Once a vault exists, Myne keeps it locked until you enter your master password. This article covers what you see when you open the app, the message you get when a password doesn’t work and why it is deliberately vague, and how to lock the vault yourself when you step away.
What you see when you open Myne
Myne checks your device on launch and opens the right screen for what it finds:
- No vault yet → the Welcome screen, with three doors: create a vault, restore one from a backup, or add this device to an account you already sync.
- One vault → the Unlock screen for that vault.
- Two or more vaults → the vault picker, where you choose which one to open.
If you keep more than one vault, Multiple vaults covers the picker, switching, and what each vault does and doesn’t share.
Unlocking
Type your master password and confirm. Myne derives your keys from the password and decrypts the vault; this takes about a second, which is deliberate: the key derivation is intentionally slow to make password guessing expensive. When it succeeds, you land in the editor.
Quick unlock after auto-lock
If you turn on quick unlock, the Unlock screen leads with a faster re-entry option after the vault auto-locks: a PIN, or Touch ID on macOS. It shows one credential at a time — a Use password instead link switches to the master-password form, and a matching link switches back, so you can still type your password instead. Quick unlock is off until you enable it from Settings → Privacy. With a PIN, the master password is required again after you restart the app; a configured Touch ID credential can be used on a cold start, because macOS’s own biometric prompt guards it. Touch ID is macOS-only and the app marks it experimental. See Quick unlock for how to set it up and what it does and does not protect.
The links under the password field
Two links sit under the password field. Forgot your password? Unlock with recovery phrase starts the recovery flow. Lost both password and recovery phrase? Delete vault and start over is the only remaining option when both are gone — and it is irreversible: deleting the vault destroys its notes, and nothing brings them back except a backup you took earlier. If you keep more than one vault, a Choose a different vault link takes you back to the picker.
When the password doesn’t work
If unlocking fails, you see one message:
Wrong password or vault file is corrupted.
The message is intentionally ambiguous, and the ambiguity is a privacy property, not a missing feature. Myne genuinely cannot tell you which of the two it is: distinguishing “wrong password” from “damaged file” would mean checking your data against something it could only know by holding a copy of what it is protecting. It refuses to know that. So it reports the honest, combined outcome. Check your password first; if you are sure it is right, the vault file may be damaged, and Restore from a backup is the way back.
Restoring or joining instead of unlocking
The Welcome screen also carries a Restore from backup door. If you are setting up on a new machine, or your vault file is damaged, you restore from a .myne-backup file rather than unlocking an existing vault. The how and the caveats live in Restore from a backup.
The third door, Add this device to an account, is for a vault that already exists on another device and syncs. You give the sync server, your account number and your master password — no recovery phrase — and this device waits until a device already signed in approves it; the vault then arrives over sync rather than from a file. Before a device syncs for the first time, Myne shows you the beta terms and waits for you to accept them. Add a device covers that flow. The same door is reachable later from the vault picker and the vault switcher.
Locking the vault
The bottom bar has a Lock control, next to Settings. Selecting it locks the vault immediately and returns you to the Unlock screen, which is useful when you leave your desk. The command palette carries the same action, listed there as Lock vault. Myne also locks the vault on its own after a period of inactivity; the timing and the screen-capture protection that goes with it are covered in Auto-lock and screen-capture protection.
Limits
The Unlock screen protects your vault against someone who has your computer but not your password; its strength is your password’s strength and the deliberately slow key derivation behind it. It does not protect a vault that is already unlocked and open on screen; lock it when you step away. Quick unlock is a convenience layer over that same encrypted vault, not a stronger gate — Quick unlock covers its trade-offs.