User Guide

1. Getting Started

Installation

DocVault is available free on Google Play for Android: play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.zenerly.docvault.mobile. An iOS version is coming soon — join the early access list to be notified.

First Launch

• No sign-up, email, or account is required — DocVault opens straight to your vault.
• You'll be asked to create a 4-digit PIN the very first time — this is the only thing standing between anyone and your vault, so choose one you'll remember (there's no password reset; see Troubleshooting).
• DocVault seeds two starting vaults for you: Personal Vault (with Identity, Education, Health, Finance, Property folders) and Family Vault (with Wife, Son, Parents folders) — rename, delete, or ignore them and build your own structure instead.
• Tap the gold + button (bottom-right) to scan or add your first document.

2. Vaults & Folders

Beyond the six built-in categories (Identity & Birth Records, Medical, Education, Property, Financial & Legal, Signed Contracts, plus "Other"), DocVault lets you build your own two-level structure:

• Vaults are top-level containers (e.g. "Personal Vault", "Business"). Tap + New Folder in the top chip row to create one.
• Folders live inside a vault (e.g. "Passports" inside "Personal Vault") — one level of nesting only.
• Selecting a vault chip shows every document inside it and its folders; selecting a specific folder narrows to just that folder.
• Long-press any vault or folder chip to rename or delete it. Deleting a vault also deletes its child folders, but the documents inside are kept — just unfiled, not lost.

3. Scanning, Smart Scan & OCR

Capturing a document

Tap + to open the scanner. You can:

• Take a photo with your camera, or add multiple photos for a multi-page document (e.g. a 3-page rental agreement) — they're automatically merged into a single PDF.
• Pick an existing photo from your gallery.
• Upload an existing PDF, DOC, or DOCX file directly, with no camera involved.

Smart Scan (on-device OCR)

Every scan is read on-device using on-device text recognition — no image or text is ever sent anywhere. From that text, DocVault:

• Suggests a document type — e.g. "PAN Card," "Passport," "Rental Agreement" — with up to 3 ranked suggestions on the Scan Review screen. Tap one to accept it, or ignore the suggestions entirely.
• Auto-fills fields it can find in the text: name, father's/mother's name, date of birth, issue date, expiry date, and address. Everything stays editable before you save.
• Lets you re-run "Scan for details" later from an already-saved document if a field was missed the first time — it only fills blanks, never overwrites what you've already entered.

Extra script recognition

Latin-script text is always recognized. In Settings → Scanning you can turn on extra recognition passes for Devanagari, Chinese, Japanese, or Korean script documents. (Arabic, Cyrillic, Bengali, Tamil, and Telugu script recognition isn't available on-device yet, even though the app's own interface is translated into those languages.)

Sensitive documents

New scans are marked "sensitive" by default, which blurs the thumbnail in your vault grid — the real image is never decrypted for the thumbnail at all, so there's nothing to see even in a screenshot. Toggle this per document on the Scan Review or Edit screen.

4. Search Inside Your Documents

The search bar at the top of your vault doesn't just match titles — it also searches the text DocVault's OCR extracted from each scan, and every auto-filled field (name, address, dates, and more). Type a passport number, an address, or any word that appeared on a scanned page, and the matching document surfaces.

5. Viewing & Editing a Document

Tap any document to open its full-screen viewer: the decrypted image/file, its category and type badges, extracted fields, your own notes, and a collapsible view of the raw recognized text. From here you can Edit metadata, Share, or move it to Trash.

6. Expiry Reminders

If DocVault's OCR finds an expiry date on a document (a passport, licence, insurance policy, etc.), it can remind you before it lapses. In Settings → Expiry Reminders, choose how far ahead you want to be notified — any combination of 1, 3, 7, 14, 30, or 60 days before, plus a reminder on the expiry day itself. These are local notifications generated entirely on your device — no server is involved.

7. Trash

Deleting a document doesn't erase it immediately — it moves to Trash (accessible from the vault's top bar) where it's held for 30 days before permanent removal. Restore it anytime during that window, delete it forever early, or empty the whole Trash at once.

