Restore Your Vault on a New Phone

Start here

Vaulty doesn’t have its own account or login, and we don’t keep a copy of your files. Your files are on your phone, and Online Backup copies them to your own Google Drive, using the Google account you picked in Vaulty. Answer a few questions below to find the right steps.

Start with Do you have your old phone.

Forgot the PIN on your new phone? Your main PIN and security question don’t move to a new phone. You choose a new PIN and security question when you set up Vaulty on the new phone. If you’ve forgotten the PIN you set on the new phone, see How to Reset Vaulty Password.

Used Vaulty Stocks or an older version? Vaulty Stocks is no longer offered as a separate app. The main Vaulty app has a stock market disguise. If you used Online Backup to Google Drive in Vaulty Stocks, connect the same Google account in Vaulty, then follow the steps on this page.

Do you have your old phone?

Do you still have your old phone, and does Vaulty still open on it?

Yes: go to Choose how to move.
No, it’s lost, broken or sold: go to Find your backup.

Choose how to move

Use Online Backup or a manual copy, not both.

Use Online Backup (recommended): go to Back up the old phone.
Copy the Vaulty folder myself with a cable or SD card: go to Copy the Vaulty folder.

Back up the old phone

On your old phone:

Open Vaulty and go to your main vault. Tap Menu (≡) > Settings > Online Backup.
Look at the account row at the bottom. If it says Select online backup account, tap it and pick your Google account. If it shows Using <your email>, that’s the account your backup uses.
Make sure Sync Settings on this device is on, so your other vaults’ passwords come along.
To start a backup now, tap Backup Status. While it works, the row shows Syncing and can’t be tapped.
Keep Vaulty open, with your phone plugged in and on Wi-Fi, until Backup Status no longer says items waiting to back up. To check, back out of Online Backup and open it again.
There’s no progress bar or notification. Last sync alone doesn’t mean everything is backed up.
To check, open Google Drive with that account and look for My Drive > appdata > Vaulty with .vdata files in it.

Then go to Connect on the new phone.

Copy the Vaulty folder

Before you open Vaulty on the new phone for the first time, copy the whole Vaulty folder from the old phone. To find it on the old phone, go to Menu (≡) > Settings > Media from your main vault and look under Vault Location (the path usually ends in Documents/Vaulty).
Put it in the new phone’s internal storage at Documents/Vaulty. If you used an SD card, take the card out of the new phone before you open Vaulty. If the card is still in, Vaulty may move files between the card and the phone, so the card stops being a separate backup, and your items could show up twice. Keep the card until you’ve checked that all your files are there. Then open Vaulty and allow file access when asked.
If your files don’t show, go to Menu (≡) > Settings > Media from your main vault and tap Scan once.
If you also want Online Backup on the new phone, wait until all your files show in Vaulty, and only then connect it. Never copy vault files onto a phone that’s already restoring from Online Backup.
Your vault passwords don’t come across. See Only the main vault.

For more detail, see Manually Back Up or Transfer Vaulty Files.

Find your backup

Online Backup uses a Google account. It can be different from the Google Play account you used to buy Pro.
For each Google account you use, open Google Drive and look for My Drive > appdata > Vaulty.
Don’t delete, move, rename or upload anything in that folder.

Found it: go to Connect on the new phone.
Not in any account: go to No backup found.

No backup found

If you can’t find a Vaulty folder in any of your Google accounts, Online Backup may not have been connected, or it may not have finished uploading from your old phone. We don’t keep a copy of your files, so there’s nothing we can restore from our side.

To keep the files on your new phone backed up from now on, follow Connect on the new phone.

Connect on the new phone

Install Vaulty from the Play Store and go through setup. A new phone doesn’t carry over your old PIN, security question or Online Backup connection, so you’ll set a new PIN and security question first, then connect your backup.
Before you connect, make room on your phone for your files, connect to Wi-Fi and plug in to charge.
During setup, when Vaulty offers backup, tap Connect Google Drive and pick the Google account you used before.
If you tapped Continue without backup, go to Menu (≡) > Settings > Online Backup from your main vault and tap Select online backup account at the bottom.
Connecting starts the restore on its own. Keep Vaulty open, with your phone plugged in and on Wi-Fi, until the Downloading X of Y count finishes.
Vaulty doesn’t tell you when it finds a backup, and there’s no progress bar. See Only some files for what to look for.

Then go to Check the backup account.

Check the backup account

From your main vault, go to Menu (≡) > Settings > Online Backup and look at the account row at the bottom.

It says Select online backup account: go to Connect on the new phone.
Using <your email> is the account with my backup: go to What do you see now.
Using <your email> is a different account from the one with my backup: go to Backup in another account.
My backup email isn’t a Gmail address: go to Not a Gmail address.

