The short answer
Check the app's own listing or settings for the word recovery. If recovery goes through an email or a paid reset, the developer holds a way in. If it is a phrase or set of words shown at setup, you hold the way in, and you need to have saved it. If there is nothing, a forgotten code means lost files, and some listings say so plainly.
The three kinds of recovery
Through the developer. PV sets a recovery email in Settings. Hide it Pro sells a Password Reset for $4.99. Keepsafe recovery runs through the Keepsafe account. Convenient, and it means the vault is not locked to a secret only you hold.
Through a phrase you hold. Kryptis shows twelve recovery words when you set them up. They reset a forgotten passcode from the lock screen. Tuvo Labs never has them, so support cannot recover your vault and will never ask for them.
No recovery. Locker's listing says that without Face ID a forgotten PIN means the files cannot be recovered. SPV warns that deleting the app deletes everything in it. Honest, and worth knowing before you rely on it.
If you use Kryptis
- On the lock screen, choose the recovery option.
- Enter your twelve recovery words in order.
- Set a new passcode.
Backups are separate. An encrypted backup restores with the passcode it was created with, plus the recovery words if the extra lock was on. Changing your passcode later does not change what an old backup needs.
If you have not saved recovery words yet
Open Settings, Recovery Keys, and save them now, in order, somewhere outside the phone. A note on the same phone is not outside the phone.
If you use another app
Look for a recovery email, a reset purchase, or account recovery in its settings. If none exists and Face ID is off, the honest answer is that the files are gone. Before that happens, export what you can while the vault is open.
