A backup and an access key solve different problems
When moving from an online scribe, it is natural to wonder who restores your notes if the laptop is lost. With local encrypted records, the answer begins with two independent requirements. You need a copy that survived the loss, and you need the passphrase or recovery key that opens it.
| What you still have | What is missing |
|---|---|
| A backup, but no working passphrase or recovery key | A way to decrypt the records. |
| The passphrase or recovery key, but no surviving records | The clinical data itself. |
| A surviving backup and a working way to unlock it | The ingredients needed for recovery are available. |
This distinction is why another copy on the same lost laptop does not solve the same problem as a backup held elsewhere. It also explains why storing a recovery key is not a substitute for retaining the data.
What Astralcyte provides
Astralcyte stores clinical records in an encrypted vault. It supports automatic encrypted snapshots to a folder you choose after completed sessions and significant changes, and encrypted portable bundles for selected records. Temporary audio is not included in those backups or bundles.
You can open your records with the passphrase or recovery key. The company has neither a recovery key nor a cloud copy of the clinical content. If both ways to unlock the vault are lost, the company cannot recover the records. The security policy explains these protections.
The useful practice decision is where a recoverable encrypted copy will live and how the authorized person will obtain a working passphrase or key if the original laptop is unavailable.
Choose the backup location deliberately
A separate drive can keep the backup with your practice. An existing online backup or sync service can hold an encrypted copy if that is the arrangement your practice chooses. Astralcyte does not need to receive it in either case.
If you choose an online service, that service becomes a holder of the encrypted backup. HHS cloud guidance notes that storing encrypted ePHI can still create business-associate obligations in a covered US arrangement, even without the decryption key.
The distinction keeps the choice clear: you decide where to hold recovery copies, rather than sending the conversation to a scribe company as a condition of getting a draft.
Check the recovery result, not just the backup indicator
A restore using fictional sample notes can show whether your arrangement works in practice. The meaningful result is that the records can be opened from the surviving backup with the access information available to the responsible person.
Once that arrangement is established, local drafting can give you both the privacy benefit and a recoverable record. Astralcyte's privacy policy explains that the company never receives the conversation through the app. You keep AI help with writing while retaining control of the clinical copies needed to run your practice.