A new phone
At the end, your new phone opens your vault, and your old phone is cut off. With another phone of yours this takes a few minutes; with only your recovery kit, it takes 48 hours.
Which way in
| You have | What you do | How long |
|---|---|---|
| Your old phone, or another phone with Vando | It approves the new one by scanning a code | A few minutes, or 24 hours for your stronger things (below) |
| No other phone, but your recovery kit | Type the kit on the new phone | 48 hours, with every device and your email told |
| Neither | Nobody can open your vault, Vando included | — |
The last row is on purpose: if Vando could let you in without your phones or your kit, it could let in someone pretending to be you. Why.
With another phone
On the new phone
Install Vando, tap I already use Vando, and sign in with your email code. The new phone shows a code: On your other phone, open Vando → Devices → Add a phone, and scan this code.
On the phone you have
Open Devices → Add a phone or tablet and scan the code. It checks the new phone (Its keys are in its security chip. Vando checked.), asks whether it replaces one of your phones, then Add this phone? with Approve and Don’t add. Only approve a phone you’re holding.
Your things arrive
- Easy things open on the new phone at once.
- Just me and stronger: approve with your fingerprint or face and they reach it at once too. Approve with your PIN (or if Vando couldn’t check the new phone’s security chip), and they arrive after 24 hours, with every device told. Any of your devices can cancel during that time.
- If you said it replaces your old phone, the old one is cut off as soon as the new one is in.
The 24 hours is there for a thief who has one of your phones and knows its PIN: they can’t quietly add a phone of their own and take everything at once.
Missed the moment, or the hand-over didn’t finish? The new phone can ask again: your other phone shows ‹Phone› asks for its Just me things again with Send them, under the same rules.
With your recovery kit
On the new phone: I lost my phone, sign in with your email, choose My recovery kit, and type the eight groups.
- The new phone then waits 48 hours. Every device on your account and your email are told. You can close the app: Vando emails you before the wait is over, and you come back to finish.
- To finish after a restart, you type the kit again. Vando never keeps it on the phone.
- During the wait, any phone of yours that still works can stop it with its fingerprint or a security key. A phone unlocked only with its PIN sees the recovery but can’t cancel it. If a recovery you didn’t start is cancelled, the new phone says The recovery was cancelled.
- While it runs, nothing about your kit, keys or devices can be changed, and nothing in the Trash is deleted for good.
When it’s done: You’re back in. Your old phones are cut off. The app then asks you to make a new kit (the old one stopped working when you used it) and to change passwords the stolen phone could fill.
Your Fort Knox things
Fort Knox things need your security key as well as the phone, so they come back their own way.
- With another phone: they arrive with your other Just me things (approved with your fingerprint or face: at once; with your PIN: after 24 hours).
- With your kit: right after the recovery, before you close the app, touch a security key you still have (or one you just added), then use your fingerprint. Your kit brings them back under that key. No key with you? Make your new kit first; you can finish later with a key and your old kit.
- Your kit brings back Fort Knox things only if it was made after you set up Fort Knox. If it’s older, the app tells you and asks you to make a new one.
- If every phone, every security key and your kit are gone, Fort Knox things stay shut, for you too. The limits.
Your laptop and Claude Code afterwards
After a recovery, reconnect each laptop:
- The Chrome extension says Your vault moved or was recovered. Reconnect to your new phone. Pair it again (laptop).
- For Claude Code, run
vando unguardandvando disconnect, then connect again with a new code from your new phone (how), and runvando setupagain.
After a normal move, with your old phone approving, a computer connected with vando keeps working once your phone signs the change: it shows Update your laptops, one tap and your fingerprint.
Coming
coming People you trust helping you get back in. The option is on the screen, but it isn’t built yet. The roadmap.
What can go wrong
- “This phone wasn’t added”
- The other phone said no, or the code ran out. Start again on the new phone: sign in, and scan its new code.
- “We couldn’t open your vault on this phone”
- Tap Set this phone up again: sign in with your email, then approve it from your other phone.
- “The recovery was cancelled”
- Someone with your devices or kit stopped it. If that wasn’t you, they may be trying to keep you out: use another way back in.
Last verified
Bring passwords from another app
At the end, the passwords from your old password manager or browser are in your Vando vault, approved once with your fingerprint, and the export file is deleted.
Your laptop and Chrome
At the end, the Vando extension in Chrome on your laptop fills and saves logins, and every fill is approved on your phone, unless you trust the laptop for the evening.