Docs / Import and capture

Import and capture

There are four ways to get content into a vault.

From Photos

Pick photos and videos from your library, up to 50 items at a time.

From the Files app

Pick files of any type from the Files app. You can pick several at once.

Drag and drop on iPad

On iPad, drag files and photos into the vault.

In-app camera

Capture photos and videos directly into the vault. Camera captures are never saved to your photo library, so there is no original to delete.

Deleting the originals

Turn on Delete originals after import in Settings → Import. It is off by default. It applies to imports from Photos, from the Files app and by drag and drop.

  • Checked first. After an import, Vaultron reads each encrypted copy back from the vault and compares its SHA-256 checksum with what was imported. An original is deleted only if its copy passed this check; if a copy fails, its original is kept and listed.
  • Vaultron asks first. It asks “Delete the originals?” (for photos, “Delete the originals from Photos?”) with Delete and Keep. Switch on Don’t ask again to keep your answer; turning the setting off and on again starts asking again.
  • Photos. iOS shows one confirmation for the whole import. Cancelling it keeps both the originals and the vault copies. Photos keeps deleted items in Recently Deleted for 30 days. If Vaultron has access to selected photos only, photos outside that selection stay in Photos. A Live Photo is deleted only if its video part was imported too. Burst photos stay in Photos, because only the frame you picked is imported.
  • Files and drag and drop. Files are deleted where they were. Files in locations that don’t allow deleting, and drags where the other app shared only a copy, stay where they are and are listed by name. Deleting a file is permanent, unless the place it was stored keeps its own copy.
  • Report. Afterwards, a short report at the top of the library shows “Imported: N · Deleted from source: M”, and which items were kept and why.

Import quality

Settings → Import → Import quality:

  • Optimized (the default) stores photos as HEIC and videos as HEVC at high quality, which usually takes less space. This re-encodes them, so it is not a byte-for-byte copy. Files already in those formats, images with transparency, and files that would not get smaller or cannot be converted are kept as they are.
  • Original keeps every file exactly as imported.

Documents are never converted.

Limits

Import follows your plan’s limits. On the free plan, the total is 100 photos and 10 videos across the device; documents and notes are not counted. Pro has no photo or video limit. See Plans and prices.