot your vault PIN or got a new phone?
5. What happens if the phone is lost or replaced?
This is where the trade-off shows. With cloud sync, the photos usually come back on a new phone. Without it, they come back only from a copy you made yourself. ZeroBox is the second kind: you save a transfer file, and without it a lost phone is a lost vault. If that is too risky for you, an app with backup, or a built-in tool with backup turned on, may suit you better. See Locked Folder, Secure Folder or Private Space.
6. What permissions does it ask for?
The internet permission is the one that matters most, because without it an app cannot open network connections. The app's Google Play page lists what the developer says about data, but that is the developer's own declaration, so a check of the real permission list is stronger. ZeroBox 0.6.7 has no internet permission, and the guide How to check that an Android app has no internet access shows how to verify that for any app.
7. How does it make money?
A free app has to earn somewhere: ads, a subscription, or selling an upgrade. Read the price on the Play page before you add your photos, and ask what you lose if you stop paying. Decide this before you move your photos in, not after.
Before you move anything
Switching is the riskiest moment for your photos, because for a while they exist in two places or in none. Do it in this order: first find out whether the old app can export your files back to the gallery or to a folder, then export a few and open them to confirm they are intact, then export the rest, and only then delete the old copies and the old app. In many apps, deleting the app also deletes what is inside it, so check this for yours before you uninstall. In ZeroBox you add the exported files from your gallery, and the originals in the gallery are removed after encryption.
A quick way to use this list
Write the seven answers for the app you are leaving and for the one you are considering, side by side. If an answer is missing from the app's own pages, treat that as an answer too, and ask the developer.