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Pia Docs

Cloud Sync

Pia Cloud Sync keeps your conversations in sync across all your devices. With end-to-end encryption (E2EE), only you can read your data.

How It Works

Section titled “How It Works”
  1. You sign in to your Pia account
  2. Conversations are encrypted on your device before upload
  3. The server stores only encrypted data — it cannot read your conversations
  4. Your other devices download and decrypt locally

Signing In

Section titled “Signing In”
  1. Open Settings → Cloud Sync
  2. Sign in using one of these options:
    • Email and password — enter the credentials from your Pia account
    • Google — click the Google button to sign in with your Google account
    • Microsoft — click the Microsoft button to sign in with your Microsoft account

A loading spinner appears while Pia connects to the server.

Your Account

Section titled “Your Account”

Once signed in, you’ll see an account card with your name, email, and how you signed in.

Below that, Pia shows your sync status — when you last synced and how many items are stored in the cloud.

  • Click Sync Now to manually push and pull changes. A progress indicator shows the sync in action.
  • Click Sign Out to disconnect your account from this device.

End-to-End Encryption

Section titled “End-to-End Encryption”

E2EE means your conversations are encrypted on your device before they leave it. Nobody — not even the Pia server — can read them.

Enabling E2EE

Section titled “Enabling E2EE”
  1. Sign in to your Pia account
  2. Scroll to the End-to-End Encryption section
  3. Flip the toggle to On
  4. Wait for the progress indicator to finish — your device fingerprint appears once setup is complete

A progress indicator appears while encryption is set up. Once enabled, you’ll see your device fingerprint — a short code displayed in a monospace font that uniquely identifies this device. You can use this code to verify your device’s identity when setting up additional devices.

Adding a Second Device

Section titled “Adding a Second Device”

When you sign in on a new device with E2EE already enabled, Pia walks you through a short onboarding flow to securely share your encryption key.

On your original device, go to Settings → Cloud Sync and click Check for device requests to approve the new device. Once approved, both devices can read and write encrypted conversations.

Next Steps

Section titled “Next Steps”

Ready to start chatting? Head to Your First Conversation to learn the basics.