Geode Support

Geode is an encrypted photo and video vault for iPhone and iPad, with no sign-up and no account. Everything is encrypted on your device before it's saved or backed up to your own iCloud, so we can't see your photos, open your vault or reset your passcode.

On an iPad, Geode says iPad wherever this page says iPhone.

Getting started

1. Tap Create my vault and choose a vault passcode: 6 digits that aren't your iPhone passcode. Use a longer passcode switches to 8 or more letters and numbers.
2. Save your Recovery Kit: tap Show to see its 12 words, then Print Recovery Kit or Save as PDF, and tap I've saved my kit.
3. Geode Plus is on, free for 30 days, once per Apple Account. You won't be charged, and there's nothing to cancel.

To add photos and videos, tap + and pick them. The first time, Geode asks you to name an album for them. Each photo and video is encrypted on your iPhone before it's stored, and Live Photos keep their motion. With Remove originals from Photos on, Geode removes them from your library only after each one is encrypted, backed up and checked, and your iPhone asks you to confirm. Removed photos stay in Recently Deleted for 30 days.

Face ID, your passcode and locking

• Face ID starts when Geode opens, if you turned on Unlock with Face ID when you set your vault passcode, and Use passcode opens the keypad. Face ID never falls back to your iPhone passcode.
• After 5 wrong passcodes in a row, each try waits longer. Wrong tries never erase anything.
• Geode locks as soon as you leave it, unless you choose After 1 minute or After 5 minutes in Geode's Settings › On this iPhone › Lock Geode. With a delay, anyone using your iPhone can open Geode within that time.
• A locked album asks for Face ID or your vault passcode every time it opens: choose Lock album from its … menu.
• The app switcher shows the lock screen, never your photos.

Forgot your passcode? Use your Recovery Kit

Your Recovery Kit is the only way back in without your passcode. We can't reset your passcode, because we never have it.

1. On the lock screen, tap Use passcode, then Forgot passcode?
2. Type the 12 words in the order they're printed.
3. Choose a new vault passcode, and your vault opens.

• To change your passcode, use the same steps.
• Test my kit in Vault Health checks that your 12 words open your vault.
• Keep the paper somewhere safe, off your iPhone: anyone with these 12 words can open your vault.
• Lost your kit? Your passcode still opens your vault. Lost both? Then no one can open it: not us, and not Apple.

Backup to iCloud and Vault Health

Geode backs up your vault, still encrypted, to your own iCloud while your iPhone is unlocked. Home's status card says Backed up when everything is, or what's waiting and why. Tap it for Vault Health, where a row turns amber when something needs you.

• iCloud is full: free some up, or add more in Settings. Geode tries again each time it opens.
• Signed out of iCloud: what you add is only on your iPhone until you sign in.
• In Low Data Mode, files wait.
• The full check, which makes sure every backup still opens, runs while your iPhone charges on Wi-Fi: leave it charging overnight to finish one.

A new iPhone, or an iPad

1. On the new device, sign in with the Apple Account your vault is backed up to, and turn on iCloud Keychain.
2. Open Geode and tap I already have a vault.
3. Enter your vault passcode, or tap Use your Recovery Kit and choose a new one.

• Your albums and thumbnails arrive first. Each original downloads when you open it.
• With Plus, or during your free month, your devices stay in sync. On Free, Geode works on one device at a time: the new device offers to move your vault there, and the old one keeps everything it has.
• Lost a device? Remove it in Vault Health › Devices, and Geode erases your vault from it the next time it connects.

Exporting everything

Export is free on every plan, forever. Open Vault Health, tap Export everything and choose where it goes:

• Save to Files: original quality, one folder per album.
• Back to Photos: adds them to your library, without your Geode albums.
• Encrypted archive: an AES-256 .zip, locked with a password you choose, that opens with 7-Zip or Keka. Geode doesn't keep the password, so a lost one can't be recovered.

Free and Plus

• Nothing is locked or deleted when a plan ends: a vault over Free's limit stays readable, backed up and exportable, and only adding waits.
• Geode's Settings › Plan shows the plans with the prices for your country, and has Restore purchases.
• Cancel in Settings › your name › Subscriptions, at least 24 hours before your plan renews. Deleting Geode doesn't cancel a subscription.
• Refunds are Apple's to give: ask at reportaproblem.apple.com.
• Family Sharing doesn't include Geode Plus: each Apple Account buys its own.

Deleting your data

Your data is only on your devices and in your iCloud. Once it's deleted, no one can bring it back, so export first anything you want to keep.

• Move to Trash, and Trash deletes photos and videos for good 30 days later, from your iPhone, iCloud and your other devices. To delete them sooner, select them in Trash and tap Delete now.
• To delete your backup, go to Settings › your name › iCloud › Storage › Geode › Delete Data from iCloud.

Contact us

Email support@koing.dev with your iPhone or iPad model and its software version, Geode's version (at the bottom of Geode's Settings), and what happened. A screenshot helps, as long as it shows no photos and no Recovery Kit words.

Never send us your passcode, your Recovery Kit words or an archive password: we'll never ask for them.

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