Recovery scenarios

Five real-world things that go wrong. Find your scenario, follow the steps. If your situation doesn’t match any of these, jump to I’m in trouble at the bottom.

1. “I lost my phone”

You still have at least one other paired device (laptop, tablet, browser tab). Everything is fine. You just need to revoke the lost device.

1. On a device you still have, go to Settings → Devices.
2. Find the missing device in the list. Click Revoke.
3. Confirm. The revoked device’s session token is invalidated immediately and its wrapped-key bundle is purged on the next item you create.
4. If you got a replacement phone, pair it fresh — see Pairing more devices.

Note

Revocation prevents future sync, not past. Items the lost device already downloaded are still on it. If the phone is wiped (Find My iPhone / Find My Device), the local data goes too.

2. “I cleared my browser / reinstalled the app”

This is treated the same as a brand-new device. You’ll need to re-pair.

1. On a device you still have, go to Settings → Devices → Generate pair code.
2. Get the six words (QR is not scannable in the web app yet — type manually).
3. On the cleared browser, open Settings → SyncBin → Open wizard, choose Pair this device, and enter the code.
4. Your bins re-sync. Existing items download as devices re-wrap keys for the new pairing.

If the cleared browser was your only paired device, this becomes scenario 4 — see below.

3. “I forgot my PIN”

The PIN is just a convenience wrapper. You can always fall back to the recovery phrase.

1. On the lock screen, tap Other unlock methods → Use recovery phrase.
2. Type the 12 words.
3. Once unlocked, go to Settings → Encryption → Reset PIN and set a new one.

If you can unlock with the PIN but want to change it (e.g. someone saw you type it), same path — Settings → Encryption → Reset PIN.

4. “All my devices are gone”

You wiped/lost every paired device. As long as you still have the 12-word recovery phrase, you can bring everything back on a new device.

1. Open syncbins.com on the new device (or your self-hosted URL).
2. Click I have a recovery phrase.
3. Enter the 12 words. The master key is re-derived locally; the device pairs itself into the account.
4. All your bins and items sync down. This can take a few minutes for a large account.

Without the phrase, this scenario is fatal

The server never sees your recovery phrase. We literally cannot recover it for you. If you lose every paired device and the phrase, your bins are gone. This is the price of end-to-end encryption.

Treat the phrase like the seed phrase for a hardware wallet. Paper, fireproof safe, password manager — pick at least two.

5. “I’m moving to a different server”

There is no export/import UI yet (Settings → Backups is a placeholder). Moving vaults means re-creating items manually or waiting for the backup/export API — not a one-click migration today.

Practical options now:

• Keep using the old server until export ships.
• Re-pair all devices against the new server and re-enter important items by hand.
• Use MCP or the REST API to read from the old vault and write to the new one if you build a script (both sides must be paired devices you control).

When server-side encrypted export lands, this section will document the restore path.

I’m in trouble and none of the above applies

Drop a line to info@syncbins.com with as much context as you can: when it started, what device, what changed recently, what error you see (if any). Don’t include your recovery phrase or PIN — ever — even with us.

For self-hosted: also grab docker compose logs syncbins --tail=200 and curl https://your-box/api/health. Half the issues are obvious from those two.

Going deeper

Pairing more devices The standard handshake — QR or 6 words.

The device model What pairing, revocation, and recovery actually do under the hood.