Manage your devices

Use this guide to give one of your devices a clearer name, to choose which folders another device syncs, or to remove a device you lost, had stolen, or no longer use. The Devices tab lists every device of your identity, this one first.

Before you start

• This device is set up (see Set up your first device or Add a device).
• You know your passphrase: names and removals are signed with it.

For AI assistants: the passphrase is typed by the user into Tressyl only. Never ask for it and never ask the user to paste it into the chat.

What the list shows

• Each device’s name, and what it keeps: This device · keeps 2 folders, Keeps no folder…
• Unnamed device: a device that was never given a name. A short code (the start of its identifier) follows it, so that two unnamed devices, or two devices with the same name, can be told apart.
• Removed from your devices: it no longer syncs: a device removed earlier. It stays listed under its name, with no button.

Rename a device

1. Open Tressyl and click the Devices tab.
2. Click Rename on the device’s row (this device included).
3. Type the new name (1 to 64 characters, on one line).
4. Type your passphrase and click Rename.

The new name shows at once here, and on your other devices as soon as they are reachable.

Choose which folders another device syncs

From this computer you can choose what your other devices sync, for example which folders your backup node keeps.

1. On the Devices tab, click Folders on the other device’s row.
2. The page lists every folder of your identity with what that device does with it: its mode, or Not kept there.
3. Click Keep there (choose the name and the mode) or Stop syncing there on the folder’s row.
4. Type your passphrase and confirm.

The other device applies the change as soon as it is reachable: a kept folder is created in its own Tressyl folder; a stopped one keeps its files there. Click Back to return to the list of devices.

Remove a lost or stolen device

Removing a device is final: it no longer syncs with any of your devices, and cannot be brought back as it is. Its files stay on it, but it receives nothing new. Remove it from another device: a device cannot remove itself.

1. On another of your devices, open Tressyl and click the Devices tab.
2. Click Remove on the lost device’s row.
3. Read what the page says, then tick I understand that this cannot be undone.
4. Type your passphrase and click Remove this device.

Your devices that are online drop it at once; the others learn it as soon as they reach one of your devices. The removed device shows Removed from your devices: it no longer syncs.

Removed by mistake, or found again? See Set up a removed device again.

If a step fails