Help

Open Pawsword and tap through Pocket's hello. Choose a master password and type it twice (a few random words make a strong one you can remember), then say yes or no to Face ID and make your emergency kit. That is it: your vault is one locked file on this device, and nothing is sent anywhere.

It is one page to print: a big blank box for your master password, where your vault lives, and what to do if you forget. Write the password in by hand with a pen, don't photograph it, and keep the page somewhere real, like a drawer. Lost it? Make a fresh one any time in Settings › Emergency kit.

On iPhone and iPad, open Settings › General › AutoFill & Passwords › Pawsword and turn it on (the Turn on AutoFill row in Pawsword's own Settings takes you there).

On a Mac, open System Settings › General › AutoFill & Passwords › Pawsword and turn it on. It fills in Safari and in apps that support AutoFill; to add a new login on the Mac, use the app.

Keep Apple Passwords on too until you trust Pawsword.

Face ID (Touch ID on a Mac) is a shortcut, not a replacement for your master password. The day after you set up, a week later, and then about once a month, Pawsword asks you to type the password instead. That is the practice day: ten seconds that keep the password in your fingers. If Face ID ever changes on your phone, Pawsword asks for the password once and turns the shortcut back on.

No. Nobody can, not even us: there is no account and no server, so there is nobody to ask. That is how your passwords stay yours. There may still be a way in, so try the next three answers in order.

Tap Forgot? on the lock screen, then Unlock with Face ID. This works even on a practice day. Once you are in, Pawsword asks you to choose a new master password straight away. Do it, and write the new one on your emergency kit.

After three wrong tries, Pawsword offers Show my hint, if you wrote one (Settings › Master password hint). Look at your emergency kit as well: if you wrote the password in the box, it is there. If you changed the password lately, an older backup still opens with the old one; pick it in Settings › Backups once you are in. Wrong tries only make Pawsword wait longer, and your vault is never wiped.

It is the last resort, and it is gentler than it sounds. Pawsword asks you twice and offers to save the locked file first, then gives you an empty vault to begin again. Your old vault is not deleted: it waits in Settings › Backups, still locked. If the old password ever comes back to you, restore it from there.

Open Settings › Import passwords and choose where you are coming from: Apple Passwords, Chrome, 1Password, Bitwarden, Dashlane, LastPass, a KeePass file or any CSV file with a password column. You get a preview first, with a count of what will come in and what was skipped, and everything lands in its own group so nothing gets mixed up. Most export files are plain text, so delete them when you are done. Keep your old app around until you trust Pawsword.

Open Settings › Export and choose .kdbx or .csv. A .kdbx file stays locked with your master password and keeps everything. A .csv file is plain text that anyone can read, so make one only to move into another app, and delete it straight after. Export always works, even after the trial.

Yes. Your vault is a normal KeePass file (KDBX 4), so KeePassXC, Strongbox, KeePassium and other KeePass apps can open it with your master password. That is on purpose: if we ever get hit by a bus, your passwords stay put. To get the file, use Settings › Save a copy of the vault.

There is no cloud of ours, so you choose how the file travels. The easy way is Settings › Keep a copy in a folder: pick iCloud Drive (or any other folder) on each device, and Pawsword keeps the copies in step, merging changes both ways. If you edit the same login on two devices, the newer version goes live and the older one stays in that login's history, so nothing is overwritten. The folder's provider moves the file, never Pawsword.

Yes. Settings › Send a copy opens the share sheet, where you can pick AirDrop, Messages or Mail. On the other device, open the file in Pawsword. It is still locked with your master password, but only ever send it to yourself.

Yes. Copy a password and Pawsword wipes it from the clipboard by itself, after 45 seconds to start with (change it in Settings › Clear the clipboard after). A copy stays on this device and never travels to your others. Passwords you show on screen hide again by themselves too.

When you copy a password on iPhone, Pocket peeks over the Dynamic Island and counts down to the moment the clipboard is wiped. Touch and hold the Island, then tap Clear now to wipe it early. Without a Dynamic Island you get the same countdown as a card on the Lock Screen. It only says Password or One-time code, never which login, and nothing about it leaves your phone.

Pawsword is a free download with a full 14-day trial. After that it asks you to buy it once, with no subscription, ever. Until you do, export and AutoFill keep working, so nobody is ever trapped. You can buy it any time in Settings › Pay once.

Yes. Buy Pawsword once and up to six people in your Apple Family Sharing group can use it. Each person keeps their own vault and master password, because only the purchase is shared, never your passwords. If it does not unlock on a family member's device, they can tap Restore purchase in Settings › Pay once.

One email the day Pawsword lands on the App Store. The founder price ($29 instead of $39) runs there for two weeks, for everyone who buys in that window. There are no codes: you buy it in the App Store like any app, and it is yours on every Apple device you own, your family's too. Early builds go out through TestFlight before launch.

Open Settings › Pay once and tap Restore purchase, signed in with the Apple Account that bought it. Your device asks the App Store, not Pawsword, so that one step needs the internet. Pawsword itself never goes online.

App Store refunds go through Apple, not us. Go to reportaproblem.apple.com, sign in with your Apple Account, choose Pawsword and ask for a refund. Apple decides and emails you the answer.

Version 1 is yours forever: it keeps working, with no expiry date and no phoning home to check. You get free updates until at least September 2030. One day there will be a paid version 2; you will hear about it a year ahead, and you never have to buy it. The full words are in Settings › Your licence.

Not yet, and we will not pretend otherwise. The code that does the encrypting (the vault core) is open source from launch, so anyone can read it and check our work. A paid outside audit is the first thing founder money goes to, and we will publish the report.

Your vault is a standard KeePass file (KDBX 4), locked with a key made from your master password. Making that key is slow on purpose (it uses Argon2id), which makes guessing expensive. The app has no network code, so nothing about your vault, not even a crash report, is ever sent from it.

Write to [email protected] with "security" in the subject. A person answers within 48 hours. Please keep the details private until we have shipped a fix, or for 90 days, whichever comes first. There is no bounty programme yet, but we credit you in the changelog if you like.

Use Find My to lock it. Your vault is locked with your master password, and wrong guesses only slow down; they never open it or wipe it. Erase the phone only once you are sure you have a copy of your vault: the next answer shows where copies live.

An iPhone backup or a Quick Start transfer carries your vault across. A copy you saved, or the folder copy, can be opened in Pawsword straight from Files, or put back with Settings › Restore from a copy. Either way you type your master password, and you turn Face ID on again because it belongs to the old phone. The safety copy in your keychain survives deleting the app on the same phone, but not losing the phone, so it cannot help here.