Back up your vault to iCloud, or export it as a file you keep. The backup is encrypted on your phone before it leaves. An iCloud restore uses your Apple ID and your recovery phrase. A file restore uses the recovery phrase on its own. The recovery phrase is the list of words ArkWarden gave you when you set up your vault. Backup is off by default.
iCloud backup
To your own iCloud
Stored in your iCloud, counts toward your iCloud storage
Restored with your Apple ID and your recovery phrase
Exported file
To Files or AirDrop
A file you save to Files, AirDrop, or a computer
Restored with your recovery phrase, on any device
A backup is an encrypted copy of your vault, taken at the moment you make it. It is not a live copy that updates as you go: files you add after a backup are not in it until the next backup runs. The same encrypted copy can go to your iCloud or to a file you keep. Either way, the encryption happens on your phone first, and your recovery phrase is what opens it again.
Backup is off by default. Nothing leaves your device until you choose it. When you are ready, you turn on iCloud backup in Settings, or you export a backup file. If you do neither, your vault stays only on your phone, with no cloud copy and no file.
You can turn iCloud backup off at any time. Turning it off removes the backup from iCloud, so the copy stops existing there.
Each file is encrypted with AES-256-GCM, the same encryption used in TLS. The key is made from your recovery phrase using PBKDF2 with a high iteration count. This happens on your phone, before anything is sent or exported, so what leaves your device is already unreadable without the phrase.
The backup uses the same master key as your vault. There is no separate backup password. The only difference from daily use is how you reach that key: on your own phone your pattern opens the vault, and a backup is opened with your recovery phrase.
The same encrypted copy can travel two ways:
Both carry the same encrypted data. Whichever you use, the contents are encrypted before they leave the phone, so the place where the backup is stored never receives anything readable.
When you set up ArkWarden on a phone, you can restore your vault from a backup with your recovery phrase. Your pattern opens the vault on your own phone day to day, but a backup is always opened with the recovery phrase. The steps are below.
Your phone is gone, and your vault was backed up. Here is what happens on the next one. You can restore on a new phone or on the same phone after a reinstall.
Install ArkWarden from the App Store and choose Restore. For an iCloud backup, the phone needs to be on the same Apple ID you used when you backed up, and ArkWarden finds the backup in your iCloud for you. For an exported file, you pick the file, and no Apple ID is needed.
Type the 12 or 24 words you wrote down when you set up your vault. ArkWarden makes the same key from those words and uses it to open the backup. Your pattern does not open a backup. The recovery phrase does.
You draw a new pattern for the new phone. Your files are not encrypted again, because the master key inside has not changed. Only the pattern you draw each day is new. Your recovery phrase keeps working too.
ArkWarden checks the phrase before it changes anything, then opens the backup and your files come back, sorted the way you left them. How long this takes depends on the size of your vault, since each file is pulled from the backup and saved to the phone one by one. If the phrase is wrong, or the backup cannot be read, restore stops and the phone is left as it was. At no point did Apple, or anyone else, see your files unencrypted.
The same encrypted backup can be saved as a file instead of going to iCloud. Save it to Files, send it over AirDrop, or move it to a computer. It is the same encrypted copy, opened the same way, with your recovery phrase.
Whether the backup goes to your iCloud or stays as a file you keep, it is the same encrypted copy, made the same way, opened with the same recovery phrase. iCloud is the hands-off option: ArkWarden keeps the copy current and finds it for you when you restore. A file is the independent option: it does not depend on iCloud, and it is still there even if your iCloud data is removed. You can use one or both.
An iCloud backup is tied to your iCloud account, because Apple stores it. A file you export is not. Move it to any iPhone with ArkWarden, no matter which Apple ID is signed in, and your recovery phrase opens it. The recovery phrase is what opens a backup, not your account.
Most cloud backups can be read by the company that stores them. That is what makes a "reset my account" link possible, and it is also what lets anyone who breaks into or pressures that company read your files. ArkWarden encrypts the backup on your phone, and the company storing it never gets the key.
