What is DeadSwitch?
A portable encrypted USB vault with a dead man’s switch. You store passwords, accounts, keys, documents, and optional video or audio messages. If you stop checking in, after reminders and a grace period, each person you named receives only what you assigned them. Cloud is optional.
Do I need a subscription?
No, not for the drive. The USB Vault ($75) and Family Bundle ($199) are one-time purchases and include the check-in service. Cloud Vault plans are optional and billed monthly. Drive owners can add a plan later from the dashboard.
How does the switch work?
Check in every 7, 14, or 30 days. Check-ins come by email; drive owners, Cloud Plus and Cloud Max can add SMS. Click the link, reply ALIVE, or sign in to the dashboard. On a 14-day interval: due on day 14, reminder on day 17, a 72-hour grace from day 28 (final notice 24 hours before it ends), release on day 31. About 17 days total on a 7-day interval; about 63 on a 30-day. Grace is always 72 hours. Any check-in before release resets the clock.
What if I miss a check-in by accident?
You get reminders, then a 72-hour grace with a final notice. You can cancel any time before release. Once release happens, it cannot be recalled. Test My Switch rehearses the whole path without releasing — included for drive owners, and on Cloud Plus and Max.
What if I forget my master password?
It cannot be recovered. Not by us, not by a beneficiary, not by a support tool. That is the cost of us not being able to read the vault. Make a backup drive from Settings after you set up.
Does this replace a will?
No. A will decides who gets what in the eyes of the law. DeadSwitch is how the people you chose actually get in: the passwords, the keys, the accounts, and the words you wanted to leave. DeadSwitch is not a law firm and is not a substitute for a will or for legal advice.
What do you store on your servers?
Never the master password, never the encryption key, never vault contents. We do hold: your email, a hash of your account password, beneficiary names and contacts, encrypted key shares, check-in timestamps, and for cloud vaults: item metadata (category, size, assignee) plus the file names of documents and recordings.
How do the people I name get in?
At release they get a calm email with steps. They plug in the drive (the app is on it) or open a cloud link, and enter their code. In Key Split, which we recommend, they also need the code on the card you already gave them. Neither half works alone. They see only assigned items, read-only. Cloud links work once, expire in 30 days, and lock after five wrong codes. Access on the drive does not expire.
What if I lose the drive?
A backup clone from Settings still opens with the master password. A stolen drive without that password is a brick. USB Cloud Backup — a drive plus Cloud Plus or Max — can restore the encrypted vault to a new stick. Still useless without the master password.
What if DeadSwitch shuts down?
The vault on the drive still opens with your master password. The check-in and release service would stop. We would tell owners in advance so there is time to hand people access another way. How release works is documented; it is not a secret only we hold.
How is this different from a password manager?
Password managers are for the day you use them. This is for the day you can’t. Keep yours. Import it from 1Password, Bitwarden, LastPass, or KeePass. Some managers have emergency access; that is usually someone asking, then waiting, then seeing a vault. Ours fires on silence and gives each person only their items.
What’s the return policy?
Unopened drives: 30-day refund. Opened drives cannot be returned — once the seal is broken, a drive may hold a private vault, and we never take possession of a drive that might. Faulty drives are replaced; we cannot recover data. Cloud is billed monthly; cancel any time from the dashboard. Subscription fees are not refunded for partial billing periods.