Sync and backup with iCloud and Google Drive

Your vault is everything you keep in Fondfully: people, sizes, ideas, gifts, receipts, photos, voice notes and settings. It lives on your phone, and a copy lives in your own iCloud or Google Drive. It never goes to Fondfully's servers.

Encrypted on your phone

Before anything leaves your phone, Fondfully encrypts it with AES-256-GCM, using a vault key created on your phone. Apple or Google stores only scrambled files. Without the key, nobody can read them: not Apple, not Google, and not us.

Fondfully keeps its files in its own app folder. In iCloud, that folder doesn't appear in the Files app. In Google Drive, it's a hidden app folder, and Fondfully asks Google for access to that folder only, never your other files.

Choose your cloud

• iCloud (iPhone only). Recommended on iPhone. Your vault key is kept in your iCloud Keychain, so your other Apple devices signed in to the same Apple Account can unlock the vault without typing anything. You also get a recovery code.
• Google Drive (iPhone and Android). You choose a vault passphrase, and you get a recovery code. You'll type the passphrase when you add a new device.

To use Fondfully on both an iPhone and an Android phone, choose Google Drive on both.

Set it up

1. Open Settings, then Sync & backup. You can also start from the Backup step when you first set up Fondfully.
2. Choose iCloud or Google Drive. For Google Drive, sign in to Google and allow Fondfully to use its app folder.
3. For Google Drive, choose a vault passphrase. Long and memorable works best; a short sentence is ideal.
4. Keep your recovery code safe. It's 32 letters and numbers in groups of four. Write it down, or keep it in a password manager, somewhere other than this phone.

Why we can't reset your passphrase

Your passphrase and recovery code never leave your devices, and your vault key only ever travels sealed: inside your own iCloud Keychain, or locked with your passphrase and recovery code. Fondfully never has any of them, so we can't look them up or reset them. That's what keeps your vault private.

If you lose your passphrase, your recovery code still opens your vault. If you lose both, and no device still has the vault unlocked, the copy in your cloud can't be opened by anyone.

Backups happen on their own

• Changes back up a few seconds after you make them, whenever you're online.
• Fondfully also syncs when you open it, when you come back to it, from time to time in the background, and whenever you tap Sync now.
• At least once a day, and after a big batch of changes, Fondfully writes a full snapshot of your vault. The three newest snapshots are kept.

Settings, then Sync & backup shows how it's going, like "Backed up 2 minutes ago", and lists the devices in your vault.

Free and Plus

• Free: back up from one device, and restore whenever you need to.
• Plus: sync between all your devices. A change on one appears on the others.

On the free plan, backup runs from one phone at a time. When you restore on a new phone, the new phone takes over the backing up.

Restore on a new phone

1. Install Fondfully and sign in with your account.
2. Open Settings, then Sync & backup, and tap Restore from backup.
3. Choose the cloud you used before. For Google Drive, use the same Google account. For iCloud, sign in to the same Apple Account on this iPhone.
4. Unlock your vault. With iCloud Keychain, this happens on its own. Otherwise, enter your passphrase or your recovery code.
5. Fondfully checks every file before it swaps anything in. If something doesn't check out, nothing on your phone changes, and you can try again.

Your recovery code

To see your recovery code again, open Settings, then Sync & backup, then Recovery code, and confirm it's you with Face ID or your phone's biometrics. If you don't have one yet, create one there.

You can type the code with or without the dashes, in capitals or not. Fondfully reads the letter O as a zero, and I or L as a one.

Change your passphrase (Google Drive)

Open Settings, then Sync & backup, then Change passphrase. Devices that are already set up stay unlocked. Use the new passphrase the next time you add a device.

Also back up to Google Drive (iPhone, Plus)

On iPhone with iCloud, turn on Also back up to Google Drive to keep a second copy in your Google Drive. It's encrypted on your phone the same way. To open it on another device, use your recovery code.

Turn off sync

Tap Turn off sync to stop backing up this phone. Everything stays on the phone. The copy already in your cloud stays there, so you can restore from it later, until you delete it. Account deletion, support and legal explains how.