Frequently Asked Questions
Welcome to PhotoVault — your secure photo library backed up to Cubbit's S3 storage. Your password never leaves your device, and your photos are encrypted and under your control.
iOS has strict limitations on background activities to preserve battery life. When you close the PhotoVault app, iOS suspends most background operations.
The app schedules periodic upload tasks that run when your device is charging and connected to Wi-Fi. These tasks are managed by iOS and may not start immediately after you close the app.
Tip: For immediate uploads, keep the app open. Background uploads will continue automatically when conditions are favorable.
Your photos are uploaded to Cubbit Cloud storage and organized in a structured bucket layout.
Bucket structure:
media/
Original photos and videos stored in date-based folders
media/
└── 2024/
└── 03/
└── 15/
└── 14-30-22-456.jpg # Original file (HH-mm-ss-ms.ext)
thumbnails/
150x150 JPEG preview images (required for the web gallery to display)
thumbnails/
└── 2024/
└── 03/
└── 15/
└── 14-30-22.jpg # Preview (same timestamp)
Files are named with their original capture timestamp (hour-minute-second-millisecond), so photos taken at the same moment keep their order. The folder structure follows the date (year/month/day), making it easy to browse your library chronologically.
Note: Thumbnails are required for the web gallery to work. They are generated automatically after each upload and used as the main preview in the web interface.
PhotoVault is designed exclusively for Cubbit Cloud. The app integrates tightly with Cubbit's authentication system (ED25519 challenge-response) and S3-compatible storage.
Note: The app is configured to work only with Cubbit's infrastructure. This ensures end-to-end encryption and seamless integration with Cubbit's privacy-first cloud services.
Thumbnails are 150x150 JPEG previews that are automatically generated for every photo you upload (including HEIC and RAW formats). They are required for the web gallery to display your photos.
- Generated automatically after the original upload completes
- Stored separately in the
thumbnails/prefix - Used for gallery previews in the web interface
- Original high-resolution files remain untouched in
media/
Note: Thumbnails are mandatory. The web app cannot display photos without them.
PhotoVault implements a two-tier retry system to handle transient network issues automatically.
In-session retry (per upload attempt):
Up to 3 retries within a single session
Lifetime retry (across app sessions):
Each time you open the app, failed uploads are automatically retried silently — you see a pending badge, not an error. Only after 15 total retries does an asset become permanently failed.
Permanently failed uploads are marked with a ✗ badge and can be manually retried from the gallery, which resets the counter. The retry logic handles network errors and 5xx server responses, but does not retry 4xx client errors or local file access issues.