Back up a photo vault safely

Updated 3 November 2026 · By the FirstHour team

Why a vault needs its own backup

A good vault app keeps its files out of the usual backups on purpose, or scrambles them so only its own key opens them. Apple says iCloud Backup includes app data for apps you've downloaded, so what happens to a vault app's files depends on the app. Here's what an iPhone backup contains. Check how your app handles it, and don't assume your iPhone backup holds the vault.

Also, an iCloud backup of your iPhone doesn't include photos that are in iCloud Photos, because Apple says those sync instead. A picture you moved into a vault app is no longer in Photos, so iCloud Photos no longer has it.

What a safe backup looks like

• Encrypted before it leaves the app. Whoever finds the file can't read it without the code.
• Opened by a code you control, not an account the company can reset.
• Stored apart from the phone, so one loss doesn't take both.
• Tested, so you know it opens before the day you need it.

The mistakes that ruin a backup

• Keeping the code on the same phone, or as a screenshot. If the phone is gone, so is the code.
• Never testing it. A file you've never opened is a hope, not a backup.
• Backing up once and forgetting. A backup holds only what was in the vault when you made it.
• Keeping the code and the file together. Whoever finds both has everything.
• A weak code. A backup file can be tried on a fast computer, with none of the app's waits in the way, so the code has to be hard to guess.

How to do it in FirstHour

1. Open the Vault, tap the ••• menu, then tap Back up.
2. Type your recovery phrase. FirstHour checks it first, so you can't make a backup that your paper can't open.
3. Tap Make the backup and keep FirstHour open while it works. Locking the Vault, or leaving FirstHour, stops it.
4. Choose where the file goes, such as iCloud Drive or a computer. It's named "FirstHour backup" and the date, and the name says nothing about what's inside.
5. Keep the paper with your phrase somewhere else.

Your iPhone needs free space about the size of the Vault, plus a little, while the file is made. If it doesn't have room, FirstHour says so and changes nothing in the Vault.

Once saved, the Vault shows the date of your last backup, and tells you what you added since isn't in it. Backups aren't automatic, so make a new one now and then.

Testing it

Restoring always goes into whichever Vault is open. If you have a decoy vault, check you opened the one you mean to: a backup of your real Vault restored while the decoy is open puts those pictures into the decoy. In the open Vault, tap •••, then Restore from a backup, pick the file, and type the phrase. Restoring adds the backup's items to the Vault you have open and skips ones already there, so if nothing has changed, FirstHour reports 0 items restored and that the rest were already there. That shows the file opens with your phrase, and the counts tell you roughly what was in it. FirstHour doesn't show you a list of what's inside, and it doesn't re-check pictures it skips as already there. One catch: anything you deleted from the Vault since the backup comes back, so delete it again if you don't want it.

What this can't do

• It isn't automatic and isn't kept up to date for you.
• Lose the file or the phrase, and the backup is useless. Nobody, including us, can open it for you.
• If you change your phrase, older backups still need the old one. Keep the old paper until you've made a new backup.
• The backup is protected by your phrase alone, not by your iPhone's chip.
• FirstHour has no outside audit yet.

More in What a recovery phrase is, and how to keep yours safe.

Questions

Sources

• What does iCloud back up?, Apple Support