StashIt: Secure File Vault

A private vault for documents you cannot afford to lose or leak. NO SUBSCRIPTION. NO ADS. NO TRACKING. Buy it once. It collects nothing, because it has nothing to collect it with. Everything in it is encrypted on your device with a key that never leaves it. No account, no cloud, no server, no sign-in. Nothing to breach, because nothing is anywhere else. • Wills, trusts, deeds, titles and estate paperwork • Bank and brokerage statements, account and routing details • Passport, licence, birth certificate and Social Security scans • Tax returns, insurance policies and vehicle records • Recovery codes, licence keys and the password list you keep as a file • Medical records, prescriptions, contracts and NDAs • Private photos and video Anything with bytes behind it can go in. Photos, PDFs and text open in the app; video and audio play in it; everything else is stored and exported on request. BUILT BY SOMEONE WHO HAS SPENT 30 YEARS ON THIS Written by a cyber security expert with three decades in the field, for his own family's paperwork first — the way you build it after a career watching this go wrong. HOW IT ACTUALLY WORKS Every file gets its own AES-256-GCM key, derived from one master key in this device's Keychain. That key is device-only and deliberately excluded from your iCloud backup, so a copy of your backup is not a copy of the vault. Files are decrypted into memory, never written back to disk readable. Video streams a piece at a time, so a two-hour film is never sitting unlocked. Files also carry iOS Data Protection. THE LOCK • A 6-digit passcode, checked as you type on a keypad • Face ID or Touch ID, if you want it • An opaque cover the moment the app stops being frontmost, including the preview iOS keeps for the app switcher — nothing of yours is in the multitasking view • Auto-lock on a timer you choose, counting from the moment you leave — set it to Immediately and a flick into the app switcher and back closes it • Individual folders can carry their own second passcode WHEN SOMEONE IS STANDING OVER YOU Two answers to one problem, both optional. A decoy passcode opens a second, completely separate vault — its own files, its own folders, its own storage. Hand it over under pressure and what opens is an ordinary-looking library that reveals nothing about the real one. Folders can carry their own decoy too. A hidden folder is simply not there. No row, no name, no count, nothing of it in search or in any list anywhere in the app. To bring one back, press and hold “Everything” at the top of the sidebar and enter that folder’s own passcode. Nothing on screen says there is anything to bring back. Both defend against a person holding your device and making you open the app. Neither defeats forensic examination of the device itself, and we would rather say so than let you find out later. NO RECOVERY. WE MEAN IT. If you forget your passcode, no one can get your files back — not us, not Apple. There is no reset link, because a reset link is a way in. A forgotten folder passcode is the same, and a hidden folder whose passcode is gone stays on the device, counted in your storage, with nothing left that can list it. The key lives on this device and is not in your backup, so if the device is lost, wiped or replaced, what was in it is gone too. A vault is not a backup — keep a second copy of anything you cannot lose. ALSO IN THERE Bring files in from Files, Photos, a network share, a link, or any share sheet. StashIt is a location in Files, so you can save straight in. Nothing is imported unless you choose it, and anything from a share sheet waits for your real vault — never the decoy. Getting one back out is a copy, decrypted on request and deleted when the app locks, at any size. Open a video and it waits, paused and silent, until you press play. The player also keeps going alongside another app's Picture in Picture, which is why this began as a video player.