What is a good alternative to NQ Vault?

Vault - Hide photos & videos and York Vault side by side

Why do people leave NQ Vault?

NQ Vault has 8,744 US ratings at 4.3 and has been on the App Store since 2012. Our main review study had no NQ Vault reviews, so for this page we read every written US review that Apple’s review feed returned: 313 reviews from September 2017 to September 2026. 170 of them give 1 star.

We counted themes with keyword matches, so the numbers are approximate. A review can carry more than one theme.

Theme in 313 reviews	About
Crashes or the app will not open	117
Import fails or crashes	114
Paid for Premium, but it does not work	73
Login, cloud or restore errors	70
Photos or videos lost	64
Support does not answer	60
Forgot the password, locked out	31
Export to albums fails	13

Most of these reviews are from 2019 and 2020, when an iOS 13 change broke photo import for many users. 22 reviews are from 2024 or later, and they tell the same story.

Lost files and silent support

“Saved numerous videos here and suddenly lost them all, emailed them but never got a response, you’ve been warned” (1★, January 2025). A long-time user who changed phones wrote that after signing in again, “The cloud shows 0 KB and no backup history.” (1★, September 2026).

Cloud sign-in errors

Dozens of reviewers could not sign back in to restore their cloud copy: “Every time I hit the restore button, it says “network error”” (1★, November 2019). The cloud is a Premium service that needs an NQ account.

Paying without getting Premium

About 73 reviews mention a paid plan that did not work: Premium that showed as expired, a restore that failed, or a cloud that would not sync after payment. “It took them 30 seconds to withdraw their money but I’m still marked as Basic” (2★, June 2022). A vault that ties your backup to a working subscription and a working login adds two ways to lose access.

Lockouts

“Lost password = Lost account” (1★, February 2026). The app’s own setup text warns that a forgotten passcode means you “need to re-install the app and all data will be erased”, unless you set a security email.

Export that stalls

Some users found out at the moment they tried to leave. “I selected multiple pictures and it crashed after sending the second picture” (1★, October 2024). Another wrote after a new phone: “now I can’t export them out even though this app has full access” (5★, April 2025).

Ads before the vault

“sometimes you have to watch a commercial be for it opens” (1★, August 2026).

What to look for in a replacement

1. A backup with no account, so a login error can never stand between you and your files. See encrypted backup.
2. A recovery path you hold, such as a recovery key, instead of a security email.
3. Import and export that report counts, so you know what arrived.
4. Support you can reach when the app will not open, through a web form or email listed on the App Store page.
5. No ads in front of your files.

How to export your photos from NQ Vault

NQ Vault has no help center or export guide on its current website, lexing.tech, and the old NQ support pages no longer load. Inside the app, export moves items back to your phone albums, with the warning “This content will no longer be protected by Vault and could be synced with other devices.”

Based on what reviewers report, export in small batches:

1. Open Vault and open one album.
2. Select a small group of photos, for example 10 to 20. One reviewer’s app crashed when exporting a larger selection.
3. Export them to your phone albums and wait until the count finishes.
4. Check Photos to see that each item arrived, and that it did not arrive more than once.
5. Repeat for every album, including videos.
6. Add the items to your new app, check the count, then delete them from Photos and empty Recently Deleted. Our Recently Deleted guide shows how.

The app also warns: “Please don’t leave this app or lock your phone.” Keep the screen on during each export.

If you use the cloud and already have a new phone, go back to the old phone if you still have it. Export there, then move the photos with your normal phone transfer. Our guide to moving a vault to a new iPhone covers this.

What NQ Vault does well

NQ Vault has kept people’s files for over a decade, and it gets some things right:

• Long use across phones. “I’ve used this app for almost a decade now, it’s supported me from iPhone4S up to the iPhone13” (5★, April 2022).
• A fake vault with its own password, and multiple vaults.
• A vault camera that saves new photos straight into Vault, so they never show in your album.
• Face-down exit that opens another app.
• A reminder to empty Recently Deleted after import, which many apps forget.
• Regular releases. The latest version shipped in August 2026.

What York Vault does differently

York Vault is on the App Store for iPhone and iPad and on Google Play for Android. Plus adds the Mac app, and Pro adds the web app. Here is what it does differently:

• No account. Backup goes to your own iCloud, or Google Drive on Android, encrypted on your phone. No sign-in can fail.
• Free backup of every item, with a status on each item and a restore check on a new phone.
• A recovery key you hold, shown once at setup.
• Phone-to-phone transfer, free. The new phone scans a QR code on the old one, and the files move over the local network with no internet needed. This also works between iPhone and Android.
• Imports that finish and report counts, from Photos, Files and the share sheet.
• Free export of everything in one step, also after a plan ends.
• Support that works when the app does not, through a web form linked from the App Store page.
• No ads on any plan. York Vault uses an attribution tool to measure its own ads, and its privacy label says so.

See plans for Free, Plus, Pro and Family, or download York Vault on the App Store or Google Play.

Other alternatives worth checking

• Keepsafe has a large user base and its own cloud.
• Private Photo Vault has a paid encrypted Cloud Vault.
• Vaultaire has free encrypted iCloud backup and no account.
• LockMyPix names AES encryption and makes a backup file.