Timed vaults

Timed vaults live under the Timed Vaults tab in Tools. A timed vault is a lightweight label over files you have already uploaded. It has a name, an optional description, a countdown, and the list of files it groups. It is an organisational layer, not a new place to store data: creating one does not move, copy, or re-encrypt anything. Your files remain individually encrypted exactly as they were before, and each one still appears in your normal vault.

Open the Timed Vaults tab, choose Create vault, and fill in:

• •Name (required): how the vault shows up in the list, e.g. “Tax Documents 2026”.
• •Description (optional): a short note for your own reference.
• •Expires in. Pick a window: 1 hour, 6 hours, 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days, or 90 days. The countdown starts from the moment you create the vault.
• •Files: tick one or more files from your existing vault to include. You group files that are already uploaded; a timed vault is not an upload flow.

The shortest window is one hour: the server rejects any expiry that is less than an hour away.

Each vault shows a live countdown of the time remaining (for example 3d 5h). A periodic sweep on the server checks for vaults whose time has run out and marks them as expired; this runs on a schedule rather than to the exact second, so a just-lapsed vault flips over shortly after its deadline. Once flagged, the vault is dimmed in the list and carries an Expired badge instead of a countdown.

Removing a timed vault deletes the vault and its timer only, the grouping and the countdown go away, but the files it referenced are left untouched in your vault. If you actually want to remove the underlying files, delete them from your file list the usual way; that is a separate action.

• •Snapshots & integrity: the Inventory and Verify Files tabs
• •Shared vaults: collaborative vaults with role-based access
• •Uploading: how files are encrypted before they leave your device