Your two keys
| Key | Where it lives | What it can do |
|---|---|---|
| Phone key | Your phone's secure chip. It opens only with your enrolled face or fingerprint, never your passcode, and can't be copied off the phone | Send, cancel and lock. After 7 days on a phone, also change settings |
| Restore key | A passkey in iCloud Keychain or Google Password Manager | Add a new phone (48 hours) or send everything home (7 days). Nothing else |
Adding a phone
A phone you add can send 48 hours after it is accepted, or 12 if you also tap your FortCard, and can change settings 7 days after that. Every phone and your email are told, and any of your existing phones can cancel the addition. You can have up to three phones.
What to do when something goes missing
| Situation | What happens | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Phone lost, another phone still works | Remove the lost phone and add a new one | 48 hours |
| Phone lost, cloud and FortCard at home | Your passkey and FortCard add the new phone, which can lock and cancel at once | Sending after 12 hours |
| Phone lost, no FortCard | Your passkey adds the new phone | Sending after 48 hours |
| A phone you didn't add appears | Send everything home from any device signed into your cloud | 7 days |
| Cloud account taken over | Cancel the stranger's phone from yours, then replace the passkey | Act within 48 hours |
| Face or fingerprint changed | Another phone or your passkey re-adds this phone | 48 hours, or 12 with a FortCard |
| Phone and cloud both lost | The inactivity return, or with Protect, recovery by email and SMS or identity | 12 months and 30 days; 30 or 14 days with Protect |
Phone stolen with its passcode
The thief still can't send: sending opens only with your face. From any device signed into your cloud account, choose "Send everything home"; a phone the thief adds can't stop it. With Protect, tap "This wasn't me" or ask your trusted contact to lock your vault. Tell your exchange too.
The one gap we accept: with a single phone, no Protect, and your cloud account also taken within 48 hours, a thief can add their own phone and send after the waits. Turn on Stolen Device Protection on iPhone or theft protection on Android, and read your alerts.
Recovery with Protect
If your phone and your cloud are both gone, Protect recovers by email and SMS in 30 days, or by an identity check in 14. Every assisted recovery ends at your own home and never adds a key, so an impostor who gets through it only sends your money to your own account.
Questions
Is the restore passkey a seed phrase?
No. It lives in your cloud account and can do only two things: add a phone, which waits 48 hours while you are alerted, or send everything home, which waits 7 days. It can never send money anywhere else.
Can Fortcore recover my vault for me?
Only with Protect, and only by sending everything to your own home after a wait. Fortcore can never add a key or send money anywhere else.