Help with Avera Vault

No. Not "we would rather not" — we are genuinely unable to. Your passcode is what produces the key to your data; we never receive it, never store it and cannot derive it. The same is true of a backup: it is sealed by your passcode before it ever leaves your phone.

Anyone claiming they can recover an Avera Vault vault without the passcode is lying to you. If the passcode is lost, the data is unreadable permanently, and the only way forward is to erase the vault and start again.

On the old phone, open Settings → Backup account, create an account if you have not already, and tap Back up now. Wait for it to finish.

On the new phone, install Avera Vault and choose to restore a backup at the passcode screen during setup. Sign in with the same Apple or Google identity, then enter the passcode you were already using. The vault unpacks and the app asks you to reopen it.

Restore happens on a fresh setup, not over a vault that already exists, so do it before you start adding things to the new phone.

No. As a guest the app is fully functional and nothing is registered or uploaded. An account exists purely so a sealed copy of your vault can survive the phone it lives on.

No. Items are encrypted on your phone before they are written to storage, and a backup is sealed there too. What we can see about a backup is its size and when it was made — not one file name, contact or note inside it. The Privacy Policy lists this exactly.

The backup is sealed with the passcode that was in use at the moment the backup was made. If you changed your passcode on the old phone afterwards and did not back up again, the older passcode is the one that opens it.

Try the previous passcode. If neither works, the backup cannot be opened — there is no override.

Yes, completely and immediately. The vault lives inside the app's own storage. If you have a backup, it is unaffected and can be restored on a reinstall — with your passcode.

If you want the app gone and the backup gone, delete your account first. How to do that.

No. Avera Vault deliberately excludes its vault from system backup and phone-transfer, so that the encrypted contents cannot be copied off the device by the operating system. Avera Vault's own backup is the way to carry a vault to a new phone.

Because it has to read the things you asked it to protect in order to copy them into the vault. Avera Vault only asks for the permissions matching the categories you chose during setup — decline contacts and it never asks for contacts.

The ones it does ask for are required, not optional: the vault will not open until they are granted, because without them there is nothing for it to protect.

Access is used when you add items. It is not used to catalogue your library for us; nothing about your photos or contacts is uploaded.

That is expected. Avera Vault checks its permissions every time it opens, and if one it needs has been revoked it stops at the permission screen instead of opening a vault it can no longer keep up to date.

Nothing has been lost. Grant the access again — the screen links straight to the right page in your phone's settings — and everything is exactly where you left it.

If your phone offers "selected photos" rather than full library access, that is accepted too; Avera Vault works with whatever selection you gave it.

Yes. While the vault is unlocked you can export items back to your device or share them out of the app. Nothing you put in is trapped there.

Biometric unlock is tied to the biometrics enrolled on your phone. Adding or removing a face or fingerprint in your phone's settings invalidates it as a security measure. Unlock with your passcode and turn biometrics back on in Settings → Security.

Your passcode always works. Turning biometrics off never locks you out.

On Android, Avera Vault blocks screenshots and screen recording while the vault is open. iOS gives apps no equivalent control, so screenshots cannot be prevented there.

On both platforms Avera Vault hides its own contents in the app switcher, so the preview thumbnail never shows your vault, and it locks when you leave.

In the app: Settings → Backup account → Delete account. Your account and its backup are then kept for 30 days in case it was a mistake, and permanently erased after that.

The full sequence is on the Delete Account page.