Getting started
Set up an emergency (recovery) contact
Name a family member who can help you back into your safe if you forget your safe password — and choose how much time you get to cancel a request.
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Your safe password never reaches our servers — that’s what keeps your safe private, and it’s also why we can’t reset it for you. A recovery contact is your way back in: a family member you name who can help you if you’re locked out or unreachable.
You have to create a family and invite the person first. The picker only lists people who are already family members, so this step won’t work until they’ve accepted your invitation.
Add a recovery contact
- Go to Family settings in the sidebar and click Recovery contacts.
- Click Add recovery contact.
- Pick the family member you want.
- Choose a cancel window — 24 hours, 3 days, 7 days, 14 days, or 30 days. 7 days is the default.
- Confirm. They’ll see the request on their own Recovery contacts screen and accept it there.
What the cancel window means
Your recovery contact can do two things for you:
- Approve a safe-password reset. If you forget your safe password, you request a reset and they approve it. This happens right away.
- Request emergency access. If you’re unreachable, they can ask to read your safe. You’re notified, and the cancel window is how long you have to stop it before access is granted.
A shorter window is more responsive in a genuine emergency. A longer one gives you more time to notice and cancel a request you didn’t expect. Pick whichever trade-off you’re comfortable with — you can name more than one recovery contact, each with their own window. We suggest giving your partner a 24-hour window so they can get access quickly in an emergency, and giving someone you don’t absolutely trust with access to all of your accounts a longer window, up to 30 days.
Why do this early?
This is the only way back into your safe if you forget your safe password. We can’t reset it for you — your safe password never reaches our servers, which is exactly why your safe is private. So it’s worth setting up while you’re thinking about it, right after someone joins your family.
Still stuck? Ask a question → and we’ll help.