Claspt Sync

Note

Claspt Sync is a Pro feature. Sharing and the phone app use the same account.

Claspt Sync keeps one vault on several devices through Claspt’s own servers, which never see your master password and hold your vault only in encrypted form. It is the only sync Claspt offers; see the last section for keeping the vault folder in a file-sync service of your own.

Turning it on

1. Settings › Account & Sync. Turn on Pro if you have not.
2. Under Email Identity, enter your email address and type the code that arrives. There is no account password.
3. Turn Sync on. The status bar shows the vault’s version number rising as you work; every device you add will show the same number once it has caught up.

A second computer

1. Install Claspt and open the unlock screen’s Restore from account tab.
2. Enter the same email address and the code that arrives.
3. Type your master password. The vault appears.

If the master password is forgotten, the recovery key does the same job on the desktop, and you set a new master password on the spot. The phone accepts the recovery key behind Forgot password? on its unlock screen.

Caution

The server holds your vault’s key only wrapped under a key derived from your master password, which it never sees. That is what keeps the server from opening your vault, and it is why the master password must be strong.

Every device proves itself

Each device makes its own signing key when it registers. The private half stays in the device’s keychain; the server keeps only the public half and checks every sync request against it. A stolen licence token is not enough to talk to the server as one of your devices. Settings › Account & Sync › Devices lists them; rename or deactivate from there.

When two devices edit apart

If two devices change the vault while one is offline, the next sync merges them page by page. A page changed on only one side simply merges. Where both changed the same page, the newer edit is kept, and a notice tells you which pages that happened to and which device’s version won. The notice stays until you dismiss it, and the older version is in that page’s history, from where it can be restored.

Newest wins per page, not per line: two edits to one page are not blended. Claspt Sync is not real-time collaboration.

When something is wrong

• The wizard at unlock. If a vault’s account was set up for a different vault, which happens when a backup is copied over, Claspt notices at unlock, even offline, and opens a Fix that repairs it in place, showing each step and a clock while it runs.
• Force Push under Settings › Account & Sync › Sync sends this device’s copy up as the truth, with the same steps shown.

What is not synced

• vault.key and the search index: each device derives and builds its own.
• The trash: a deleted page waits on the device where it was deleted.
• Attachments and secrets are synced as ciphertext; the server cannot read them.

Using your own file sync instead

The vault is an ordinary folder. If you keep it inside a folder that iCloud Drive, Dropbox, Google Drive or any other service syncs, that service will copy it between your computers, and Claspt does not mind. Two things to know:

• Claspt does not manage that sync. If two computers edit the same page at the same moment through a file service, the service decides what to keep, and it may keep a “conflicted copy”. Claspt Sync merges per page and tells you; file services do not.
• Secrets in the folder are encrypted files whichever way they travel, and vault.key in .securenotes/ opens only with your master password.