Get started with Personal Cloud

Setting up Personal Cloud takes a few minutes on your first Mac. You sign in with a code sent to your email, buy a plan (monthly or yearly; there’s no free trial, and refunds are 30 days, no questions), create the encryption key that protects your data, save a Recovery Kit, and choose what syncs. There’s no password to remember.

Everything happens in Settings › Cloud. Open it with Cloak Proxy › Settings… (⌘ ,) and click Cloud.

Before you start

Settings › Cloud shows what Personal Cloud is before you sign in. Each feature is greyed, with a gold star, until you buy:

Row	What it means
End-to-end encrypted	Encrypted on your Mac with keys only your Macs have. Subcloak can’t read it.
Sync on up to 5 Macs	Rules, mock sets, API workspaces, environments, scopes and filters.
Share links	Redacted on this Mac, expiring, with a view count and a Revoke button.
5 GB, a Recovery Kit and change review	Risky changes made on another Mac wait for you to approve them.
Personal Cloud	$3 a month or $25 a year. 30-day refund, no questions. While the founding offer runs, a line under it says: $20 for your first year, then $25 a year, for the first 50 yearly buyers.

Nothing leaves this Mac until you sign in, and nothing syncs until you choose what to sync. The copy on this Mac is always the main copy.

What Subcloak Can See opens a table of what the server can and can’t see. Security and privacy has the same list.

Cloak Proxy suggests Personal Cloud in a few places, such as the Share Live Traffic sheet, and menu items that need it (such as Share Link…) are greyed with a gold star until you buy; choosing one shows what it does and the price. Suggestions show rarely and never as a pop-up. To hide them all, turn on Don’t suggest Personal Cloud elsewhere in the app.

Set up your first Mac

1. In Settings › Cloud, click Get Personal Cloud…. (Already have an account? The same button signs you in.)

2. In Sign in to Personal Cloud, type your Email. Disposable email addresses aren’t accepted: it’s how you sign in and get receipts. This computer is filled in with your Mac’s name; change it if you like. Your other computers see this name when this Mac asks to join, and it’s stored encrypted once the Mac is approved. Click Continue.

3. Check your email. Subcloak sends a 6-digit code from cloud@subcloak.com. Type it in the sheet; Cloak Proxy checks it as soon as you’ve typed six digits. Or click Confirm Sign-In in the email and then Confirm Sign-In on the page that opens in your browser: the sheet moves on by itself.

   The code works for 10 minutes. If the email doesn’t arrive, click Send again (it’s available after a short wait), or Use a different email.

4. If the address doesn’t have an account yet, Cloak Proxy asks Create your Personal Cloud account? Read the Terms and Privacy Policy, then click Create Account. An account that never buys anything is deleted by itself after 30 days.

5. Buy Personal Cloud. Choose Yearly or Monthly and click Buy Yearly… or Buy Monthly…. Checkout opens in your browser on Polar’s page, and the sheet moves on by itself once the payment goes through. Bought it already, on another Mac? Click I’ve Already Bought It. See Plans and billing.

6. Your encryption key (Step 1 of 3). Cloak Proxy explains that it encrypts everything on this Mac before upload, and that Subcloak never has your key. Click Continue. This Mac makes your account’s keys and stores them in its Keychain.

7. Save your Recovery Kit (Step 2 of 3). The sheet shows your recovery key and a QR code of it. Save it at least one way:

   • Save PDF… saves Personal Cloud Recovery Kit.pdf, readable only by your macOS account.
   • Print… prints it straight from memory, with no copy on disk.
   • Copy copies the key. The clipboard is cleared after a minute, and clipboard managers and Universal Clipboard skip it.

   Then click Continue. See Recovery Kit for where to keep it.

8. Check it (Step 3 of 3). Type the last two groups of your recovery key from the kit you saved, and click Check. This proves the kit was saved before you rely on it.

