Locked out of Gallery Vault, Keepsafe or LockMyPix? How to get your photos back

Locked out of your photo vault? Before you try anything drastic, find out what your app's own recovery offers. For the popular vault apps, getting back in depends on something you set up on day one: an email address, a security question or a spare password. Here's how recovery works in Keepsafe, Gallery Vault, LockMyPix and Vaulty, taken from each app's own help pages (checked on 23 October 2026), and what not to do while you're locked out.

First, don't make it worse

• Stop guessing. Vaults slow you down after wrong tries, and some erase themselves after too many.
• Don't uninstall the app or clear its data. Some vaults keep your photos only on the phone, and even when the files survive, the key that opens them may not. Here's what an uninstall really does.
• Don't factory reset. It wipes every vault on the phone, with no way back unless you have a backup.
• Don't pay an "unlocker". A vault that encrypts your photos can't be opened without its key, and a stranger promising otherwise gets your money, and possibly your photos.

Keepsafe

Keepsafe resets a forgotten PIN through your verified email address. On Android:

1. Open Keepsafe and tap the ⋮ icon at the top right.
2. Tap Reset PIN, then Send code.
3. Find the access code in your email. Keepsafe waits 5 minutes before sending it, for extra security.
4. Enter the code, tap Next and choose a new PIN or pattern.

The code goes to every verified email address on your account. If you've permanently lost access to the only one you verified, Keepsafe says it can't recover the account or its contents. If you get back in, add and verify a second email address.

Gallery Vault

Gallery Vault's help says your files are stored only on your phone, not online, and that you reset a forgotten passcode by email:

1. Search your mailbox for thinkyeah to find Gallery Vault's latest email, and follow its steps to reset your passcode.
2. Can't find it? Open Gallery Vault's lock screen and enter a wrong passcode twice. A Forgot button appears: tap it, then Resend Auth Email.

If you've hidden Gallery Vault's icon, open Settings → Apps → GalleryVault and tap Manage Space to reach its lock screen.

LockMyPix

LockMyPix offers two ways back, and both only work if you turned them on in its settings beforehand: a recovery email address or an alternative access password.

1. On the LockMyPix login, enter a wrong password, then tap the password recovery hint at the top.
2. Enter your recovery email, open the link LockMyPix sends you (it can take up to 5 minutes) and enter the code in the app. Or enter your alternative access password instead.

Without either one, LockMyPix says plainly that you can't get back in. There's no backdoor.

Vaulty

Vaulty resets a forgotten password with the security question you chose. On the password screen, tap reset password and answer it. That option isn't there if you turned on Vaulty's secret door feature. If you use its calculator disguise, remember the way in: type your PIN, then press and hold =. Other calculator vaults have their own reset codes.

If that doesn't work, email Vaulty's support at help@vaultyapp.com. Vaulty points out that there's no account to restore content from: your photos are only on your phone, unless you turned on its online backup.

If none of that works

If you can't use your app's recovery, the honest answer is that a properly encrypted vault can't be opened without its key, by you or anyone else. That's what protects you when a phone is stolen, and it's why the recovery set up beforehand matters so much. Our guide to a forgotten vault PIN covers the general options, and if the vault came with a cloud backup, its support team is the place to ask. A vault that only hid your files in a folder is a different story, and our guide to finding hidden photos shows where they might still be.

When you're back in

Set up every recovery option your vault offers, and keep a backup somewhere other than your phone. If being locked out has made you rethink your vault, our comparisons of Hidey and Keepsafe and Vaulty alternatives look at how others handle backups and recovery.

How recovery works in Hidey

We'd rather you knew this before you need it. Hidey offers different ways back depending on how you set it up:

• Google Drive backup. On the lock screen, tap forgot pin to reset it with Google after a 24-hour wait, measured by Google's servers. Entering your PIN in the meantime cancels the reset. The catch: the reset works from a copy of your key kept in your Drive backup, so whoever controls your Google account could reset it too, unless you turn on zero-knowledge mode (Pro).
• Zero-knowledge mode (Pro). There's no Google reset. Instead, a 28-character recovery key that only you hold resets your PIN.
• No Google sign-in. A forgotten PIN can't be reset, and Hidey says so when you set it up. A backup file you exported can be restored with a new PIN.
• Fingerprint. If fingerprint unlock is on, it still opens your vault, so you can unhide your files or export a backup even with the PIN forgotten.

Two exceptions: a hidden vault's PIN (Pro) can't be reset at all, so nothing can reveal the vault exists, and the calculator disguise has no forgot pin link, so use it only with a PIN you know well.