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Moving to a New iPhone or Mac

How your items reach a new device depends on the choice you made the first time you opened Private Passwords: sync through iCloud Keychain, or keep them on that device only. To check, open Settings and look under Sync: the switch Sync via iCloud Keychain shows your choice. It can't be changed there, because every item keeps the choice it was made with. See Syncing Between Your Devices for iPhone or Mac.

If your items sync through iCloud Keychain

Your items are already in iCloud Keychain, end-to-end encrypted by Apple, so the new device only has to fetch them.

What syncs: every item, with everything in it; your templates, tags and types; the settings that change what every device holds, which are Days in the Bin, Allow Archiving and Allow Deleting; and the record of your last import, so that it can be undone from either device. Every other setting belongs to its device.

  1. Sign the new device in to the same Apple Account, with iCloud Keychain on.

    In the Settings app, tap your name, then iCloud, then Passwords & Keychain, and turn it on.

    In System Settings, click your name, then iCloud, then Passwords & Keychain, and turn it on.

  2. Install Private Passwords and open it. When it asks Where are your passwords kept?, choose Sync via iCloud Keychain.

  3. When it asks Is Private Passwords already on another of your devices?, choose Yes, on another device. Nothing is created on the new device: your items, templates and tags arrive from your other devices, usually within a minute. Until they do, the starter templates stand in.
  4. Set the new device's own settings the way you like them: they start as the app has them.

Private Passwords can't tell whether iCloud Keychain is on. If nothing arrives, check that setting first.

Don't use Delete All Data on the old device

With sync on, Delete All Data deletes your items from every device, the new one included. When you're done with the old device, erase the whole device instead, which removes only its own copy:

Settings → General → Transfer or Reset iPhone → Erase All Content and Settings.

System Settings → General → Transfer or Reset → Erase All Content and Settings.

If your items are kept on one device only

Items kept on one device are never synced or moved anywhere by themselves. A Private Passwords backup is the way across:

  1. On the old device, make a backup, and save its recovery key somewhere you can reach from the new device.

  2. Put the backup file where the new device can get it.

    In Files: in iCloud Drive, or sent by AirDrop.

    Anywhere on the Mac: copied across, sent by AirDrop, or in iCloud Drive.

  3. On the new device, install Private Passwords and open it. Make your sync choice. When it asks How would you like to begin?, choose Restore a backup. (Later, Restore is in the menu and on the Info page, and opening the .ppbkp file opens it too.)

  4. Choose the file, enter the key and choose what to restore. Restoring a backup has the steps.
  5. Check a few items, then remove them from the old device: use Delete All Data there, or erase the device.

You can change your mind on the way. The new device asks its own sync question, and restored items follow the new device's choice. To start syncing, choose Sync via iCloud Keychain on the new device and restore your backup there.

Between an iPhone and a Mac

A backup made on any of your devices restores on any other: a Mac's backup on an iPhone, an iPhone's on a Mac. Settings come back as far as the device has the same ones.

The Apple Watch

The Watch gets its items from your iPhone through Device Sync, never through iCloud. Device Sync belongs to each iPhone and is off to start, so on a new iPhone:

  1. Pair the Watch with the new iPhone.
  2. Install Private Passwords on the Watch: in the Watch app on the iPhone, under Available Apps.
  3. On the iPhone, open Settings in Private Passwords and turn on Use Device Sync, under Apple Watch. Face ID or Touch ID confirms it, and every active item holding a one-time code is sent to the Watch, with its tags.

See Codes on Your Apple Watch.

Either way

  • Settings travel in a backup. With sync alone, only Days in the Bin, Allow Archiving and Allow Deleting follow you; the rest start as the app has them.
  • AutoFill is switched on separately on each iPhone: see AutoFill in Safari and Apps.

Continue to the Privacy and Security book: How Your Passwords Are Protected.