Vauchi DocsBackup & Recovery
Because your device is your account, losing it would matter — so Vauchi gives you two quite different safety nets, and they're at their best when you set them up before you need them. A backup is the five-minute insurance policy you'll be grateful for on a bad day. Social recovery is the same trick humans have always used when documents fail: people who know you, vouching that you're you.
| Method | When it's for | What it needs |
|---|---|---|
| Encrypted backup | A planned safety net | Your backup file + password |
| Social recovery | Every device lost, no backup | A few trusted contacts to vouch |
Encrypted backup
Make one
- Go to Settings > Backup
- Tap Export Backup
- Choose a strong password (it must pass the strength check)
- Confirm it
- Save the backup file somewhere safe
- Keep the backup file somewhere you'll find it (a password manager, a printed copy in a drawer).
- Memorise the password — it genuinely cannot be recovered.
- Backup file plus password equals your whole account. Guard them the way you'd guard the two halves of a safe combination.
What's inside
A full backup is exactly that — a complete copy of your account:
| Data | Included? |
|---|---|
| Your identity (the master seed your keys grow from) | Yes |
| Your contacts | Yes |
| Your own card | Yes |
| Your labels and groups | Yes |
| Per-conversation forward-secrecy keys | No* |
*Those short-lived keys are meant to be disposable — that's what gives you forward secrecy. After you restore, each secure channel simply re-establishes itself the next time you and a contact sync. You get your people back without dragging yesterday's throwaway keys along.
Restore from it
- Install Vauchi on the new device
- Choose Restore from Backup
- Provide your backup file
- Enter your password
- You're back
Your identity, contacts, card, and labels return intact, and secure channels re-form on the next sync.
How the backup is protected
- Encryption: XChaCha20-Poly1305
- Key stretch: Argon2id — deliberately slow and memory-hungry, so guessing the password is expensive even with serious hardware
- Without the password: the file is meaningless noise
Reach for a passphrase, not a password: a handful of ordinary words strung together is both easier to remember and harder to crack than the clever tangle of symbols you'll have forgotten by Tuesday.
Social recovery
Lost every device and have no backup? This is the net beneath the net. Trusted contacts confirm your identity and migrate your contacts to a fresh one.
How it works
┌──────────────────┐ ┌───────────┐ ┌───────────┐ ┌───────────┐ ┌───────┐
│ You (New Device) │ │ Contact 1 │ │ Contact 2 │ │ Contact 3 │ │ Relay │
└─────────┬────────┘ └─────┬─────┘ └─────┬─────┘ └─────┬─────┘ └───┬───┘
│ │ │ │ │
├───┐ │ │ │ │
│ │ Create recovery claim │ │ │ │
◀───┘ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ Meet in person, share claim │ │ │ │
│────────────────────────────────▶ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ ├───┐ │ │ │
│ │ │ Verify it's really you │ │
│ ◀───┘ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ Create voucher │ │ │ │
◀────────────────────────────────│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ Meet in person, share claim │ │ │
│──────────────────────────────────────────────────▶ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ Create voucher │ │ │ │
◀──────────────────────────────────────────────────│ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ Meet in person, share claim │ │ │
│──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────▶ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ Create voucher │ │ │
◀──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────│ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ Submit recovery proof (vouchers) │ │
│────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────▶
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ ├───┐
│ │ │ │ │ │ Verify vouchers
│ │ │ │ ◀───┘
│ │ │ │ │
┌────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ │
│ Contacts migrated to new identity! │ │ │ │ │
└────────────────────────────────────┘ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
┌─────────┴────────┐ ┌─────┴─────┐ ┌─────┴─────┐ ┌─────┴─────┐ ┌───┴───┐
│ You (New Device) │ │ Contact 1 │ │ Contact 2 │ │ Contact 3 │ │ Relay │
└──────────────────┘ └───────────┘ └───────────┘ └───────────┘ └───────┘
It guards both doors at once: you can't be locked out (your friends can let you in), and an impostor can't walk in (they'd have to fool several of your friends, in person, at once).
Start recovery
- Install Vauchi on the new device
- Create a new identity
- Go to Settings > Recovery
- Tap Recover Old Identity
- Enter your old public ID
- A recovery claim is generated
Collect vouchers
For each one:
- Meet the contact in person
- Share your recovery claim
- They confirm it's really you (they're looking right at you)
- They create a voucher
- They send it to you
What it takes
- Vouchers from a small threshold of contacts (a handful, by default)
- Each must have previously exchanged with your old identity
- Together they prove your real social network recognises the request
Finish
- Import the vouchers
- Vauchi submits the recovery proof
- The network verifies through mutual connections
- Your identity settles onto the new device
Social recovery mints a new cryptographic identity — your old signing keys stay lost, and a few settings (like per-contact visibility) may need re-tuning. You keep your people; you replace the lock.
Vouching for someone else
If a contact asks you to vouch:
- Go to Settings > Recovery
- Tap Help Someone Recover
- Paste their recovery claim
- Verify it's really them — call them, or meet in person
- Create a voucher
- Send it over
Only vouch when you are certain who you're vouching for. The whole defence against identity theft is that you check. A careless voucher is the one an attacker is counting on.
Good habits
Before you ever need it: make a backup the day you set up; store it somewhere safe; use a memorable passphrase; and keep enough trusted contacts (five or so) that a couple being unreachable won't sink you.
When the day comes: try backup restore first — it's faster and simpler. Fall back to social recovery only if you must, do the vouching in person, and don't rush. Verifying carefully is the point, not the obstacle.
Troubleshooting
Forgot the backup password. It can't be recovered — that's the guarantee working as designed. Fall back to social recovery, or to another linked device if you still have one; failing both, start a new identity and re-exchange.
Can't reach enough contacts. See who's still reachable, give it a little time if some are temporarily away, and treat a new identity as the last resort.
A voucher was rejected. Usually it's for the wrong identity, corrupted, or expired (90 days). Ask the contact to issue a fresh one.
Related
- How to Recover Your Account — step by step
- Multi-Device Sync — the other way back in
- Encryption — how backups are protected