Someone shared a safe with you. Here you can read where to find it, why you cannot open it yet, and what changes when it opens. You do not need to do anything in the meantime. The safe stays on your phone.
Where received safes live
- Open the Safes tab.
- Choose the Received filter. Safes shared with your account appear here.
- Tap a safe to open it.
The Overview tab lists received safes under Your safes, with the time remaining and the date the safe would open. The Action needed section above it is only about safes you own and have to extend yourself.
While the safe is closed
A closed safe shows how much time is left and the date it would open. Under What happens? you see the three steps:
- Copy received. The safe is on this device.
- Stays closed until that date. The person who sent it can extend the safe to push the date further away.
- Open afterwards. The contents are not available yet.
The files are already on your phone, but nobody can read them yet. Part of what is needed to open the safe stays with us until the date passes. That is why we cannot look inside either.
The person who sent it may extend the safe, which moves the date further away. That is normal: as long as they are around and extending it, you do not need the safe.
When the safe opens
- You get a message that a safe is ready to open.
- Open the safe. It now reads Ready to open, with the date it opened.
- Tap Open the safe. The contents appear on your phone.
- Open a file to view it, or select files and use the share option to save copies with your device's own share menu.
The contents are read only: you can view, open, and save copies, but not change what is in the safe. Notes, photos, documents, and videos all open in the app or in your device's own viewer.
What the person who sent it can still do
- Before the safe opens, they can extend it as often as they like.
- They can take back access. The safe then never opens, and the app on your phone removes the files as best it can.
- Once you have opened or saved something, it cannot be taken back. A copy you saved lives on your device, not in SafelyShare.
Good to know
- A received safe lives on the phone that received it. On another phone, the app tells you the files are not on that device.
- You cannot change when a received safe opens, or its reminder. Only the person who sent it can.
- If you use an app code, keep it safe: erasing local data removes received safes from that device as well.
- Once the safe has opened, save anything you want to keep for the long term to your own storage.
Need help?
Received a safe you did not expect, or unable to open a file after the safe opened? Contact us through the contact page.