Lost or stolen PC or kit

What to do if you lose a PC, lose every PC, lose your recovery kit, or your kit is stolen.

Find your situation below. Nothing here has a waiting period: each step takes effect as soon as it’s done.

Your PCs hold your keys, and your recovery kit is their spare copy. A lost or stolen PC still holds your keys, so until it’s removed, whoever can get into it can act as you in your libraries. Windows sign-in and PromptMason’s App Lock protect it, but act quickly.

One PC was lost or stolen

You still have another PC. Removing the lost PC also replaces your keys, because that’s the only way to lock it out for good. Your other PCs carry on as normal. You save a new recovery kit, and the old one stops working.

Your personal library, and team libraries where you’re the primary owner:

1. On your approving PC, click Settings in the sidebar, then Libraries & sharing. If the lost PC was your approving PC, first make this PC the approving one with your recovery kit. See The primary owner.

2. Under Libraries, click Manage next to the library.

3. Find the lost PC by its code and name (for example “21A6 - Alex’s desktop”) and click Remove this PC.

4. Click Remove and replace keys.

5. The Replace your keys window opens. If App Lock is on, type your App Lock password. Click Replace my keys.

   

6. Save your new recovery kit and click I’ve saved my kit (how).

Team libraries someone else leads:

1. Ask the library’s primary owner to remove the lost PC. See Remove a person or a PC for how they do it.
2. On a PC you still have, Notifications (the bell in the top-right corner) then shows Replace your keys. Click Replace my keys. In the Replace your keys window, type your App Lock password if App Lock is on, click Replace my keys, and save your new recovery kit.
3. Each library’s primary owner approves your new keys with one click.

If the lost PC is in more than one library, have it removed from all of them first, then replace your keys once. PromptMason offers to replace your keys after each removal you make. Click Cancel until the last one. The Replace your keys item stays in Notifications. If the PC is removed from a library after you’ve replaced your keys, PromptMason asks you to replace them again.

You lost every PC and still have your kit

On your new PC:

1. Install PromptMason and open it.

2. Make sure each library’s folder is on this PC in your cloud storage, and kept on this PC (how).

3. Click Settings in the sidebar, then Libraries & sharing.

4. In the Recovery kit row, click Restore with recovery kit (next to “Setting up a new PC after losing your others?”). The Restore with your recovery kit window opens.

5. Under Your recovery kit file, choose your kit file, and under Its code, type the code.

   

6. Under The library’s folder, click Choose folder… and pick the library’s folder.

7. For a team library, paste its invite under Restoring a team library? Its invite.

8. Click Restore.

• Your personal library, and team libraries where you’re the primary owner: “You’re back in. The library is syncing to this PC now.” This PC becomes your approving PC.
• Team libraries someone else leads: “Your recovery kit proved it’s you.” The primary owner approves this PC with one click.

After the first library, this PC holds your keys, so Restore with recovery kit isn’t offered again. For each of your other libraries:

• A team library: click Join a team library, paste its invite, click Next, choose its folder, click Next, and choose Yes, this is another of my PCs. Click Lost your other PCs? Use your recovery kit instead, choose your kit file and type its code, then click Ask to join. The result is the same as above: you’re straight back in where you’re the primary owner, and elsewhere the primary owner approves you with one click.
• Your personal library: under Libraries, find Personal and click Join from another PC. Click Lost your other PCs? Restore with your recovery kit instead and follow steps 5, 6 and 8.

You can also bring your personal library back from a backup: see Backups.

Then remove your lost PCs from each library, as described above. They still hold your keys.

You lost every PC and your kit

Team libraries: the primary owner can put you back, with the same name and role, after a quick call.

1. Install PromptMason on your new PC, and make sure the library’s shared folder is on it.
2. Click Settings in the sidebar, then Libraries & sharing, then Join a team library.
3. Paste the library’s invite (ask the primary owner for it) and click Next.
4. Click Choose folder…, pick the library’s folder, and click Next.
5. Choose Yes, but I’ve lost every PC I used it on.
6. Type Your name, as your team knows you.
7. Click Ask to join, and save the new recovery kit PromptMason makes for you.
8. Your approval code appears. Ask the primary owner to call you.

What the primary owner does:

1. In Notifications, find Identity reset request and click Review. The window is titled Reset identity, or Reset [name]’s identity when the request already names the member.
2. Call the person, on a number you already know is theirs, and check the approval code on their screen matches the one in the window.
3. If the window shows Who is this?, choose the member you spoke to (it’s suggested from the name they gave).
4. Click Reset identity.

They’re back straight away, with the same name and role. Their old PCs are removed from the library, every owner is told, and History marks their edits from then on with “Identity reset on [date]”. If they chose No, I’m new here by mistake, the request shows as Someone asked to join: click Review, then Reset identity, and follow the same steps.

The primary owner can’t be reset this way. If you’re the primary owner and you lost every PC and your kit, another owner of the library exports it and starts a new team library (The primary owner).

Your personal library can’t be recovered. Nobody else can open it, PromptMason included. If you have a backup, it needs your kit too.

You lost your recovery kit

If you still have a working PC and nobody else could have the kit, make a copy: Settings → Libraries & sharing, Make another kit. See Your recovery kit.

If you’re not sure where it went, treat it as stolen (below).

Your recovery kit was stolen

If someone may have the kit file and its code:

1. On a PC you still use, click Settings in the sidebar, then Libraries & sharing.

2. Click Advanced at the bottom of the pane, then My kit was stolen.

   

3. If App Lock is on, type your App Lock password.

4. Click Replace my kit.

5. Save your new recovery kit and click I’ve saved my kit.

The old kit stops working straight away for anything new. Your other PCs are told. Libraries where you’re the primary owner take your new keys at once; in other team libraries, the primary owner approves the change with one click.

Backups made before you replaced the kit still open with the old kit. Treat them as readable by whoever has it, and let new backups replace them.

Notices you may see

• A new recovery kit was made: “A new recovery kit was made on [PC] on [date]; the old kit no longer works. If that wasn’t you, remove that PC from your libraries now.” If it was you, click It was me. If not, click Remove that PC and follow One PC was lost or stolen.
• Replace your keys: one of your PCs was removed while it still held your keys. Click Replace my keys and save your new kit. If that PC was in other libraries, ask their primary owners to remove it there too.
• Identity reset: “[owner] reset [name]’s identity onto a new PC, [PC], on [date].” The primary owner put a member back after they lost every PC. If you’re an owner and didn’t expect it, check with the primary owner.
• “That recovery kit stopped working when one of your PCs was removed.” The kit you used was replaced. Use the newest kit you saved, make a new kit on a PC you still use, or ask the primary owner to reset your identity.

Someone may have copied your PC’s disk

If PromptMason says two copies of one PC are writing, and you don’t recognize the other copy, treat it like a stolen PC. See Sync problems.