Getting Started

This page walks you through your first minutes with PanicVault: the home screen, creating a new vault, opening a .kdbx file you already have, keeping it safe alongside the apps and sync tools that also change it, and picking a master password that will actually protect it.

The Home Screen

When you open PanicVault, you see the home screen. This shows all your saved vaults as cards. Each card displays the vault name, number of entries, storage type (local, iCloud Drive, or Google Drive), and the last sync time for cloud vaults.

From here you can:

• Tap a vault card to open and unlock it
• Tap the “+” card to create or import a vault
• Long-press a vault card to set it as default or delete it
• Tap the gear icon to open Settings (on Mac you can also choose PanicVault > Settings… or press Cmd+, at any time, even with a vault open)

Default Vault

You can designate one vault as your default vault. Long-press a vault card on the home screen and choose Set as Default. The default vault is marked with a star on its card and opens automatically when you launch PanicVault, saving you a tap every time you open the app. To clear the default, long-press the default vault again and choose Remove Default.

Creating Your First Vault

1. Tap the “+” card on the home screen
2. Choose Create New Vault
3. Enter a name for your vault (for example, “Personal” or “Work”)
4. Choose a strong master password and confirm it — a strength meter shows you how strong your password is
5. Choose a storage location:
   • Local — the vault is stored on your device only
   • iCloud Drive — the vault is synced via iCloud Drive across your Apple devices (requires iCloud sign-in in system settings)
   • Google Drive — the vault is stored locally and synced to your Google Drive (you must sign in to Google first in Settings)
6. For iCloud Drive, you can optionally choose a folder within your iCloud Drive using the folder picker. You can also create new folders from the picker.
7. Optionally, in the Hardware Key (Optional) section, turn on Protect with a YubiKey to require a physical YubiKey in addition to your master password. Be sure you have a backup key first — see Hardware Keys (YubiKey).
8. Tap Create Vault

Your new vault opens automatically and you can start adding entries right away.

For more on the two cloud options, see iCloud Drive Sync and Google Drive Sync.

Opening an Existing Vault

If you already have a .kdbx file (from KeePass, KeePassXC, or another compatible app):

1. Tap the “+” card on the home screen
2. Choose Open Existing Vault
3. Browse to your .kdbx file and select it
4. The vault appears on your home screen — tap it to unlock with your master password

This is the system file browser, so it reaches everywhere your device can see: iCloud Drive, “On My iPhone”, folders on your Mac, an external drive, or another storage app such as Dropbox. When you are signed in to iCloud it opens in your PanicVault folder in iCloud Drive — where vaults you create on iCloud Drive are kept — and you can navigate anywhere else from there.

PanicVault works with the file where it already lives instead of copying it, and a .kdbx it finds anywhere in your iCloud Drive is recorded as an iCloud vault with full sync handling. See Vaults Kept Elsewhere in iCloud Drive.

If the vault is one iCloud has moved off the device to save space, PanicVault fetches it before adding it; should that take longer than a moment it tells you the vault hasn’t finished downloading from iCloud — let the download finish in Files or the Finder, then open it again.

If you are signed in to Google Drive, the same menu also offers Open from Google Drive, which downloads a copy of a vault from your Google Drive.

Coming from another password manager without a .kdbx file? See Importing Passwords to bring your logins in from a CSV export instead.

Opening a .kdbx File Directly

You do not have to start in PanicVault. PanicVault registers itself with the system as a KeePass database handler, so a .kdbx file you find anywhere on your device can be opened straight into the app:

• Files app (iPhone, iPad) — tap the file, or press and hold it and choose Share, then PanicVault
• Finder (Mac) — double-click the file, or Control-click it and choose Open With, then PanicVault
• Mail, Messages, or AirDrop — tap or click the attachment and choose PanicVault

The vault is added to your home screen and its lock screen appears right away, ready for your master password. Vaults PanicVault created show the PanicVault document icon; a .kdbx written by another KeePass app keeps that app’s icon, but PanicVault is still offered under Open With.

The same iCloud wait applies here: if you tap a file in Files or double-click one in the Finder that iCloud has moved off the device to save space, PanicVault fetches it first, and should that take longer than a moment it tells you the vault hasn’t finished downloading from iCloud — let the download finish, then open the file again.

If the file is already one of your vaults, PanicVault opens that vault instead of adding a second copy of it to your home screen. If a different vault is unlocked at the time, it is locked first, exactly as when you tap another vault on the home screen.

