Your Password and Recovery Kit

Your books on this computer are always safe, no matter what happens with the cloud. They are the originals; cloud sync is just a copy.

Penpoint Cloud keeps your writing private: before a book leaves your computer it is encrypted with a password only you know (scrambled so it is unreadable without it). Neither Penpoint nor anyone else can read it.

Three things sound similar: your password unlocks your books, the sign-in code emailed to you proves it is you, and your Recovery Kit is a spare key for forgotten passwords.

How Your Password Protects Your Books

• You create your password once at setup and enter it once per device; it never leaves your computer, and Penpoint remembers it securely.
• For shared computers, you can require it every time you open Penpoint.

The Recovery Kit

The Recovery Kit is a 12-word phrase generated at setup, a spare key you do not memorize. If you forget your password and get signed out of the cloud, it gets you back into your backups.

• Store it somewhere safe: a password manager (an app that remembers passwords for you), a printout, or another device. Not just on this computer.
• Changing your password does not change your Recovery Kit; it keeps working.
• While a computer stays signed in, re-download a fresh Kit from Penpoint Cloud settings; the old one stops working, so discard old copies.

Changing Your Password

Open Settings > Penpoint Cloud, click Change password, enter your current one, and choose a replacement.

• Your Recovery Kit keeps working.
• Other signed-in devices keep working; they pick up the new password when next they need it.

Changing Your Email

Open Settings > Penpoint Cloud and click Change Email.

Penpoint sends a 6-digit code to your current address and another to the new one; enter both to confirm. Nobody is signed out: your devices stay signed in under the new address. Your books, subscription, and Recovery Kit are all unchanged.

What If I Forget My Password?

I Have My Recovery Kit

On the password screen, click "Use your Recovery Kit." Enter the 12 words and choose a new password. Done.

I Forgot My Password but a Device Is Still Signed In

If a computer still has Penpoint Cloud unlocked, your books are safe there; change your password from its settings.

I Lost Both My Password and My Recovery Kit

Your books on this computer are always safe. But with no computer still signed in, the cloud copy cannot be unlocked: only you ever had the key.

The way forward: sign in with your email, use the "Forgot your password and lost your Recovery Kit?" link, and set a new password. Penpoint clears the old cloud copy (unreadable anyway) and re-uploads from your computer. You lose your cloud version history (older cloud snapshots kept as extra backups) but not your book or chapters.