The USB Drop Box: a Finder folder that empties into the vault

A folder that empties itself

Most apps that show up in Finder keep their files there for good. The drop box works the other way round: it is a waiting room. You drag things in from the Mac, and the next time you unlock the vault, they move inside and the folder is empty again.

A USB drop box folder shows up in Finder when you connect your iPhone to a Mac, and it is free.

Turning it on

The folder only exists once you ask for it.

1. Open Settings in Sealed.
2. Under Transfer, switch on USB Drop Box. The USB Drop Box is a switch in Settings, under Transfer, and turning it on makes a folder called USB Drop Box with a READ ME file in it.

The READ ME sits in the folder so the steps are in front of you on the Mac, where you need them.

Dragging files in

1. Plug the iPhone into the Mac and unlock it. Tap Trust on the phone the first time.
2. In a Finder window, click the iPhone in the sidebar.
3. Click the Files tab, then the triangle next to Sealed.
4. Drag photos, or a whole folder of them, onto USB Drop Box.
5. Pick up the phone, open Sealed and unlock.

To use it, you connect the iPhone to your computer, open Finder, select your iPhone, then Files, then Sealed, and drop files into USB Drop Box.

Loose files and whole folders dropped into the USB drop box are both brought in. Sub-folders are fine too: you don’t need to flatten an old archive first.

The gap, and how to close it

Files in the USB drop box folder are not encrypted until you next open and unlock Sealed, so Sealed says to open the app right after copying.

Between the drag and the unlock, the files are plain files inside the app’s folder on the phone. Any Mac the phone trusts could open them. The fix is simple: unlock straight after the copy finishes, while the cable is still in.

As soon as you unlock, each file is sealed and removed from the folder. A file in the USB drop box folder is removed from the folder only after it has been imported into the vault.

A big folder can take a while to copy. A file changed in the last few seconds is left for the next pass, so a copy still in progress isn’t sealed half-written. Leave the app open and the rest follows.

What Finder shows

The drop box is the only folder of Sealed that a computer can see: the encrypted vault files are kept where Finder never shows them.

Someone who plugs your phone into their own computer sees the drop box and its READ ME, and nothing of what is sealed. That is also why the gap above matters: the drop box is the one place a computer can reach.

Which vault the files go to

Files from the share sheet or the USB drop box are brought in only while your real vault is open, never in the decoy vault. If the decoy vault is open, the files keep waiting.

On the free plan, files that come in through the share sheet or the USB drop box follow the free rules: photos only, while the vault has room, and the rest wait with a message.

Turning it off

Switch it off in the same place when you are done. The folder is removed only if it is empty, so a copy in progress is never thrown away.

The originals stay on the Mac. Delete them there, and empty the Trash, once they show up in the vault.

If your computer isn’t a Mac, or you’d rather skip the cable, see wireless transfer. Wireless transfer sends files from your computer to your iPhone over your own Wi-Fi, and it is part of Sealed Pro.

Where Sealed helps, and where it doesn’t

It helps you move a whole archive from a Mac into the vault with no network at all. A USB drop box folder shows up in Finder when you connect your iPhone to a Mac, and it is free.

It doesn’t do these things:

• Seal files the moment they land. Files in the USB drop box folder are not encrypted until you next open and unlock Sealed, so Sealed says to open the app right after copying.
• Clean up the Mac. Only the drop box folder empties itself. A file in the USB drop box folder is removed from the folder only after it has been imported into the vault.
• Take videos or documents on the free plan. On the free plan, files that come in through the share sheet or the USB drop box follow the free rules: photos only, while the vault has room, and the rest wait with a message. The guide to moving photos into a vault lists the other ways in.