Chapter 10

Help, and honest limits

Common problems with real answers, and a plain list of what this device does not do.

Common problems#

What you see	What is happening
"No internet" when I join its Wi-Fi	Correct and expected. That network deliberately goes nowhere — it exists only so your phone can reach the device in front of you. Choose "stay connected".
My phone keeps dropping back to mobile data	Turn mobile data off for a minute while you finish setting up.
The screen says Locked and nothing works	Working as intended. It locks after a few idle minutes. Unlock it again.
Nothing appears when I plug it into my computer	Try a different USB socket, and avoid unpowered hubs. If you are using an adapter on a phone, check it is a data adapter and not a charge-only one — that is the most common cause.
It says the time is not confirmed	It has no clock of its own after a power cut. Connect your phone or laptop once and it corrects itself.
Two-factor codes are being rejected	Almost always the same cause as above. Reconnect and try again.
I am being made to wait after wrong passphrases	Deliberate, and only a delay. Your data is not at risk and nothing is being erased — but there is no recovery yet if you exhaust your memory of the passphrase itself. See Chapter 06.
It will not let me add anything yet	You have not finished writing your recovery card. Chapter 01 explains why we insist, even though the card does not open anything today.

What version am I running?#

Before you write to us, get this — it turns a guessing conversation into one that starts from fact. With the device connected (Chapter 02), open a browser to http://vault.local/api/version. No unlocking needed. You will get back one line of short codes — copy the whole thing into your message. Chapter 09 explains what each part means, if you are curious, but you do not need to understand it to use it. A future update aims to replace this copy-paste with a QR that opens the right manual directly — not built yet; see Chapter 11.

What this device does not do#

We would rather you knew before buying than found out afterwards.

We cannot recover your vault, and today, nothing can. No key, no copy, no reset, no exceptions — and the recovery words from setup do not yet open anything either, so there is currently no second door at all. See Chapter 06.
It is not a fast external drive. It holds documents, not a film library. Large transfers take time. Document storage itself is not available yet — see Chapter 04.
Storage is fixed by the model you bought, though the card is swappable. See Storage.
It needs to be plugged in. There is no battery.
Software updates cannot be installed yet. The device can already verify that an update file is genuinely ours; it cannot yet install one. See Chapter 09.
Two-factor codes need a clock. After a power cut it will not show them until something tells it the time.
It cannot stop a determined attacker with laboratory equipment. It is built against theft, loss, resale and prying, not against a state.
It will not protect you from yourself. If you photograph your recovery card and put it in a cloud drive, none of this helps.

Getting help#

Guides, downloads and the full product details live at vault.bendflex.in. We can help with the device: setup, connecting, faults, replacements. We cannot help with anything requiring access to your data, because we do not have any.

Before you write to us

Have your serial number and the line from /api/version ready. If the device is faulty we will replace it. A replacement device is a blank device. The Vault can make a backup today, but restoring one is not built yet — nothing reads a backup back onto a device. So a backup is worth taking, and it will become restorable, but until it does, treat what is on your current device as the only copy. Chapter 07 has more.

BendFlex® Vault · Owner's Manual v2.1 · last updated 27 August 2026