Haven Vault · iPhone, iPad and Mac
Support
Email mj@haven.app and a person will reply. Include your device, its iOS or macOS version and the app version if something is not working.
On iPhone and iPad
Getting started
Open Haven Vault, choose your Haven name (@name) and look at the camera for a few seconds to enrol. The app is free to download: your vault, camera, albums and receiving are free, sharing uses free monthly credits, and every new Haven ID starts with 3 days of Premium. A short guided start creates your first album and adds your first photo from Photos or the in-app camera.
I already have a Haven ID
On the Welcome screen tap I already use Haven and enter your recovery email. We send a one-time code. Your face is enrolled again on the new phone, because face data never leaves a device, and your old phone is signed out.
Sharing a photo
Hold a photo and choose Share. Pick a person by @name, or copy an invite link for someone not yet on Haven. Choose view once, 24 hours, 7 days or until you take it back, and whether they may keep a copy. Take a share back at any time from Photos › Shared.
Who can see comments?
Comments on a photo you share with one person are private between the two of you. If you share the same photo with someone else, they have their own separate conversation with you and never see the first one.
Security off
Turn security off for 30 minutes to show your own photos to someone without alerts. While it is off, photos shared with you are covered and cannot be opened.
Subscription
Manage or cancel in Settings › your name › Subscriptions. If it ends, you can still view, export and delete everything in your vault. Use Restore on the subscription screen after reinstalling.
Deleting your Haven ID
Tap your profile photo on the home screen, then Delete Haven ID and erase this vault.
To report a user or a comment: hold the comment and choose Report, or open their profile and use … › Report. Reports reach a person and are acted on within 24 hours.
On Mac: getting started
Enrolling
On first launch the app asks for camera access and then asks you to enrol. Sit at a normal working distance in even light, facing the camera. Enrolment takes a few seconds. If it will not complete, the usual cause is strong backlighting — a window behind you — so turn around or move.
Adding files
Drag files or folders onto the vault window, or use the add button. Files are encrypted as they go in. The original file on disk is not moved or changed; remove it yourself if you do not want a second copy.
Opening a file
Open the vault by being in front of it. Double-click a file to view it. If the app is unsure that you are really there, it asks you to turn your head — this is deliberate and takes a moment.
Troubleshooting
It does not recognise me
- Check the lighting. Even, front-facing light works best; a bright window behind you is the most common cause of failure.
- Glasses, hats and heavy shadow all change the measurement. If your appearance has changed a lot since you enrolled, enrol again from Settings.
- Check that no other application is holding the camera. macOS allows one app at a time.
It keeps asking me to turn my head
The app asks for a movement response when it cannot tell whether it is looking at a living person or a static image. Poor light, an unusually still posture or a partially blocked camera all trigger it. Improve the light first.
The camera light is on when I am not using the app
If the vault is open, the app is watching for your presence and the light stays on — that is the product working. Seal the vault and the camera stops. If the light is on with the vault sealed and the app quit, it is not Haven Vault; check your other applications.
I cannot add more files
The free tier holds 10 files. New installs get 30 days without the limit; after that the vault stays at 10 files. Nothing already in the vault is deleted or locked away when the trial ends — you keep access to everything you put in. Haven Vault Pro removes the limit.
I want to erase the activity record
Settings › Activity › Erase. Erased entries are recoverable for 30 days. A permanent entry recording that an erase happened is always kept, by design: the record would be worth nothing if it could be silently emptied.
I want to start over
Deleting the app removes everything — your enrolment, your vault contents and your activity record. Export anything you want to keep first. There is no cloud copy and we cannot recover it for you.
Questions people ask
Can a photograph of me open my vault?
Sometimes, yes. Haven Vault matches a measurement of your face, and a good photograph produces a similar measurement. The movement challenge defeats a still image held to the camera, but a printed photograph turned in front of the camera can sometimes satisfy it. Haven Vault is built for the everyday case, not for a determined attacker who has your machine and a picture of you. We would rather say so here than have you find out.
Does anything leave my Mac?
Your face measurement, your files and your activity record do not — they are sealed on this Mac and are never uploaded. There is no account and no sign-in.
Haven Vault sends nothing to Haven — no analytics, no tracking, no telemetry. One thing does use the network: the Private Browser connects to the websites you visit, exactly as Safari would. Haven does not transmit what you do there to anyone.
Whether anything is kept on your Mac is your choice, and the browser has a switch for it. On Leave no trace, the default, nothing survives: no history, no cookies, no cache. On Remember where I was, Haven keeps the list of pages you visited, encrypted with your vault key and held inside Haven like your files, and reopens the last one when you return. Your signed-in sessions are kept too, by macOS's own web engine — Haven cannot encrypt those, so they rest on your Mac's file permissions and FileVault. Either way it stays on this Mac. See the privacy policy.
Can Haven recover my files if I lose them?
No. We hold nothing. That is the point of the design, and it is also its cost — keep your own backups of anything important.
Does it work with an external camera?
Yes, with any camera macOS recognises. It uses the system default camera.
Is Haven Vault the same as Haven Desktop?
No — they are separate products and do not share data. Haven Desktop is the fuller product and is distributed directly. Enrolling in one does not enrol you in the other. See Haven Desktop.
Contact
mj@haven.app · Haven Holding Company L.L.C, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. We aim to answer within two working days.