Recoverability is a first-class guarantee in Kistvault, equal to confidentiality. So the "I've lost everything" moment has a designed answer — as long as you kept the two things recovery needs.
What you need
- Your encrypted container. Because Kistvault is local-only, the clean device has nothing to fetch from a cloud. Recovery uses the container you exported as a backup.
- A credential or your Recovery Kit. Your password or pattern if you remember it; your printed Recovery Kit if you don't.
How recovery works
- Install Kistvault on the new device and choose to recover.
- Bring in the container you backed up — Kistvault validates it as untrusted input on the way in.
- Unlock it with your password or pattern, or enter your Recovery Kit if those are gone. A checksum flags a mistyped Kit group before any decryption attempt.
If you still have a second device that was paired with the lost one, that's another route: pairing re-establishes trust and key material between devices you hold.
Said honestly
There's no backdoor. If you've lost your container and every credential and your Recovery Kit, with no paired device, the vault can't be opened by anyone — that's the same math that keeps everyone else out. Which is exactly why the backup habit and a safely-stored Kit matter.
The point: keep a backup and your Kit, and a lost phone is an inconvenience, not a catastrophe.