Setting Up Encrypted Sync

Velocity provides seamless, bidirectional sync across devices and browsers (Chrome and Firefox). Sync is completely optional and opt-in—your snippets will always work 100% locally even without it.

When you enable sync, Velocity uses industry-grade AES-GCM end-to-end (E2E) encryption. This means your snippet bodies are encrypted before they leave your device. Only you can read them.

Enabling Sync

  1. Open the Velocity extension popup.
  2. Click the gear icon to open Settings.
  3. Toggle the Enable Sync switch.
  4. You will be prompted to create an account and log in.

The Encryption Passphrase

The first time you enable sync, Velocity will ask you to create an encryption passphrase.

This is not your login password. This passphrase derives the secure AES-256 key used to encrypt your snippet bodies.

If you log into Velocity on a second device, you will need this exact same passphrase to decrypt your data.

Recovery Codes

When you set up your encryption passphrase for the first time, Velocity generates Recovery Codes (8 codes, each 5 characters long).

Store these codes offline securely.

Because Velocity is E2E encrypted, there is no "forgot password" link that we can send you for your encryption key. If you forget your passphrase, recovery codes are the only way to recover your synced data.

Using Recovery Codes

If you ever need to use your recovery codes (or if you just want to change your passphrase):

  1. Go to Settings -> Recover Account.
  2. Enter your recovery codes.
  3. Set a new encryption passphrase.

Note: After recovery, your existing recovery codes still work unless you explicitly click Regenerate Codes, which invalidates all previous codes and issues a new set.

The "Sync is paused" Banner

For security, your encryption key is never stored on disk in your browser's persistent storage. It lives only in the browser's memory and is cleared when the session ends.

If your browser restarts or suspends the background service, Velocity may "lock" the sync session to protect your privacy. When this happens, you will see a yellow banner:

Sync is paused. Unlock to resume.

Why does this appear?

  • You restarted your browser.
  • Your last unlock was more than 24 hours ago (the "Grace Period").

How to fix it:

Click the [Unlock to resume] link in the banner. You will be prompted for your encryption passphrase. Once entered, sync will resume immediately.

"Sync is disabled" (Local Only Mode)

If you are not logged in or have explicitly turned off synchronization in Settings, you will see:

Sync is disabled. Snippets are saved locally.

In this mode, your snippets are stored safely in your browser's local database but are not backed up to the cloud. You can click [Enable Sync] at any time to start securely syncing across devices.

How Sync Works (Push vs. Pull)

To conserve battery and network resources, Velocity uses an optimized "Push/Pull" synchronization strategy.

  • Push (Instant): When you create, edit, or delete a snippet, Velocity encrypts and pushes the change to your secure cloud account immediately.
  • Pull (Startup): Every time you open your browser, Velocity automatically pulls down any new changes made on your other devices.
  • Pull (Manual): Velocity does not constantly poll the server in the background while your browser is open.

Working across multiple devices at the exact same time? If you have two computers open side-by-side and create a snippet on Device A, Device B won't see it until you restart Device B's browser, OR until you manually pull the changes:

  1. Open the Velocity popup on Device B.
  2. Click the gear icon to open Settings.
  3. Click the Sync Now button.

Next Step: Importing and Exporting

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