Moving a photo vault to a new phone
This is where people lose libraries, usually a day after wiping the old handset. The reason is structural, and the fix has to happen before the transfer, not after.
A backup file vs a cloud vault
AlterVaultCloud vault
Moving
Moves without an account
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Works to a different brand
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What you have to do
Save a Backup, then Restore
Sign in
The cost of it working
You hold your photos
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Only you can read them
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Unrecoverable without your code
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A backup covers one space, so several vaults means several files. A restored space opens with the code its backup was made with.
Why vault photos do not come across
Three mechanisms. The third is the one that catches people.
Location
Vault files live in app-private storage, deliberately excluded from the shared media that transfer tools copy. Google and Apple move your camera roll, not the inside of an app's sandbox.
Keys
The master key sits in the Android Keystore or iOS Keychain, both hardware-backed and non-exportable. That is a security property: a key that can be copied off the device is a key an attacker can copy off the device.
The trap
A cloud device backup can restore the encrypted files without the key. New phone, restore, open the app, and you get an empty grid or a code that no longer works. The photos are there and permanently unreadable.
What to do, by type of app
- Cloud vault with an account
- Keepsafe and similar. Sign in on the new phone and it syncs down. Easy, because the company holds your photos and can therefore also read them.
- Local vault with a backup file
- Export the file, move it, restore. Below.
- Local vault with export only
- Send everything back to the camera roll, transfer normally, re-import. Your photos sit unprotected during the move, so do it in one sitting.
- Google Photos Locked Folder
- Move items out before the transfer unless your version offers the optional cloud backup.
- Samsung Secure Folder
- Move out of Secure Folder for everything, before the transfer and before any factory reset. It does not go to a non-Samsung phone.
Moving an AlterVault library
Settings, Encrypted Backup, Save a Backup. Enter your code, and the app writes one encrypted file. Save it anywhere: a computer, a drive, cloud storage. On the new phone, Restore from a Backup, point it at the file, enter the code it was sealed with.
- One file per space
- A backup covers one space. Several vaults behind several codes means several files. Note which code sealed which.
- The code travels with the file
- A restore replaces that space. It then opens with the backup's code, not the one set on the new phone.
- Count before you wipe
- Compare the item count against the old phone and open a video and a document. This is the step everybody skips.
No server holds a second copy. Lose the phone before making a backup and the photos are gone.
If you already wiped the old phone
- It was a cloud vault
- Sign in on the new phone. This is the scenario that model handles well.
- It was a local vault that did not encrypt
- A device backup of the old phone may still hold the files, and because they were never encrypted they may be recoverable with forensic tooling. Good news for you, and an illustration of what the app was not doing.
- It was properly encrypted, with no backup
- Unrecoverable. Not difficult, not expensive, not a support matter. The key came from a code on a device that no longer exists.