I forgot my password.

Try these things first.

Before assuming your password is gone for good, work through this list. Most "forgotten" passwords turn out to be findable with a little patience.

1. Check your password manager. If you use 1Password, Bitwarden, Apple Keychain, Google Password Manager, or anything similar, search for "IvorySafe" or "ivorysafe.com." Many people save passwords without remembering they did.
2. Look in your browser's saved passwords. Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge all save passwords by default unless you've turned it off. Check your browser's password settings.
3. Try variations you commonly use. Think about the patterns you usually follow: your usual base word with different numbers or symbols at the end, capitalizations you tend to use, the year you signed up.
4. Check anywhere you might have written it down. A note in your phone, a saved draft email, a sticky note, a notebook. We don't recommend storing passwords this way, but if you did, this is the time to find it.
5. Ask anyone you might have shared it with. If you set up IvorySafe together with a partner or family member, they may have a copy or remember it.

If your password is truly lost.

If you've exhausted every option and you're sure the password is gone, here's what that means and what to do.

What happens to your vault

Your vault still exists. It's still on our servers, still encrypted, still safe. It just isn't readable to anyone, including you, without the password. We can't decrypt it. No support agent, no engineer, no court order can extract the data inside.

This is the security promise working exactly as it should. The same wall that protects you from a hacker is the wall standing between you and your forgotten password.

Your options

There are only two paths forward:

1. Keep trying. Your encrypted vault stays on our servers as long as your subscription is active. If you remember the password in a week, a month, or a year, you can log right back in. Nothing changes.
2. Permanently delete your account and start fresh. If you're certain you'll never recover the password, you can contact our team to permanently delete your account. We'll verify your identity, delete the encrypted vault from our servers, and you can sign up again with a new vault.

How to request account deletion.

Since you can't log in to do it yourself, our team handles deletion manually. Here's how:

1. Email support@ivorysafe.com. Use the subject line "Account deletion request." Include the email address associated with your IvorySafe account.
2. We'll verify it's really you. Because deletion is permanent, we'll send a verification email to the account address and may ask a few questions to confirm you're the account holder. This protects you from anyone who might try to delete your account without your permission.
3. We'll confirm before deleting. Once verified, we'll send a final confirmation email. After you confirm, your encrypted vault is permanently deleted from our servers.
4. Sign up again whenever you're ready. You can use the same email address. Your new account will be completely fresh, with no connection to the previous vault.

How to keep this from happening again.

The lesson most people take from this is to store the IvorySafe password somewhere they trust. A few suggestions:

• Use a password manager. 1Password, Bitwarden, and Apple Keychain are all good options. They generate strong passwords, save them automatically, and let you find them on any device.
• Write it down in a safe physical place. Storing your IvorySafe password in a sealed envelope in a home safe works well. The point is that it lives somewhere you can find in an emergency without storing it somewhere insecure.

Your IvorySafe password is yours alone. Your designated emergency contacts will have their own accounts with their own passwords, so you never need to share yours with anyone. That's how the security model is designed to work.