How to use The Vault

Start with four areas

A new Vault starts with Must Do 🚨, Should Do 🤔, Could Do 🤷🏼‍♂️ and Brain Dump 🧠 🗑️. Each has a starting tip. Brain Dump is somewhere to put thoughts before deciding what to do with them.

These are ordinary, editable headings. Tap one to rename it. Use its three-dot menu to change its position or how many cards you see. Existing Vaults keep their headings when you update.

The first-load introduction walks through the essentials. Skip it if you want to explore, or return to Settings → Instructions & tips → Replay introduction.

Make and open a card

1. Tap + at the top, or New card beneath a zone.
2. Add a title and note. Open the card to attach photos, documents, web links or a voice recording.
3. Tap Save when your edits are ready. Tap a card on the canvas whenever you want to see its contents.

You can also send something in using another app’s Apple share sheet. Choose The Vault, review it and save. If The Vault is missing from the app row, use More to enable it.

Read more without opening

Card previews draw on the note, reminders and attachment names. Useful lines such as an expiry date or booking reference take priority; photos can have a short text preview too. Smaller grid sizes have less room for text.

This happens on your device. It does not send your notes to an AI service or read the contents of PDFs and recordings. Edit the note to improve the preview; the editor shows what will appear.

Hold for actions, drag to move

Press and hold a card to open its menu. To move a card between zones, keep holding and drag it into the destination zone. You can also drag towards another Vault tab.

Copy and move do different things

• Copy to Vault creates an independent card, with its own attachments, and leaves the original where it was. The copy’s reminder starts off so you do not receive two alerts. A copy uses another card space.
• Move to Vault relocates the original card. It keeps its reminder and appears in the first zone of the destination Vault.

Copying or moving into a shared Vault makes the card available to that Vault’s members. Safe cards stay locked until you deliberately choose Move out of Safe.

Vault Safe: important copies

Keep passport copies, driving licences, insurance documents and other essentials behind an extra privacy lock.

1. Hold a card and choose Move into Safe. Read the explanation, confirm, then authenticate.
2. Open the top three-dot menu and choose Vault Safe.
3. Unlock with Face ID, Touch ID or your device passcode. You can add a Safe card directly with the Safe’s + button, choosing its Vault and zone.
4. Add photos or documents. Photos and PDFs can be read inside the Safe. Set an expiry reminder if useful.
5. Choose Lock & close when finished. Leaving the app locks the Safe as well.

Shared Safe cards work for you both. A Safe card belongs to its existing Vault. If that Vault is shared, its members can access the card after authenticating on their own devices.

Update every device first. Older versions do not recognise the Safe lock and can show these cards normally. Safe is an app privacy lock using the existing iCloud storage and sharing; it is not a separate encryption system.

Safe cards stay out of the ordinary canvas, Quick Sort and Archive. Reminder notifications hide their titles and notes. In a Safe card, Save keeps text and reminder edits; added or removed attachments are saved immediately. Leaving the app discards unsaved text edits.

Other attachment types can be stored, but the first Safe version previews photos and PDFs. To open another type using the ordinary editor, deliberately move the card out of Safe first. That removes the lock on synced devices too.

Export a card

Hold an ordinary card and choose Export card…, or use the same action inside its editor. Apple’s share sheet lets you choose Files, AirDrop, Mail or another available destination.

The export contains a readable Card.txt file with the title, note, links and saved reminder, outcome or location details, plus the original photo, document and audio attachments. The original card stays in The Vault. All attachments must have finished syncing before exporting.

For a Safe card, unlock the Safe, save any edits, then choose Export saved card…. Confirm that you want a copy outside the Safe before choosing its destination. That exported copy does not carry the Safe lock.

A Vault you share

Tap the + beside your Vault tabs to create a shared Vault. Press and hold its tab, then use Manage People to invite someone or manage access. Join another person’s Vault using their invitation.

Keep personal cards in My Vault and shared cards in the relevant shared tab. Renaming a Vault tab is personal to that device; it does not rename it for everybody else. Safe protection follows a shared card, while each person unlocks with their own device credentials.

Remember when it matters

Open an ordinary card, turn on Remind me, choose a date and time, then Save. In a Safe card, use Expiry or other reminder. The reminder date follows the card through iCloud.

Ordinary cards offer Quiet or a selection of natural sounds. Sound choices are personal to each device. Notification permissions, silent mode and Focus can affect whether you hear an alert.

Mark a card completed and add a short outcome if you want to keep a record of what happened.

Archive for later. Delete when finished.

Archive removes an ordinary card from the canvas while keeping it. Open Archive from the top menu to restore it. Quick Sort lets you swipe left to archive or right to keep.

Delete… in the card’s hold menu asks for confirmation and permanently removes the card and its attachments. Cancel leaves everything in place. Deleting a shared card also removes it for the other members.

Archive’s Delete All action permanently removes archived ordinary cards after confirmation. Safe cards are managed separately inside the Safe.

Make it yours, and find help

Settings lets you choose themes, card sizes and arrangements. Use two-column cards for more readable previews, or a denser layout when you want to see more at once.

For sync, purchases, attachments or invitations, see Help and support. You can always reach us at hello@thevault.cymru.