Three Turns: one dial, three numbers

The dial of a wall safe

Three Turns is one dial numbered 00 to 99, turned to three numbers that are the six digits of a 6-digit passcode.

A safe in an office wall doesn’t ask for six separate digits. It asks for a few numbers, each one a stop on the same dial, and you spin from one to the next. Three Turns borrows that idea, without the old rule of turning right, then left, then right again.

How your code becomes three numbers

Split your six digits into pairs. Each pair is one number on the dial.

So nothing about your passcode changes. You read it differently, and you put it in with three turns instead of six taps. Sealed’s default passcode is 6 digits, and you can choose 4 or 9 digits or a password instead. If you kept the default, your code already fits.

Three numbers out of a hundred each make a million combinations, exactly as many as six digits on a keypad. Nothing is lost by reading the code in pairs.

Aiming at a number

A dial with a hundred stops is easy to read and harder to hit. On Three Turns you turn the dial to a number and lock it in, and two buttons move the dial one number back or forward.

• Spin fast to get close, then slow down for the last few stops.
• Count by feel. Soft clicks mark each stop, firmer ones the fives, and the firmest the tens.
• Nudge before you lock in. If you land one off, the arrow buttons move the dial one number. A number counts only once you lock it in.

On a day when your aim is off, tap Use Keypad and type the same six digits.

Before the first turn

1. Your passcode needs to be six digits. If it isn’t, change it while the vault is open. While your vault is open, Settings, then Passcode & Unlock, then Change Passcode lets you choose a new passcode. The screen asks for the new passcode twice and does not ask for the old one.
2. To choose a lock screen, open Settings, then Passcode & Unlock, and tap Lock Screen: each style has its own page to try it on, with a Use This Lock Screen button.
3. Swipe to Three Turns and spin a practice code until the stops feel natural.
4. Tap Use This Lock Screen. Your passcode stays as it is.

Where Sealed helps, and where it doesn’t

It helps if you like the feel of a safe and want your full six digits behind it. Three Turns is one dial numbered 00 to 99, turned to three numbers that are the six digits of a 6-digit passcode.

It doesn’t do these things:

• Add strength of its own. Every lock screen style is another way to enter your passcode, so it changes how you enter it and not how many combinations it has.
• Take four or nine digits. Those need another style: see the Rotary page.
• Keep three numbers from a watcher. Three numbers are easier to remember than six digits, for a watcher too. Break-in alerts react only to wrong tries.