Alternative vaults

Most of the time one vault is all you need. Sometimes you want a second one, kept apart from the first.

What it does

An alternative vault is a separate vault opened by a different PIN. It has its own master key, its own photos, videos and files, its own albums and its own recovery phrase. Nothing in Silo’s screens lists it or counts it, so the main vault shows no sign that it is there.

You might use one to keep one set of things apart from another, or to hold different material for different purposes.

How it works, step by step

1. Unlock your main vault and open Settings. Choose Add a vault.
2. Enter your current PIN. Silo checks it’s you.
3. Choose a PIN for the new vault. It must be different from every other PIN you use in Silo, and Silo turns down a clash.
4. Write down its recovery phrase. The new vault has its own, and Silo asks you to check the words.
5. Done. Silo says: lock Silo and enter this PIN to open it.

From then on, the lock screen opens whichever vault the PIN belongs to. Every PIN takes the same time to check, so the wait doesn’t tell anyone which vault it opened or whether a PIN was right.

To remove a vault, open it, go to Settings and choose Delete this vault. Silo asks you to confirm, because it can’t be undone.

What stays the same

Settings look the same in every vault, with no count and no list. Auto-lock, the app-switcher cover and screenshot blocking apply to the whole phone, so changing one in a vault doesn’t make it differ.

Honest limits

This is separation, not invisibility. Anyone who knows Silo also knows the feature exists, so what protects you is that they can’t tell whether you use it. The phone’s own storage screen shows how much space Silo takes, and someone examining the app’s files directly may be able to count the vaults. If you add a backup, the size of your cloud storage may show more than your main vault holds.