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Key Manager View

The key management functionality in Necron Vault Manager is exposed through the dongle status card in the sidebar and the Account pane in Settings. These surfaces show your connected encryption key, its role, and how much key material (pad) you have remaining.

Dongle Status Card

The dongle status card sits at the bottom of the sidebar and displays:

  • Dongle name — e.g., "Necron Key"
  • Connection status — a status tag showing CONNECTED or DISCONNECTED
  • Capacity bar — a visual bar showing how much pad is used vs. remaining
  • Capacity text — numeric representation of pad usage

Clicking the dongle status card triggers a manual rescan of USB volumes.

MASTER vs. SLAVE Roles

Capability MASTER SLAVE
Encrypt files ✅ Yes ❌ No
Decrypt files ✅ Yes ✅ Yes
Create vaults ✅ Yes ❌ No
Modify vault structure ✅ Yes ❌ No
Import/restore vaults ❌ — ✅ Yes (from vault snapshots)
Reserve pad bytes ✅ Yes ❌ No

Why SLAVE Keys Exist

SLAVE keys are backup copies of your MASTER key. They're designed for:

  • Disaster recovery — if your MASTER dongle is lost or damaged, a SLAVE can still decrypt all your files
  • Read-only access — share a SLAVE dongle with someone who needs to read (but not modify) your encrypted data
  • Vault restoration — import vault metadata snapshots to recover vault structure on a new device

For details on creating SLAVE keys, see Backup Dongles.

Pad Usage

How Pad is Consumed

Every time you encrypt a file, the app reserves a range of pad bytes:

  • NCV2 format (vault imports): Consumes pad bytes equal to the file size. A 10 MB file consumes 10 MB of pad.
  • NCV3 format (Quick Encrypt): Uses only a tiny amount of pad per file regardless of file size. This is extremely efficient — you can encrypt thousands of files.

Tip

The NCV3 format is vastly more pad-efficient than NCV2. With a 20 MB software key, NCV3 gives you capacity for thousands of files, whereas NCV2 would only support ~20 MB of total encrypted data.

Capacity Bar

The capacity bar inside the dongle status card in the sidebar reflects the MASTER key's pad usage at a glance. It updates after each operation.

Software Key (Free Tier)

If you're using the Free Tier (no hardware dongle), the dongle status card shows your software key — a virtual MASTER dongle:

  • Role: MASTER
  • Capacity: 20 MB default pad
  • Storage: Encrypted at rest in the local app data directory, bound to your Windows account
  • Trial period: 30 days from first activation

The software key behaves identically to a hardware dongle for all encryption/decryption operations. The main differences are:

  • Bound to your Windows user account — the key file is encrypted and only works for the Windows user who provisioned it
  • Fixed capacity — cannot be replaced or expanded (upgrade to Pro for a hardware dongle)
  • Time-limited — the 30-day trial is enforced with a protected trial system

Warning

If you reset your Windows profile or reinstall Windows, the encryption keys protecting your software key are lost and your software key becomes permanently inaccessible. Back up important files with a separate strategy if you rely on the Free tier.

Dongles in Settings

The Account pane in Settings shows additional dongle information for Pro subscribers:

  • A dongles card listing all dongles registered to your account
  • Dongle names, roles, and provisioning dates
  • Option to manage dongle registrations

Manual Refresh

To manually refresh dongle detection and pad usage:

  1. Click the dongle status card in the sidebar — this triggers a dongle_scan_now command
  2. The app rescans all USB volumes for valid Necron key files
  3. The dongle status card updates with fresh usage data

Note

You normally don't need to refresh manually. The app uses Windows WMI events to detect USB insertions and removals in real time. Manual refresh is useful if you suspect the display is stale (e.g., after a drive letter change).

What If No Dongle Is Connected?

If no dongle is connected and the Free Tier is not active:

  • The Gatekeeper lock screen remains displayed
  • Encrypt and decrypt operations are unavailable
  • The dongle status card shows DISCONNECTED

The app transitions to the main interface as soon as a valid dongle is inserted or a Free Tier login succeeds.