Not a Gmail address

Online Backup always uses a Google account. Some Google accounts use an email address that isn’t Gmail. Your backup is in the Google account you picked in Vaulty, shown under Using <your email> at the bottom of Menu (≡) > Settings > Online Backup in the main vault on your old phone. If you can’t check the old phone, look for My Drive > appdata > Vaulty in each Google account you use.

When you connect, Google shows a list of accounts. Pick your backup account, or tap Add another account to sign in to it first.

Then go to Connect on the new phone.

Backup in another account

Switching the backup account in the current version can mix files from both accounts. Please contact us before you switch, and we’ll walk you through it.

From your main vault, go to Menu (≡) > Settings > About and tap Email Us. Type your message and tap Send, and your email app opens with diagnostic logs attached. If you can’t open the app, email help@vaultyapp.com.

What do you see now

Only some of my files came back, or none yet: go to Only some files.
It’s stuck, even after those steps: go to Restore is stuck.
Only my main vault came back: go to Only the main vault.
Items I had in Trash are missing: go to Items from Trash.
My phone is out of storage: go to Phone out of storage.
Files from two Google accounts got mixed, or I see duplicates: go to Mixed or duplicate files.
Google sign-in didn’t work: go to Sign-in problems.
A video won’t play: go to Videos that won’t play.

Only some files

From your main vault, go to Menu (≡) > Settings > Online Backup. While Vaulty is restoring, the row shows Syncing, with Downloading X of Y or Checking backup: N files found under it.
Last sync doesn’t mean your restore is finished.
Free up storage on the phone. Keep Vaulty open, with your phone plugged in and on Wi-Fi, until the Downloading X of Y count finishes. Large videos can take a long time.
Check that the account row shows the account with your backup. If the count stops moving, tap Backup Status.
While it’s restoring, don’t uninstall Vaulty, switch backup accounts, or copy files onto the phone by hand.
Some files may be in another vault. See Only the main vault.
If your old phone still works, let your old phone finish backing up first. Then, until your new phone finishes restoring, don’t delete anything, move anything to Trash, unhide anything or change settings on your old phone. To check the old phone has finished, look at Backup Status on it and make sure it no longer says items waiting to back up. Last sync alone doesn’t show that.
If your old phone is gone: Only the files that finished uploading from your old phone are in your backup.

If Vaulty shows Your latest backup didn’t complete. Tap to check your backup settings., or the count still stops moving after these steps, go to Restore is stuck.

Restore is stuck

If Vaulty shows Your latest backup didn’t complete. Tap to check your backup settings., or the Downloading X of Y count stops moving after you’ve made room, stayed on Wi-Fi and plugged in, and checked the account, please contact us from inside the app so your message includes diagnostic logs.

Only the main vault

Your other vaults are listed in Menu (≡) > Settings > Vaults, from your main vault. Your main vault shows as Main Vault, and other vaults may show without their names.
If Sync Settings on this device was on for your old phone, your other vaults’ passwords come back too. Type a vault’s password at the lock screen to open it.
If it wasn’t on, Vaulty shows a warning in the app: Some vaults are not accessible by password. Fix passwords now? Tap Fix. You can also go to Settings > Vaults, tap ⋮ next to a vault, then Change password.

Items from Trash

Items that were in Vaulty’s Trash on your old phone don’t come back on your new phone.

If you want any of them, restore them from Trash on your old phone and let the backup finish before you move:

Open the vault the items were in, and tap Menu (≡) > Trash.
Tap the items to select them, or tap Select all.
Tap Restore from trash, the middle icon at the bottom.
Trash is separate for each vault, so do this in each vault.

Be careful not to tap Delete Forever by mistake.

Deleting an item in Vaulty also removes it from your Google Drive backup the next time Vaulty syncs.

Phone out of storage

Before you restore, free up more space on your new phone than your backup takes up in Google Drive. If the Downloading X of Y count stops moving, free up space, then tap Backup Status in Menu (≡) > Settings > Online Backup from your main vault. Then follow Only some files.

Mixed or duplicate files

Please don’t delete anything to clean up, and don’t switch accounts again. Deleting an item in Vaulty also removes it from your Google Drive backup the next time Vaulty syncs. Contact us and we’ll help you sort it out.

If Google sign-in times out, gets interrupted, or says your session expired:

Check your internet connection.
Try again, and stay in Vaulty until Google’s screen finishes.
Pick the same Google account again.
If Vaulty asks, tap Reconnect Google Drive.

Videos that won’t play

If a restored video won’t play and Vaulty shows Video Playback Error, tap Try External Player. If you still have your old phone, check whether the video plays there.