Scan documents straight into a vault, with no copy left behind

The two-step scan leaves a copy behind

The common way to file a document is two steps: scan it with one app, then move the PDF into the place where you keep it. Each step leaves something:

Importing that PDF into a vault doesn’t remove the original. You then have to remember to go back and delete it, and for a note, to make sure the scan isn’t still sitting in an old note you’ve forgotten. Scanning from inside the vault skips the leftover entirely.

Scan into Sealed, step by step

1. Open the vault and go to the stack where the document belongs, or stay on the vault home.
2. Tap the plus button, then Scan Document. The plus button at the top of the vault opens a menu with Photos, Files & Documents, Private Camera, Scan Document, Voice Memo, From Computer (Wi-Fi), From Contacts, New Note and New Record.
3. Hold the phone over the first page. The scanner finds the edges, straightens the page and takes it, then waits for the next. Sealed scans with Apple’s own document scanner, which finds the edges of the page, straightens it and captures several pages in a row, and Sealed turns the pages into one PDF in your vault.
4. Turn the pages and let it capture each one. A four-page bank letter becomes one document, not four images.
5. Save. A scan is written to a temporary PDF that Sealed imports into the vault and then deletes.

The scan lands under the Documents filter, with a sealed thumbnail like everything else. A PDF or other file that is not a photo, video or audio file becomes a document in the vault, with a thumbnail that is sealed too, and you find it under Documents. The vault has filters across the top for All, Photos, Videos, Documents, Notes, Records and Favorites.

Working through a pile of mail

Paper arrives in waves: bank statements, a tax letter, a medical bill, a policy renewal. A scanning session works best as a routine.

• Sort first, scan second. Put each kind in its own heap so each scan goes straight to its stack.
• One stack per kind of paper: Bank, Tax, Health, Home. Sub-stacks for each year keep them short. Stacks and sub-stacks keep your vault organized.
• Name as you go, with the sender and the date: “Water bill, October”. Search finds the name later.
• Check the last page before you shred anything: a missed back page is the usual mistake.
• Shred the paper you no longer need, once the scan is saved and readable.

Getting a readable scan

The same habits help in any app. Scan on a dark, plain surface so the edges stand out. Use daylight or a bright room without a lamp right overhead, which washes out glossy paper. Hold the phone flat above the page. If a page curls, press it flat with a hand outside the frame. Zoom in on the saved scan to check small print before the paper goes.

Paper you must keep anyway

Scanning doesn’t replace every original. Keep the paper for anything signed in ink that you might have to produce: a will, a deed, a title, certified certificates. Scan those for reference and file the paper safely. Our guides on tax documents and storing documents securely cover what to keep for how long, and scanning ID documents covers cards and passports.

Where Sealed helps, and where it doesn’t

It helps turn paper into sealed PDFs with no unlocked copy left in another app. A scan is written to a temporary PDF that Sealed imports into the vault and then deletes. Each file gets its own random 256-bit key, and that key is sealed with your vault key.

It helps keep a year of mail sorted into stacks you can lock one by one. Each stack can have its own lock, and stack locks are part of Sealed Pro.

It doesn’t read the text in your scans or file them for you: you name and sort them. What it does is capture and straighten the pages. Sealed scans with Apple’s own document scanner, which finds the edges of the page, straightens it and captures several pages in a row, and Sealed turns the pages into one PDF in your vault.

It doesn’t scan or keep documents on the free plan. On the free plan you can add photos. Videos, documents, notes and records need Sealed Pro.