Duress pattern: show a decoy, erase the rest
Set a duress pattern for emergencies. If someone makes you open your vault, draw it instead: a decoy vault opens like normal, while your real vault is permanently erased.
How it works
How it works
- 1
Set up a decoy vault
Create another vault and fill it with everyday photos, so it looks lived-in.
- 2
Choose a duress pattern
Pick a pattern that's different from your real ones and that you won't draw by accident. It opens your decoy.
- 3
If you're forced to unlock, draw it
Your decoy vault opens like any other, and your real vault is erased at the same moment.
- 4
Nothing looks unusual
Whoever is watching sees a normal vault with normal photos, opened on the first try.
What you get
A normal unlock, to anyone watching
Looks like a normal unlock
The decoy opens exactly like a real vault. There's no warning, no flash, nothing on screen to give it away.
Real vault gone instantly
Its key is destroyed the moment you draw the pattern, so its files are unreadable straight away, then deleted.
Ends the moment
No repeated wrong patterns for someone to get angry about. They ask, you unlock, they see photos.
Any vault can be the decoy
Use multiple vaults to keep a decoy filled with ordinary photos, ready if you ever need it.
Just another pattern
Nothing extra to remember beyond one more shape. No codes, no hidden buttons.
No one to call
There's no account and no server, so there's no one who could be made to restore what was erased.
Good to know
What it doesn’t do
We’d rather you know the limits now than find them later.
Erased really means erased
Once the duress pattern is drawn, your real vault can't be brought back from your iPhone, by you or by us. Only use it when losing the vault is the better option.
The decoy has to look real
An empty or brand-new vault can look suspicious. Add ordinary photos to your decoy now and then so it looks used.
Choose it carefully
If you draw the duress pattern by accident, you'll land in your decoy and your real vault will already be gone.
It can't help if they know your real pattern
If someone has already seen your real pattern, they don't need you to unlock. Draw your real pattern out of sight.
FAQ
Common questions
Your decoy vault opens like a normal unlock, and at the same moment your real vault is permanently erased from your iPhone.
The lock screen shows an ordinary wrong-pattern message instead, and your real vault is still erased. Setting up a decoy makes the moment much easier to get through.
Not from your iPhone. Erasing is permanent, and with no account or server, there's nothing we can restore.
Nothing on screen gives it away. They see a vault open on the first try, with whatever photos you've put in your decoy.
You'll land in your decoy, and your real vault will already be erased. That's why it's worth choosing a shape you'd never draw by mistake.