Your recovery kit

What your recovery kit is, when PromptMason asks you to save one, where to keep it, and what to do if you lose it.

Your recovery kit is a spare copy of your keys: one file and a 32-character code. Your PCs already hold your keys, so you’ll only need the kit if you ever lose every PC you use PromptMason on, or forget your App Lock password (If you forget your password). It’s insurance. You save it once and, with luck, never use it.

You need both the file and the code. Either one on its own opens nothing.

When PromptMason asks you to save one

Only once, the first time you turn on one of these:

• automatic backups (Backups)
• your personal library on your other PCs (Use your library on a second PC)
• creating or joining your first team library (Team libraries)
• App Lock (Lock PromptMason with a password)

After that, PromptMason never asks for your kit in normal work. You don’t need it to create, share or join a library, to add a PC that one of your other PCs can confirm, to accept a teammate, or to make another copy of the kit. If you only use PromptMason on one PC and don’t turn on any of these, you never see a kit at all.

Save your kit

When the Save your recovery kit step appears:

1. Click Save kit file… and choose where to save the file, for example a USB stick. You see Saved when it’s done.
2. Write down the code shown under 2. Write down the code, or click Copy and paste it into your password manager. It’s shown only now, and PromptMason doesn’t keep a copy. The code has no zeros, so an O is always the letter.
3. Under 3. To check you wrote it down, type the last 4 characters of the code. Capital or small letters both work.
4. Click I’ve saved my kit.

If you see “Save the kit file first (step 1).”, do step 1 before clicking I’ve saved my kit. If you see “That doesn’t match the last 4 characters of the code. Check step 3 and try again.”, check what you wrote down against the code on screen. If you see “The kit file couldn’t be saved there. Try another place.”, click Save kit file… again and pick another place.

Where to keep it

Keep the file and the code somewhere safe, away from this PC. A good choice is the file on a USB stick in a drawer and the code in your password manager. Keep them in different places: someone who has both can act as you, the same as someone who has your unlocked PC.

Don’t keep the only copy on the PC itself. If you lose the PC, you lose the kit with it.

If you haven’t confirmed yet

If you closed the Save your recovery kit step before clicking I’ve saved my kit, Notifications (the bell in the top-right corner) shows Confirm you saved your recovery kit. This checks the kit you already saved; it doesn’t make a new one.

1. Click the bell, then Check my kit. The Confirm you saved your recovery kit window opens over Settings → Libraries & sharing.

2. Under Your recovery kit file, choose the recovery kit file you saved.

3. Under Its code, type its code.

4. Click Check my kit. PromptMason opens the kit to make sure it’s the right one. Nothing is saved or changed, and the reminder goes away.

   

The Recovery kit row in Settings → Libraries & sharing then says “Saved. You’ll only need it if you lose every PC you use PromptMason on.” (with App Lock on: “…if you forget your App Lock password or lose every PC you use PromptMason on.”) Until then it says “You haven’t confirmed you saved it yet.”

If the check fails:

If you’ve lost the file or the code:

1. In the same window, click Lost it? Make a new kit. The window becomes Make another recovery kit.
2. If App Lock is on, type your App Lock password.
3. Click Make a copy.
4. Follow the steps under Save your kit.

Any kit you saved before keeps working too.

Make another copy

If you’ve misplaced the file but still have a working PC:

1. Click Settings in the sidebar, then Libraries & sharing.

2. In the Recovery kit row, click Make another kit.

   

3. If App Lock is on, type your App Lock password. Make a copy stays grayed out until you type it. (If the password is wrong, PromptMason says “Enter your App Lock password to make a new recovery kit.”)

4. Click Make a copy.

5. Follow the steps under Save your kit.

The copy has its own code. Your other kits keep working, and nothing else changes.

If the kit may be in someone else’s hands, don’t make a copy. Click Advanced at the bottom of Libraries & sharing, then My kit was stolen. See Lost or stolen PC or kit for the steps.

A member made a new recovery kit

If you’re the primary owner of a team library, Notifications may show A member made a new recovery kit: “[name] made a new recovery kit on [PC] and needs one click to use it here.” A member replaced their keys, for example after their kit was stolen or one of their PCs was removed, and the library needs to take their new keys.

1. Click Review.
2. Check the name and PC are ones you expect. If the window adds “One of their PCs was removed while it still held their keys”, approving also locks that PC out for good.
3. Click Approve. If you didn’t expect it, click Decline and check with the member first.

On a PC that isn’t the library’s approving PC, the window says “Approve this from [PC], the PC that approves changes to who is in [library].” and has only Close. Go to that PC. See The primary owner for how to find it.

It’s one click, with no call, because the request came from one of the member’s own approved PCs. See also Approve a PC.

When you’d use it

Only in recovery, when your own PCs can’t help:

• You lost every PC. On a new PC, Restore with recovery kit brings your libraries back. See Lost or stolen PC or kit.
• You’re opening a backup on a PC that has never held your keys, such as a brand-new PC. See Backups.
• You’re a primary owner and your approving PC is lost or broken. The kit makes another of your PCs the approving one. See The primary owner.

If you lose every PC and the kit

• Team libraries: the library’s primary owner can put you back, with the same name and role, after a quick call. See Lost or stolen PC or kit. If you’re the library’s primary owner, nobody can put you back. Another owner of the library can export it and start a new one (The primary owner).
• Your personal library: it can’t be recovered. Nobody else can open it, PromptMason included. That’s why PromptMason asks you to save the kit before your personal library leaves this PC.