Keeping your account safe

Your password

Change it in Settings under Security. You are emailed whenever it changes, so if it ever changes and it was not you, you find out.

If you signed up with Google there is no password here: Google handles the signing in.

Two step sign in

Two step sign in means a password alone is not enough to get into your account. After it, you also type a six digit number from an app on your phone, which changes every thirty seconds.

1. Install an authenticator app on your phone if you do not have one. Any of them work.
2. In Settings under Security, start two step sign in. A square barcode appears on screen.
3. Scan that barcode with the app. It starts showing a six digit number for Docmode.
4. Type the number in to confirm the two are talking to each other. Two step sign in is now on.
5. Save the backup codes it gives you. Read the next section before you decide where to put them.

Backup codes

A backup code is how you get in when you do not have your phone. Each one works once.

Signed-in devices

Settings lists every device signed in to your account, what each one is, when it was last active, and where from. The one you are using is marked.

You can end any of them. That is what to do about a laptop you no longer have, or a computer you used once at somebody else's desk.

Messages you cannot turn off

Three messages are sent whatever your notification settings say, because each one is only useful if it cannot be silenced by accident:

• A device signs in that has not signed in before.
• Your password changes.
• Two step sign in is turned off.

The first device on a new account is recorded quietly, since being warned about yourself while signing up for the first time would teach you to ignore the warning.

None of this costs anything

Two step sign in, backup codes, the device list and the alerts are on every plan, including the free one. Security is not something to sell back to people.

For how your documents themselves are protected, the security page is the fuller answer.