Frequently Asked Questions

passage is a secure cloud storage service that prioritizes your privacy and simplicity. Unlike alternatives, we focus on core file storage without unnecessary features. Your files are encrypted with SSE-C encryption via an envelope encryption methodology- we literally cannot decrypt your data on the storage provider end.

We're significantly cheaper with zero feature creep and better built-in security. No upselling, no annoying popups, no AI scanning your files. Just secure, encrypted storage that works exactly as you expect. Your data stays private because your encryption key is unique to you. We plan to offer a custom user-controlled key rotation feature after the end of beta.

Server-Side Encryption with Customer-provided keys means technically you or an escrow agent is providing the encryption key, not us on the storage provider side. In passage's case, this is a custom-designed escrow agent. Due to this, your files are encrypted with the same kind of security used by the government and military for many applications, AES-256, via a master key setup that is kept COMPLETELY LOGICALLY AND PHYSICALLY SEPARATE from the storage side. Even if someone compromised our storage providers, your data would be unreadable to the attacker.

passage is optimized for small file multiselect OR really large single file upload on mobile. You get a tab reload because you hit the memory threshold of your mobile browser tab (which we can't configure for you), and it forces a tab reload.

If you hit this case, either use the desktop client for your sync, or multiselect fewer items for your bulk upload until your uploads are working. We are considering adding more queue/memory management on the mobile upload end, but it would hurt performance for end users in many cases, so we aren't sure yet how we will proceed. We might have a voting system for feature requests like this from advanced and ultra users later.

passage loads your content as quickly as possible; all cloud providers return information in "pages", and we have two options:

Option #1: fully paginate all your data and then return your view (slower to load, complete data available but could take 10+ minutes for massive directories)

Option #2: fully paginate the root folder, but allow all other directories to paginate only upon scroll (if you look at the bottom right of the view, it will indicate if you need to scroll more for data). Or do a search which fully paginates before searching.

We opt for #2 currently, but might offer a separate deployment or button that has different behavior if enough serious users want this in the future. We plan to implement an anonymous feedback system from ultra and advanced users to help us make future product decisions.

passage works on many different operating systems. Some of them-- by default like Windows in most places-- ignore case for parsing and some file operations. Other operating systems, like most Linux and macOS, care very much about casing almost everywhere.

Due to this, we also care about casing in most places on our backend, as this preserves compatibility across the widest range of OS without risking client data.

Important: This requires you to path-route to the correct CASE for your target folder. For example, you need to type https://passage.guru/Documents (with a capital "D") if you have synced a Windows-based host to Passage to load your Documents folder content without having to click into the folder from elsewhere.

Individual files up to 5TB are supported through our multipart upload system. Large files are automatically split into chunks and uploaded in parallel for better performance and reliability. They are still SSE-C encrypted with your key like everything else you upload.

Yes, both via drag-and-drop and the folder upload button. The desktop client also automatically syncs entire directory structures while preserving timestamps as best as possible.

No. With SSE-C encryption, we never have access to your encryption keys. Your files are encrypted before they reach our servers and remain encrypted at rest. We logically and physically cannot decrypt your data on the storage provider end.

We designed our custom escrow system to render this impossible. This is by design - true privacy means even we can't recover your files if your master key is lost. We backup this key through a custom no-human process, and plan to release a user-driven key rotation pattern after beta.

Files are stored on enterprise-grade infrastructure with 99.999999999% (11 nines) durability. We use both AWS and Seagate Lyve Cloud backends depending on your plan and region. Certain clients have asked if we have private datacenter deployment options also, and so we are now working on this as well. But for all typical plans (basic, advanced, ultra), your files are either on AWS or Seagate Lyve.

We don't waste money building features you'll never use. No giant marketing teams to support, no unnecessary collaboration tools - just rock-solid file storage. We pass those savings directly to you.

Yes, through the Stripe customer portal accessible from your account. Click "Plan" at the very bottom left after login, and the Stripe billing page will load in a new tab. Proration and so on happen from the Stripe end, and will display during checkout as you switch plans. Please note if you are on a higher usage plan, and attempt to downgrade while still being above the new plan's usage limit, we might block your downgrade until you correct that by deleting enough data to get underneath the plan's storage threshold.

We have a scanning process that runs once a day to tally total usage across all file blobs. The web interface will warn you at >80% usage, providing more intense warnings as you reach and perhaps exceed 100% plan storage size. Your account becomes read-only at 100% and cannot upload new files, although your current files are still downloadable and sharable. You can upgrade your plan or remove files to continue uploading. You will then be allowed for uploads again with the next 24 hours. Your current usage is always shown in the webapp at the very bottom left. You might need to scroll or pinch/drag (depending on your OS) to see it.

The web interface works in any modern browser, and even several old browsers. For automatic syncing including differential syncs, download our desktop client which runs quietly in the background. We will release a Windows sync program first during beta, with macOS and others soon to follow.

After we release it later on in the beta, download the desktop client from the link on your passage account. This installer is UNIQUE TO YOUR ACCOUNT. DO NOT SHARE IT. Just execute it once, you can move it from the Downloads folder, or leave it there-- whatever you prefer. On Windows, it automatically configures itself to run on startup. It will sync your Documents, Desktop, and other critical folders while respecting your privacy. It only runs when your user is logged in (the screen locked is fine). It does NOT require admin rights to install. It has no popups or annoying configuration options. It does offer certain advanced configuration options if you run it from the command prompt/terminal with --help if you are into that sort of thing (we are).

Contact our support team through the email support AT passage DOT guru. Also thoroughly read this entire FAQ, as it should already answer most questions, and be readily digestible by your favorite AI. Please note we are in open beta and will heavily prioritize ultra plan users to email back at this time. Ultra plan users are also welcome to message the founder Scotty Ellis on LinkedIn. We're technical people who understand storage systems and can provide real solutions, not scripted responses. We also plan to offer custom support plans solely for ultra and enterprise plan users in the future also.

At the time of this writing September 9, 2025, and beyond, we have not been compelled to provide any data on any customers of passage.

No, and we will not do this. As we cannot read the stored data directly anyways, there is no business benefit to this in passage's case.

Note that your files are stored in a manner in which we cannot decrypt them ourselves. To extract your data meaningfully, government would need to compel access on ALL of our cloud providers to decrypt ANY of your data. For this reason, we plan to offer separately rotatable key material that is entirely user-controlled after we finish the open beta period, as a new feature for an additional fee. We will include usage guidance with this feature when we release it. Please note, that after we release this feature, if you rotate away from our escrow key to a personal key, and then lose your key, you will lose all of your passage data permanently (you would only be able to delete the data out of your account at that point).