Auto-lock clears your vault’s key from memory after a while, so someone who picks up your device can’t open your vault. You set it separately on each device.
Choose a timeout
Open Settings → General and pick an Auto-lock timeout:
| Option | When your vault locks |
|---|---|
| Immediate | As soon as you stop using Bramble: when you close the last Bramble popup or window in your browser, or leave the app on your phone. Not in the desktop app. |
| 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour | After that long without activity. |
| Never | Only when you lock it, or quit the browser or app. |
The default is 15 minutes.
What counts as activity
Tapping or typing in Bramble restarts the timer.
Time Bramble spends in the background counts as inactivity. With 5 minutes, your vault locks 5 minutes after you last used it, whether you stayed in Bramble or switched away.
The timer starts when you unlock. It starts again each time you:
- open Bramble,
- save a change,
- use autofill on a web page.
Reading or scrolling in an open Bramble window doesn’t restart it.
Typing, clicking or scrolling in Bramble or its quick-access panel restarts the timer, and so does filling a page through a linked browser.
Time your computer spends asleep counts as inactivity.
When your screen locks
Locking your phone counts as leaving Bramble. With Immediate, your vault locks. With a timeout, the time keeps counting.
In Chrome and other Chromium browsers, Lock when the screen locks is in Settings → General and is on by default. It locks your vault when your computer’s screen locks, whatever the timeout.
To stay unlocked through screen locks, choose Never and turn this off.
When you close Bramble
Bramble keeps your vault’s key only in memory. Whenever Bramble starts again, it asks you to unlock once, even with Never.
- Switching to another app keeps your vault unlocked, unless you chose Immediate.
- Swiping Bramble away from your recent apps locks it. So does your phone closing Bramble in the background.
- Choosing a file, scanning a QR code or opening an attachment doesn’t count as leaving Bramble, even with Immediate.
- Closing the popup keeps your vault unlocked, unless you chose Immediate.
- Quitting the browser locks it.
- Closing the window hides Bramble in the menu bar or system tray. Your vault stays unlocked.
- Quitting locks it. Choose Quit Bramble from Bramble’s icon in the menu bar or tray, or press Cmd+Q on a Mac or Ctrl+Q on Linux.
To unlock with a glance or a touch after a restart, turn on Face ID, a fingerprint, Touch ID or Windows Hello, then Unlock on open. See Ways to unlock your vault.
Autofill on your phone
Autofill on your phone follows the same setting, with its own timer:
- Immediate: you unlock for every fill.
- A timeout: after you unlock once, autofill fills without asking until that long passes without a fill.
- Never: after you unlock once, autofill stops asking.
To make autofill ask every time, choose Immediate.
Some sites ask Bramble to confirm it’s you before a passkey sign-in. Those still ask, whatever the timeout.
The app switcher
Your phone’s app switcher doesn’t show your vault. On iPhone, Bramble covers its screen with its launch screen when you leave it. On Android, the preview is blank. Screenshots inside Bramble still work.
Hiding the preview doesn’t lock your vault. Only your timeout does.
Lock it yourself
- Choose the lock button (Lock vault) at the top of Bramble.
- In the browser extension, you can add a keyboard shortcut for Lock Bramble on your browser’s extension shortcuts page. It has no shortcut until you set one.