Stacks, sub-stacks and locked stacks

What a stack is

Stacks and sub-stacks keep your vault organized.

A stack is what other apps call an album or a folder. It holds photos, videos, documents, notes and records side by side, so everything about one subject sits together: a trip, a house purchase, a health question.

A shape that works

You don’t need many. A handful of stacks you actually use beats thirty you never open.

• By subject. Home, Car, Health, Travel. Each holds the photos and the papers together.
• By person. One stack per family member for their IDs and records.
• By year, inside a subject. A sub-stack per year under Taxes keeps old returns out of the way.

Sub-stacks sit inside a stack the way folders sit inside folders. Go one or two levels deep. Past that, finding things gets slower than searching for them. On the free plan you can make up to 3 sub-stacks, and Sealed Pro has no limit.

Finding things without stacks

Not everything needs a stack. The vault has filters across the top for All, Photos, Videos, Documents, Notes, Records and Favorites. Between the filters and a few stacks, most people find what they want in seconds.

Locked stacks

Each stack can have its own lock, and stack locks are part of Sealed Pro. In a stack’s menu, Lock Stack gives that stack a PIN of its own, which you can change or remove later.

A stack lock is a second door inside the vault. Someone you hand the open vault to, to show a holiday photo, can’t wander into the stack with your medical papers. Give it a code that is different from your vault passcode, or the second door opens with the first key. A locked stack also locks every sub-stack inside it.

Two special kinds

Some stacks have rules of their own.

Creating a time-sealed stack or an evidence stack is part of Sealed Pro, while opening one and adding to it are not.

In a decoy vault

Anything added while the decoy vault is open, such as photos, files, notes, records, stacks and camera shots, is saved in the decoy vault and not in your real one. So stacks made while the decoy is open belong to the decoy. See the decoy vault page.

In your backup

Backup carries your photos, videos and documents, your stacks, your notes and your records. Files, names, notes and record fields are encrypted on your iPhone before they are uploaded, so iCloud receives only ciphertext.

Free or Pro

The free plan includes passcode and Face ID lock, the recovery key, Recently Deleted, encrypted iCloud backup, stacks, the photo editor, the private browser and the USB drop box. On the free plan you can make up to 3 sub-stacks, and Sealed Pro has no limit. Each stack can have its own lock, and stack locks are part of Sealed Pro. Creating a time-sealed stack or an evidence stack is part of Sealed Pro, while opening one and adding to it are not.

Where Sealed helps, and where it doesn’t

It helps keep a growing vault in order, and put a second lock on what matters most. Each stack can have its own lock, and stack locks are part of Sealed Pro.

It doesn’t do these things:

• Sort for you. You decide what goes where. Stacks and sub-stacks keep your vault organized.
• Lock a stack on the free plan. Each stack can have its own lock, and stack locks are part of Sealed Pro.
• Make a time seal into encryption. A time seal is a promise the app keeps, not extra encryption: the contents are encrypted like the rest of your vault, and setting the phone’s clock ahead reaches the day sooner.
• Stop someone who knows the stack’s code. A known code opens it, the same as any lock. See choosing a lock.