Manage devices

Everything about who has access to this shared book: the list of devices, removing one, and the owner key that makes all of it possible.

Only an owner sees this screen. If you're a collaborator you'll find just the Restore owner access panel instead.

Who's on this book

One row per device, not per person — someone using a phone and a laptop appears twice. Each row shows whether that device is an owner or a collaborator, which one you're using right now, and when it last synced.

A device that has been removed keeps its row, marked Revoked, so you can see what happened rather than watching a row silently vanish.

Renaming a device

Tap Rename to give a device a name that means something — "Sam's phone" beats "android device". The name is shared with everyone on the book and shows up wherever the app has to say which device did something.

Removing a device

Revoke cuts a device off. It stops syncing the next time it tries, and the person using it is told they were removed.

Two things it does not do, and both matter:

• It doesn't delete their copy. The book stays on their device and stays readable. Revoking stops future updates; it can't reach back and erase what they already have.
• It doesn't change the password. They still know it — see the next section.

You can't revoke the device you're using, and a book always keeps at least one owner.

Changing the password afterwards

Because a removed device still knows the book password, anything synced from now on could in principle be decrypted by whoever kept a copy of the old data. Changing the password closes that door, and the app offers to do it right after a revoke.

Be ready for what it involves: every remaining device stops syncing and asks for the new password, and you have to tell them what it is — the app can't pass a password along. On a book with several devices, do it when you can reach everyone.

Owner access

Being an owner means holding a key that lives on this device only. There's no account behind it and nothing for us to reset, so if this device is lost or wiped and no other device is an owner, the book can never be administered again — no new invites, no removals, ever.

Generate recovery phrase shows 24 words. Write them down, in order, and keep them somewhere safe and durable — a password manager is ideal, a photo in your camera roll is not. They are shown once and cannot be recovered.

The order matters, and the words are checked: if you mistype one or swap two, the app tells you the phrase is wrong rather than silently handing back a key that doesn't work.

Anyone holding the phrase can administer your book — invite and remove devices. They still can't read it: that needs the book password, which the phrase doesn't contain.

Do this the day you set up sharing, not the day you need it.

Becoming an owner

The same phrase has two uses.

Recovering. Lost the owner device? Rebuild the book on a new one with More → Restore a shared book, using the phrase and the book password.

Adding a second owner. Give the phrase to someone already on the book and have them enter it here. Their device becomes an owner too, and can invite and remove devices. Two owners means one lost phone is an inconvenience rather than the end of the book — this is the cheapest insurance available.

Anyone with the phrase can do this, so treat it like the keys to the book. Generating a new phrase doesn't disable an old one.

Tips

• Do the owner-key backup and a second owner on day one. Both take a minute and neither can be done after the fact.
• Rename devices as soon as they join. "This device" is only obvious on the device you're holding.
• Revoke a device you've lost even if you're fairly sure nobody found it, then change the password.