   You can click Skip. Settings › Cloud then shows Recovery Kit not confirmed until you check a kit.

9. Choose what syncs. Tick the types to sync and click Start Syncing. See What syncs for what each one includes.

Your first upload starts right away. To add another Mac, see Add another Mac.

Keep the Recovery Kit safe

Anyone who has your Recovery Kit and knows your account email can read your synced data: using the kit sends you no code. If you lose every computer and the kit, your Cloud data can’t be recovered, by you or by Subcloak. The data on each Mac is never affected.

Buy and set up on your first computer

Until your encryption key exists, the computer you signed in on first is the setup computer: only it can buy Personal Cloud, open billing and create the key. Another computer that signs in with the same email says Buy and set up Personal Cloud on the computer you signed in on first. This stops someone who can read your email from taking over setup.

Lost that computer before finishing? On another computer, click Use This Computer Instead… and confirm. We email you a link; opening it moves setup to that computer and signs your other computers out. If you’ve already bought Personal Cloud, the move waits 24 hours, and setting up your key on the first computer in that time cancels it.

Finish setting up later

Every step has Not Now or Cancel. Setup remembers where you stopped: Settings › Cloud shows Finish setting up Personal Cloud with what’s left, and Continue… picks up from there. Before you’ve bought a plan, Settings › Cloud shows the plans instead, with Buy Monthly…, Buy Yearly… and I’ve Already Bought It.

It says	What’s left
Buy Personal Cloud: monthly or yearly.	The plan step.
Create your encryption key and save your Recovery Kit.	Steps 1 to 3 above.
Approve this Mac from a computer that’s already signed in, or use your Recovery Kit.	This Mac signed in to an account that already has computers. See Add another Mac.
Restore this Mac from your account, or choose what syncs.	The last step. On a Mac joining an account that already has data, it’s Restore this Mac.

Settings › Cloud once it’s on

Section	What’s in it
This Mac	Sync: up to date, syncing, offline, paused or items that need a look, with Sync Now. Last change uploaded. Push connection: when connected, changes from your other computers arrive right away; otherwise they’re checked every few minutes. Storage used against your plan’s limit. Recovery Kit: saved and checked, not confirmed, or a new kit not saved yet. Warnings about your account’s computers appear at the top.
What syncs	The same switches as setup, with the size and number of items of each type. See What syncs.
Sync issues	Shown when something needs you: conflicts, changes to review, warnings. Review… opens the list. See Review changes from another Mac.
Share links	The links this Mac made, with views, expiry and Revoke. See Share links.
Devices	Every computer on your account: when it was added, when it was last seen and its approximate country. Remove… next to each other computer. See Remove a lost or stolen Mac.
Devices (Security code)	Under the list, your account’s 12-digit Security code. Compare it on your Macs: if they agree, they see the same computers and keys.
Plan	Your plan and its renewal or end date, Manage Billing… and Cancel Subscription…. See Plans and billing.
Account	Your email, What Subcloak Can See, Delete Account… and Sign Out of Personal Cloud….

Sign out of Personal Cloud on a Mac

Click Sign Out of Personal Cloud… in Settings › Cloud › Account, then Sign Out.

• If you have other computers on the account: this Mac stops syncing and is removed from your account. Its rules, mocks and API workspaces stay on it, unchanged. Your other computers keep their copies, and so does Cloud. The next computer that syncs changes the account key, so this Mac’s old key opens nothing new.
• If this is the only computer on the account: it stops syncing and its keys are deleted, but your account and its data stay in Personal Cloud. To use them again, sign in and choose Use Recovery Kit Instead…. See Recovery Kit.

Signing out deletes this Mac’s Cloud keys and its Cloud folder. It never touches your rules, mocks or workspaces.

Related

Add another MacApprove a new Mac by comparing codes.

What syncsEvery sync type and what stays on each Mac.

Recovery KitKeep it safe, use it, make a new one.

Plans and billingBuying, billing, cancelling and refunds.