With Pro, you can share one vault with people you trust, for example a partner who needs the family documents. Each person opens the shared vault with their own pattern. Your other vaults stay hidden.
Before you share
A shared vault is still encrypted, but some facts become visible:
- The people you invite know that the vault exists, and see who else is in it.
- Apple sees the Apple Accounts of the members. Apple never sees the files.
- Apple sees how many vaults you share. Apple does not see what is in them.
- Your other vaults stay hidden. Members cannot see them or tell that they exist.
For these reasons, do not share a decoy vault, and do not share a vault that you may need to deny.
What you need
- Pro. Only the owner needs Pro. A member on Free can join, but the vault uses one of their 3 vaults.
- iCloud sync on for the vault. A shared vault syncs while it is shared.
- The contact code of each person. Each person finds it in DotSafe: Settings, then App, then Your contact code. It has 8 characters and also shows as a QR code.
Invite someone
- Open the vault, then Settings. Under Sharing, tap Share this vault and read the warnings.
- Add a person: scan their code, or type it. If you type it, read it back to them in person or on a call.
- Choose Can view or Can edit.
- Create the invite, then send the link in any app, for example Messages.
- They tap the link and draw a new pattern for the vault. It can be different from yours.
- The next time the vault is open on one of your devices, DotSafe checks their contact code and lets them in. This takes less than a minute.
A forwarded link does not work. Only the people you invited can join.
Why the contact code matters
The link gives access to iCloud only. It does not contain the key to the vault. The key goes only to the person whose contact code you entered. When they accept, their device sends its public key. Your device checks that the public key matches the code, and only then encrypts the vault key for that person. If someone else gets the link, the code does not match, and they get nothing.
This is also why you must get the code from the person directly, and not from a message that someone else could change.
Roles
| Can view | Can edit | Owner | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open and read all items | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Add, change and delete items | No | Yes | Yes |
| Invite and remove people | No | No | Yes |
| Destroy the vault for everyone | No | No | Yes |
| Leave the vault | Yes | Yes | No |
All members can read all items. A vault cannot share only some of its items. To share only some things, put them in a separate vault.
Change or remove access
- Change a role. The change applies at the next sync. If you change a person from Can edit to Can view, their changes that have not synced yet are not kept.
- Remove a person. They lose access from now on. New items get a new key that they do not have. They keep anything that they already saw.
- Leave a vault. As a member, you can leave. The vault goes from your devices. The owner and the other members keep it.
The owner
The person who shares a vault is its owner, and this cannot change. If the owner destroys the vault, or stops using iCloud, every member loses it. If the owner's Pro ends, the vault freezes: everyone can still open it, but no changes sync until the owner has Pro again.
