Sync and backup with iCloud Drive and Google Drive

Your garage is everything you keep in Carlore: vehicles, specs, papers, receipts, photos, manuals and history. It lives on this phone, and a backup lives in your own iCloud Drive or Google Drive. It never goes to Carlore's servers.

Encrypted on your phone

Before anything leaves your phone, Carlore encrypts it with a key made on your phone. Your cloud only ever holds scrambled files. Without the key, nobody can read them: not Apple, not Google, and not Carlore.

On Android, Carlore keeps its files in a hidden app folder in your Google Drive, and asks Google for access to that folder only. Nothing else in your Drive is touched.

Your cloud

On iPhone, you can choose iCloud Drive or Google Drive:

• iCloud Drive. Recommended. The key stays in your iCloud Keychain, so your other Apple devices on the same Apple Account can open your garage without typing anything. You also get a recovery code.
• Google Drive. Carlore uses a hidden app folder and touches nothing else in your Drive. You set a passphrase and get a recovery code.

On iPhone, choose Google Drive if you'll also use Carlore on a phone that isn't an iPhone.

On Android, you set a passphrase and get a recovery code. You'll type the passphrase when you add a new device.

Set it up

1. Open Settings, then Sync & backup, or use the Backup step when you first set up Carlore.
2. Choose Use iCloud Drive or Use Google Drive. For Google Drive, sign in to Google and allow Carlore its app folder.
3. For Google Drive, choose a passphrase. A short sentence you'll remember works well.
4. Keep your recovery code somewhere other than this phone: on paper, or in a password manager. It's 32 letters and numbers in groups of four.

Why nobody can reset your passphrase

Your passphrase and recovery code never leave your devices, and Carlore never has them. If you lose your passphrase, your recovery code still opens your garage. If you lose both, and no device still has your garage open, the backup can't be opened by anyone.

Backups happen on their own

Carlore backs up a few seconds after each change when you're online, when you open it, from time to time in the background, and when you tap Sync now. It also keeps a few full snapshots. Settings, then Sync & backup shows how it's going, like "backed up 4 min ago".

Free and Plus

• Free: back up from one phone, and restore whenever you need to.
• Plus: sync across all your devices, so a change on one appears on the others.

Restore on a new phone

1. Install Carlore and sign in.
2. Open Settings, then Sync & backup, and tap Restore from backup.
3. Choose the cloud you used before. For iCloud Drive, use the same Apple Account; for Google Drive, use the same Google account you used before.
4. Open your garage: with iCloud Keychain this happens on its own; otherwise enter your passphrase or recovery code.

Carlore checks every file before it swaps anything in. If something doesn't check out, nothing on your phone changes, and you can try again.

Your recovery code

To see it again, open Settings, then Sync & backup, then Recovery code, and confirm it's you with Face ID or your fingerprint or face recognition. You can type the code with or without the dashes.

Turn off sync

Tap Turn off sync to stop backing up this phone. Everything stays on the phone, and the backup in your cloud stays until you delete it.