Vaults Synced by Another App

A vault that is not on iCloud Drive or Google Drive — one in “On My iPhone”, in a folder on your Mac, on an external drive, or in a folder kept in step by Dropbox, Nextcloud, Syncthing or your own SSH or rsync setup — is synced by whatever manages that folder, not by PanicVault. You can also keep the same file open in KeePassXC on the same Mac.

PanicVault makes sure it never overwrites what those tools write:

• Before every save, PanicVault checks whether the file is still the one it opened or last saved. If it is, the save goes ahead as usual.
• If another app changed the file, PanicVault opens the new version with the password and key file you unlocked with, merges its changes into yours entry by entry, and saves the result. When entries were added or changed, a message such as Merged 2 changes from another app tells you so. This works even when KeePassXC has re-encrypted the file with a new random seed, as it does on every save, and when you have just changed the master password in PanicVault: the other app’s version, still under the old password, is merged, and the result is saved under the new one.
• If the same entry changed in both places, PanicVault saves both versions straight away — yours, and the other app’s as a “(conflicted copy)” — and then shows the conflict screen so you can choose which to keep: Keep All from PanicVault, Keep All from File, or Keep Both, or entry by entry. Both versions are kept until you choose, so if you cancel, lock the vault, or PanicVault is closed before you answer, nothing is lost. If the other app changes the file again while PanicVault is saving, PanicVault starts over with the file as it is then, so the conflict screen always compares your version with the latest one. (If the other app has meanwhile undone its change to that entry, both versions are simply kept, without the conflict screen: delete the one you don’t want.) If it keeps changing the same entries while PanicVault saves, PanicVault stops after a few tries without overwriting the file, keeps your changes on screen and shows the Changes not saved to the vault file banner; your changes are saved with your next change, or tap Try Again once the other app has finished. If you edited the vault before choosing, or another conflict came up while your choice waited its turn, the choice is not applied and PanicVault says Both versions kept: the vault changed before your choice — delete the version you don’t want. Using an entry meanwhile, such as copying its password, does not count as a change.
• If PanicVault cannot open the new file — its master password or key file was changed in the other app, or the file has not finished arriving from another device — PanicVault does not overwrite it. A Changes not saved to the vault file banner stays above your entries. Tap Try Again once the sync has finished. If the password really was changed, use Export Vault to keep a copy of your latest changes (it opens with the password you unlocked with), then lock the vault and unlock it with its current password.
• If PanicVault cannot read the file at all — for example, PanicVault no longer has permission to open it, or the disk it is on is not responding — PanicVault does not save over it either, and says Not saved: PanicVault couldn’t read this vault’s file. The Changes not saved to the vault file banner then says that PanicVault couldn’t read the file: this is not a problem with your password. Your changes stay on screen until you lock the vault; they are saved with your next change, or tap Try Again — locking the vault or quitting PanicVault also tries once more (see Locking Your Vault). If it keeps happening, use Export Vault to keep a copy of your changes before you lock the vault.
• For a vault protected by a YubiKey, a file saved in KeePassXC needs a fresh answer from your key before it can be merged. If PanicVault notices it when you switch back, before you have changed anything, the banner says Sync paused — YubiKey needed. Once a save of yours has to wait for the key, it says Changes not saved to the vault file — YubiKey needed: until you touch the key, changes you make are not saved to the file. Don’t lock the vault before then, or use Export Vault first. See Hardware Keys: Syncing and Other Devices.

Changes another app makes appear in PanicVault as soon as you switch back to it, and in any case the next time you save. Switching back only reads them in: PanicVault writes the file when you save, or when PanicVault has changes of its own the file does not have yet (for example the same entry changed in both places).

Syncthing and Dropbox sometimes keep a separate copy of the file when two devices change it at the same moment (Syncthing names it like Vault.sync-conflict-20260925-101500-ABCDEFG.kdbx, Dropbox like Vault (Anna's conflicted copy 2026-09-25).kdbx). Those copies are separate files, and PanicVault does not merge them into your vault. You can open one with Open Existing Vault to check whether it holds anything you need.

If unlocking says the vault file was moved into a sync tool’s versions folder or the Trash, the sync tool has put the old file aside (Syncthing into .stversions) and nothing is at its place yet: wait for the sync to finish, or select the file again with Open Existing Vault.

Choosing a Strong Master Password

Your master password is the single key that protects all your other passwords. Choose it carefully:

• Use at least 12 characters, ideally more
• Mix uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols
• Consider using a passphrase — several random words joined together (for example, “correct-horse-battery-staple”)
• Never reuse your master password for any other account
• The strength meter on the create screen shows you whether your password is Weak, Fair, Strong, or Excellent