8. Sharing a Document

Open a document and tap Share — DocVault decrypts a copy and hands it to your phone's normal share sheet, so you can send it via email, WhatsApp, Drive, or any app you already use. You'll see a confirmation first, since this is the one moment a document leaves your vault decrypted. The temporary decrypted copy is deleted right afterward.

9. Backup & Cloud Sync

Open the cloud icon at the top of your vault to reach the Backup screen, which offers two independent ways to protect your vault:

Local export & import

• Export Vault — choose a password (6+ characters), and DocVault creates a .dvbackup archive (every file re-encrypted under that password) and hands it to your share sheet — save it to Files, email it to yourself, or drop it in any cloud drive.
• Restore Vault — pick a .dvbackup file and enter its password to bring everything back, on this device or a new one. Documents already present aren't duplicated.

Cloud backup (Google Drive / iCloud)

• Tap Connect to sign in with Google (Android) or use your device's existing iCloud session (iOS).
• Set a cloud backup password — separate from your app PIN — the first time you back up.
• The backup is stored in Drive's or iCloud's hidden app-data area — it will not appear in your regular Drive files or iCloud Drive folder.
• Turn on Back up automatically to have DocVault quietly re-upload a few seconds after any change, whenever you're connected — or use Back up now / Restore manually.

10. Security & App Lock

• Your 4-digit PIN is required on every launch (subject to the auto-lock delay below); it's hashed and stored in your device's secure keystore, never as plain text.
• Enable biometric unlock (Face ID / fingerprint) in Settings to unlock with a glance instead of typing your PIN — biometric checks happen entirely inside your device's own hardware, and DocVault never receives your actual fingerprint or face data.
• Auto-lock delay controls how long DocVault stays unlocked in the background before re-locking: Immediately, 30 seconds, 1 minute, 5 minutes, or Never.
• Every document and thumbnail is encrypted at rest using a key generated on your device and stored in its secure hardware keystore — nobody, including Zenerly, can read your files without your device.
• Reset Vault (Settings, bottom of the list) permanently wipes every document, folder, and setting — a full factory reset, with no undo.

11. Settings, Languages & Sort Order

• Language — DocVault supports 20 languages (English, Chinese, Hindi, Spanish, French, Arabic, Bengali, Portuguese, Russian, Urdu, Indonesian, German, Japanese, Swahili, Marathi, Telugu, Turkish, Tamil, Vietnamese, Korean) and follows your device's language automatically, or you can pick one manually in Settings. Arabic and Urdu switch the whole interface to right-to-left layout.
• Sort order — sort your vault grid by last updated, date created, or title.
• Invite a friend — share a link to DocVault on the Play Store via any app.

12. Troubleshooting

I forgot my PIN

There is no password-reset email, because there's no account. If biometric unlock is enabled and still works, use it to get in and set a new PIN from Settings. If not, the only way back into the app is Reset Vault — which erases everything. This is exactly why keeping a backup (local export or cloud sync) matters, even for a "just in case."

My scanned document's language isn't recognized correctly

Check Settings → Scanning and enable the matching script pass (Devanagari/Chinese/Japanese/Korean) if it's off. Arabic, Cyrillic, Bengali, Tamil, and Telugu text recognition isn't available on-device yet — you can still save and manually edit those fields.

Cloud backup won't connect

Make sure you're signed into a Google account on your device (Android) or into iCloud (iOS), and that you have an internet connection. If Google Sign-In fails immediately, it may mean the app build you have isn't yet fully configured for Drive access — try again after updating to the latest version from Play Store.

13. Using the DocVault Website

This website (www.docvault.zenerly.com) doesn't hold any of your documents — it's for information and a few self-service requests:

• Request Early Access — leave your name and email to be notified the moment DocVault launches on iOS.
• Support — browse the FAQ or send us a message; submitting the contact form opens your email app addressed to app.zenerly@gmail.com.
• Account & Data Deletion — since there's no server account, this page explains how to instantly erase your on-device vault, and how to ask us to delete anything you've sent us directly (like an early-access signup).
• Privacy Policy and Terms of Service — the full legal detail behind everything summarized in this guide.