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Turn on Pop Vault

Sign in to Pop Vault with the emailed code, choose how many copies to keep, and see each new backup file copied to the cloud.

For
Owner
Hosting
Any hosting
Devices
All devices
Business
All businesses

Checked against Pop Dispatch 0.1.0

Pop Vault keeps an encrypted copy of your backup files in the cloud, away from your office. If the computer is stolen, flooded or broken, your records are still there. Pop Vault is free for the first year, then $29 a year per licence. It keeps 1 to 3 copies.

You will sign in once, choose how many copies to keep, and watch the first copy go up.

Before you start #

  • Only the owner uses backups.
  • You need the email of your thepopstreet.com account. It is the account tied to your paid licence.
  • Have your recovery key written down. The files in Pop Vault are encrypted with your business recovery key before they leave this computer, and a restore needs that key. Pop Vault has no way to open the files or to recover the key. See "The vault and your recovery key".

Sign in #

  1. Open Settings, then Backups, and find the Pop Vault card.
  2. Type the email of your thepopstreet.com account and select Email me a code.
  3. Type the code from the email and select Sign in.

The card now shows the account email, the last four characters of the licence, the plan, the renewal date and how much space you have used.

Choose how many copies to keep #

Pick 1, 2 or 3 under Copies to keep. Pop Vault keeps that many of the newest copies and removes older ones. Choosing a smaller number removes the extra old copies at once.

What happens next #

  1. Each night the server makes its backup file as before and saves it in your backup folder.
  2. The newest file then goes up to Pop Vault in pieces. If the connection drops, the next try carries on from where it stopped.
  3. The card lists each copy with its time, the computer that made it, its name and its size.

Select Back up now to make a new file and copy it straight away. The card shows the progress while it goes up.

To stop copying for a while, clear Copy each new backup to Pop Vault. Your local backups carry on.

Read the plan #

  • Free first year and Active: new files go up.
  • Renewal overdue (grace period): new files still go up. Renew soon.
  • Lapsed: new files stay on this computer only until you renew. The card says so in red.

Sign out #

Select Sign out of Pop Vault to remove this computer from your account. The copies already in Pop Vault stay there until the plan ends or newer copies replace them.

Technical details
  • The service is https://vault.thepopstreet.com/v1. The server keeps its device token sealed under the data key, in the Keychain on a Mac and under DPAPI on Windows.
  • Sign-in state, the upload in progress and the last result live in vault-state.json in the data folder, outside the database.
  • Each chunk carries its own SHA-256, and the whole file is checked by the service when the upload completes.
  • Three failed runs in a row (no answer, or a service error) pause calls for 30 minutes, then one trial call goes through. Pop Dispatch keeps running whatever Pop Vault does.
  • The routes behind the card are listed in docs/pop-vault-api-client.md.

If something goes wrong #

  • That code did not match: ask for a new code. Codes run out after a few minutes.
  • Calls are paused: Pop Vault could not be reached several times. The card shows when the next try is. Check the internet connection.
  • No room in Pop Vault: remove an older copy by lowering the number of copies to keep, or ask thepopstreet.com about more space.
  • Signed out: the account removed this computer. Sign in again.