Most photo vaults show a fake PIN screen and hope nobody notices the trick. Vaulteo works another way: it has no list of vaults at all.
See why there's nothing to count
Each vault lives in a folder named after a fingerprint of its key. Without the pattern, a folder name tells nobody which pattern opens it, how many vaults exist, or which one holds your passport.
When you draw a pattern, Vaulteo derives the key, looks for the folder that key points to, and opens it. If no folder matches, it opens a brand new, empty vault for that pattern. A wrong pattern and a new decoy look exactly the same.
Set up a decoy that holds up
- Draw a second pattern you can recall under stress. Keep it different from your real one.
- Scan 5 to 10 boring papers into it: grocery receipts, a gym schedule, an appliance warranty.
- Add a few plain photos with the private camera.
- Open it once a week or so, so it never looks abandoned.
Now, if someone forces you to open Vaulteo, you draw the decoy pattern. They see a real vault with real papers.
Add a duress pattern for the worst day
Pro lets you mark one vault as a duress vault. Draw its pattern and Vaulteo opens it normally, while it quietly wipes every other vault on the phone. Read how it works on the duress pattern page.
Know the limits
A decoy protects you from someone holding your phone. It won't help if they watched you draw your real pattern, so keep your hand covered. And iOS still shows Vaulteo's storage size in Settings, so keep your decoy roughly as full as you'd expect a working vault to be.