Everything you need to know.

ShieldFive is a zero-knowledge, AI-free file manager built for people who can't afford to be compromised. Your files are encrypted on your device before upload-so no one but you can read them. No scanning. No training. No backdoors. Just pure control.

Creating an account is quick and free. Click "Sign Up" in the top navigation, enter your email address and a strong master password, then verify your email. Your master password is stretched with Argon2id to derive your vault key — it unlocks the single vault that every file in your account lives in. At signup you also receive a one-time recovery key; save it before continuing. That recovery key is the only fallback if you ever forget the master password.

After logging in, click "Upload" and select the files you want to store. Each file is encrypted in your browser under a fresh random key that is unique to that file; that file key is then wrapped under your vault key before the encrypted blob leaves your device. ShieldFive never sees the plaintext or any of the keys. There is no per-file password prompt — once your vault is unlocked, encryption happens automatically as you upload.

Select the file in your dashboard and click "Share." You can optionally set a share password (separate from your master password — it is a per-link secret used to derive the recipient's decryption capability), an expiration date, and a download cap. Anyone with the link, plus the share password if you set one, can decrypt and download the file — no account needed. You stay in control of the limits.

If you still have your recovery key, use it to restore vault access and set a new master password. If you lose both your master password and your recovery key, the data is unrecoverable — that is what zero-knowledge means: we do not hold a copy that we can decrypt for you. Treat the recovery key as you would the only spare key to a safe.

Yes. You can begin on the Free plan with no credit card, then upgrade anytime without creating a new account. Your encrypted files stay in the same workspace and your existing links continue to work based on your plan's limits.

Two things keep you in: your master password and your recovery key. Store the recovery key offline — printed somewhere safe, in a password manager you control, or on a hardware token. The signup flow shows the recovery key exactly once and asks you to acknowledge that you have saved it before continuing. If you ever lose the master password, the recovery key is the only way back in.

Geolock restricts decryption to approved regions or countries. Even if someone gets the file link and password, it stays locked outside your allowed zone. It is like a digital safe tied to a place-not just a password.

If the sender geofenced a link, only allowed country codes can access it. Ask the sender to add your country to the allowlist or disable geofencing for that link.

Any file type — documents, images, videos, archives, anything. The Free plan includes 20 GB of encrypted storage; paid plans scale up to 5 TB. Per-file upload size is gated by your browser and the large-upload UX we are still polishing rather than by your plan tier, so the practical ceiling per file is currently below the storage bucket's 500 GiB limit. We will lift that ceiling as the chunked-upload flow lands.

All encrypted files are stored in our centrally located EU data center. Regardless of where you or your recipients are located, your files remain encrypted at rest, and all decryption happens on your device. We never see unencrypted content-and by choosing a European data center, we keep your data under EU jurisdiction with robust security controls.

TOTP-based 2FA is live for admin accounts and we are rolling it out to all accounts next. Until it ships in Settings → Security for everyone, the strongest defense is a long master password, a recovery key kept offline, and signing out on shared devices.

When you delete an encrypted file from ShieldFive, it moves to your "Trash" for 24 hours. During this grace period, the file remains recoverable if you change your mind. After 24 hours, the file is purged and its encrypted data is removed from our servers-then your used space reduces accordingly. You can also empty Trash manually to free up space immediately.

No. We don't scan, index, or train models on your data. ShieldFive is fully zero-knowledge by design-not just policy.

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