Most cloud services encrypt your files after they reach the company's servers, so the company holds the key and can read your files whenever it needs to. ArkWarden encrypts everything before anything leaves your phone. By the time the backup reaches iCloud, it is already encrypted, and there is nothing readable for Apple or anyone else to access.
| Standard iCloud | A cloud vault app | ArkWarden | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who holds the key | Apple | The app's company | Only you |
| When your files are encrypted | After upload | Usually after upload | On your phone, before anything leaves |
| What the company can read | Your files | Usually your files | Nothing. They hold an encrypted file. |
| What a break-in exposes | Your files | Usually your files | Only encrypted data, unreadable without your phrase |
| What a court order returns | Readable files | Usually readable files | An encrypted file, unreadable without your phrase |
| What opens your backup | Your Apple account | The app's account | Your recovery phrase, and your Apple account |
| Restore on another device | Yes, through your Apple account | Depends | Yes. Your Apple account and your recovery phrase, which only you hold |
On your own phone, a wrong pattern is slowed down: after ten wrong tries, the app stops taking patterns for fifteen minutes. That delay is enforced in the app. A backup file is opened outside the app, so it gets none of that protection. The only thing protecting the file is the encryption. A drawn pattern is short, and people pick simple patterns, so a pattern could be guessed by trying one pattern after another, with nothing to slow it down. A recovery phrase is much longer: a 12-word phrase has about 128 bits, a 24-word phrase about 256. Guessing a 128-bit key is not possible with any computing power that exists today or is expected. So the backup is opened with the phrase, and your pattern stays on the phone, where that fifteen-minute delay can protect it.
The key is made from your recovery phrase, on your phone, and is never sent anywhere. Apple stores the encrypted file but cannot read it. ArkWarden never receives your phrase, never makes your key, and has no server that holds your data. A break-in at Apple, or at ArkWarden, would expose only encrypted data, because the key was never in either place. This is not only a policy statement. It is what the encryption does.
End-to-end encryption means we cannot read your files, and it also means we cannot get them back for you. A design where no one else can read your files cannot also let us recover them. We chose the first. Without a backup, a lost phone means the vault is gone. With a backup, you can get the vault back, as long as you have your recovery phrase. We will not oversell this: without the recovery phrase, no one can open the backup, including us.
A backup carries what the recovery phrase needs to reach your files, and nothing that would weaken it. The pattern is left out on purpose, so a copied file cannot be attacked through it.
| Item | In the backup? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Your encrypted files | Yes | The point of the backup. Each file stays AES-256-GCM encrypted. |
| The master key, encrypted with your phrase-derived key | Yes | So your recovery phrase can open it on the new device |
| The pattern-encrypted key | No | Including it would let someone guess the short pattern against the file |
| Your recovery phrase | No | The phrase is never written to disk or sent anywhere. You hold the only copy. |
| Face ID, PIN, or YubiKey setup | No | These are tied to the specific device and cannot move. You set them up again after restore. |
Restore does not delete your current vault first. ArkWarden reads the backup and opens the master key with your phrase before it removes anything on the device. If the phrase is wrong, or the backup cannot be read, restore stops and your current vault stays in place. Your local vault is only replaced after the phrase has opened the backup.
The key is made with PBKDF2 at a high iteration count, using Apple's audited cryptography. This keeps the backup inside the same boundary as the rest of ArkWarden's encryption, with no outside crypto added. The strength comes from the recovery phrase: an auto-generated phrase is fully random, which is what keeps a backup file unreadable.
Face ID and Touch ID are tied to the Secure Enclave of the device they were set up on. A YubiKey is tied to its physical hardware. A PIN is stored only in your device's Keychain. None of these can move to another device, so none of them are in a backup. After you restore, you set up two-factor authentication again on the new device. This is on purpose: a second factor proves this device is yours, so it is always set up on the device itself, not carried in a backup.
If your backup contains Wing, the Wing files are included, encrypted the same way as your main vault, and Wing is turned back on after restore. The Wing pattern is not in the backup, for the same reason the main pattern is left out: it is short, and including it would let someone guess it against the file. After restore, you set a new Wing pattern in Settings, then Wing, then Change Wing Pattern, and your Wing files open with it.
A backup protects your files from everyone else. To restore one, you reach the copy in iCloud or your exported file, and enter your recovery phrase. Without the phrase, the copy cannot be opened, even when you have the file. These habits keep the backup working when you need it.
Do
Avoid
The backup uses the same published cryptography as the rest of ArkWarden. Each link points to the primary source.
Back up your vault to iCloud or export it as a file. The backup is encrypted on your phone before it leaves. You restore it with your recovery phrase, and an iCloud restore also uses your Apple ID. Apple cannot read it, and neither can we. Backup is off by default.
