Private Photo Vault - Pic Safe 17+

This is a good app, but could be improved. I'd like to see a sync between the app on different devices. When getting a new device, such as a new iPad, one has to start over, I have not been able to move from the old one to the new with success! Also, as a backup it is awkward, so I do not see it as truly viable for that purpose at this time. There seems to be a hiccup for certain larger images. For example, I have some and when sending or putting back into Photo as a group, the program freezes unless one figures out which is the problematic image and goes one at a time through the group.

I see the app's main value as ordinary privacy on each device; I have it on four. It's pretty good for that. I also use it to store things to show others, but wish to avoid wading through thousands of files in Photo. I also like the secure folder within the app for things "more private" or intended to be kept more secure. The photo editing program within the app is excellent. I use that and then send the edited photo to Photo or iPhoto in some cases to preserve the original in both Photo and the app. It's really good for this.
JHC

Thanks so much for your positive review! If you enable the Cloud Vault feature, you can sync your photos between devices.

We will investigate the other issues you posted as well. If you have any other questions, feel free to reach out at support@privatephotovault.com

Everything about the app’s functionality and features are great! However, there are two big issues I have. 1.) I subscribed to the premium version to have to utilize the cloud storage. The description of the iCloud storage option is inaccurate. It states that you can can save space on your your device by synchronizing and uploading all the photos to the cloud so that when you preview the content on your device, it will download it from the cloud without using up the storage on your device. Which in sense, should be similar to IOS. However, when I preview the photos in the app. It downloads the photo to my device and does not remove it after previewing. Ultimately it does not save any space at all. If I wanted to remove the data from my device, I would have to wipe everything off by reinstalling the app. After doing that, I log in, and it will synchronize with the cloud until I open up the photo which then automatically downloads the photo to the device. 2.) I’m not sure if it was because of the update but when I reinstalled the app, I have a problem where I couldn’t connect to the server when I was logging back into my account. I had to remove my 1 year subscription and resubscribe to finally log back in. But doing so prompted a message saying that I would have to pay again after my 1 week free trial. My subscription didn’t expire until August 2022. Which means I did not use the whole year of the subscription.

Hi, sorry about any issue. Regarding (1), the Space Saver issue, we are working on an update soon that should come out soon that should allow for permanently reducing space by keeping locally compressed copies of the image on your phone and leaving the full resolution in Cloud Vault. Regarding (2), we had a couple hours of server maintenance a couple of days ago where login wasn't working. Your old subscription should still work and be active if you paid for it. If you have any other questions, please reach out to us at privatephotovault.com/support

Edit: the canned response says that if I already purchased the pro version everything will work. There was no pro version 4 years ago when I purchased this. And the pro version is a subscription for $40 a year! Give me back the features I paid for!

I purchased this app several years ago and chose it over others because of a few features it had. Key word here is PURCHASED…. One of those features was the ability to browse to my iPad from a desktop computer to upload or download images. I always considered this feature to be core to the app and I chose Photo Vault because of it. Well, I just tried to do that and…guess what? Apparently, in a recent “update”, They took that feature away from the app! The only way to get that feature now is to pay a subscription fee of…what?? $40 a year?? Your update even says very clearly that I STILL HAVE ACCESS TO MY ALL LIFETIME VERSION FEATURES! LIES! Hey, look. I paid for that feature as part of my original license. Taking away the ability to transfer images CRIPPLES this app and makes it completely useless. I’m sure someplace in the fine print it says you can take features away but TAKING FEATURES AWAY AND THEN CHARGING PEOPLE TO ACCESS THEM AGAIN IS COMPLETELY UNETHICAL! I really hate the subscription revenue model and think the only reason it exists is greed. Give us back the features we bought the app for!

Hi,

Thanks for supporting our app. The previous Pro version of our app was a 1-time purchase.

We now offer a new Premium subscription. If you have already purchased the Pro version of the app, you will always be able to continue using the features you paid for, for free. However, if you want to try any of the new features including Cloud Vault backup and syncing, you will need to try our new upgrade.2 more considerations: 1. Please also ensure that you are using the same Apple account that you made the purchase with.2. It is possible you purchased the separate app which you can find in the App Store under the name SVRegarding transferring files from your computer, you can still do that in the free version under Settings --> Transfer --> USB transfer.Let me know if you have any other questions