Sync PhraseVault with Dropbox, OneDrive, or iCloud you already pay for

I am Gerhard. I built PhraseVault so a phrase you saved once can be inserted again, wherever you can paste text. Once that works on one computer, the next question is how the same library reaches the laptop.

Many text expanders answer with an account. You register, the vendor holds the library, and a subscription keeps the two machines aligned. That is a real product. Plenty of people want exactly that. I did not build it. PhraseVault stores phrases in a SQLite file on the disk. There is no PhraseVault account, and I do not sell a cloud sync plan on top of the license. If you already pay for Dropbox, OneDrive, or iCloud, the file can live in a folder those apps already sync. You bring the folder.

PhraseVault itself still does not upload your text. The sync client will, because that is what you asked it to do with that folder. If a phrase must stay off those servers, leave the database in a directory they do not watch.

The job is one library in both places. The VAT line, the address block, the reply support already agreed on, the prompt you do not want to rebuild from memory: they should be on the machine in front of you, whether that is the desk or the laptop.

Both machines stay search-first, because each opens its synced copy of that file. You place the cursor where the text should land. On Windows you press Ctrl+. On a Mac you press Cmd+. Settings can move that summon shortcut if the chord is already taken. PhraseVault opens over the app you were typing in.

You type a few letters you know are in the phrase. Search matches those fragments against the name. For an unprotected phrase it also matches the contents, and every word you type has to appear. Exact name matches come first, then phrases in the order you actually use them. A phrase protected with the PIN stays searchable by name only, even while it is unlocked. When the first row is the one you want, you press Enter. Move to another row first if you want that one. The text lands at the cursor, the window hides, and the clipboard from a moment ago is restored.

There is nowhere to store a trigger abbreviation. You give the phrase a plain name you would say out loud. "Delivery delay, in stock Friday" is the name on both computers, because it is the name in the file.

The app works offline, on Windows 10 and newer and on macOS 13 Ventura and newer. One license covers Windows and macOS for that person. A Windows desk and a Mac laptop can open the same SQLite file. A colleague needs their own license. The database can still be the one you both open.

Settings shows the path. Open Settings and read the Database section. The location of the SQLite file is written there. Help, then Show Phrase Database File, opens the folder if you would rather see it than copy a path.

Close PhraseVault completely before you move the file. Then move the .sqlite file into a folder Dropbox, OneDrive, or iCloud already syncs. A dull name helps: a PhraseVault folder inside that drive, holding the database and little else.

Start PhraseVault again and open the file from its new home. In Settings, choose Open Database and select the file you moved. File, then Open Database, is the same step. The path in Settings should now sit inside the synced folder. If you are starting clean, File, then New Database, can save the new file straight into that folder. You open it on the second machine the same way.

On the second machine, install PhraseVault and wait until the sync client has the file on disk. Open that same database. Each computer holds a copy of one library, and the client you already run is what makes the copies match.

Some clients keep files online until something asks for them. OneDrive calls this Files On-Demand. Dropbox offers online-only files. PhraseVault can use the database once it is a real file on the machine. If a phrase you just saved is missing on the other computer, check the sync client first. When the file has caught up, type in the search field, which refreshes the list, or reopen the database from Recent Databases.

Keep both installations on the same PhraseVault version.

The database carries the phrases. A copy also carries PIN material. It does not carry every preference, so look through Settings on the second machine before you assume the shortcut and the theme came along.

Sync runs at the speed of the client. On a quiet desk connection, a change often appears after a short wait. iCloud Drive can take longer. A VPN can take longer. I would not describe this as a live multiplayer editor. Two people rewriting the same sentence in the same minute will wait on the client, and they may save over each other if they do not wait.

That suits one person on two machines, or a small group that edits now and then. Most of the day is searching and inserting. Writing is rare.

When more than one person does edit, pick one editor at a time. Even edits to different phrases change the same database file. Let the client finish syncing before anyone else edits. If two saves overlap, the sync client can leave an extra copy of the file, and that extra copy is a second database you did not mean to open. Every so often, copy the SQLite file somewhere the sync client will not overwrite. That spare copy is what you put back if a hiccup damages the one you work in.

A small team can share one approved wording by opening that same file. The folder is the sharing. Each person still needs their own license.

Folder sync without an app account is already on the market. QuickText keeps local JSON files, and its data folder can sit in Dropbox or OneDrive, without an app account. Snippety can stay on the machine or use your own iCloud, without an app account of its own. People do real work in those apps.

PhraseVault is my version of that answer: a search box over a SQLite file, and no trigger abbreviation beside the sentence. The Dropbox, OneDrive, or iCloud account, if you use one, is the account you already had. The text still does not go to a server I run. If a short code that expands as you type is how you work, a trigger-based expander fits that habit better.

Install PhraseVault on the desk machine. The download includes a 14-day trial, and it does not ask for a card. Save the ten phrases you retyped last month. Name each one the way you would name it to a colleague.

Move the database into the Dropbox, OneDrive, or iCloud folder you already pay for, using the steps above. When the file shows up on the laptop, open it there. For a week, on whichever machine you are actually using, put the cursor in the field, press Ctrl+. or Cmd+., type a word from the name or from the phrase, and press Enter.

If the laptop is missing something you saved an hour ago, look at the sync client and wait for the file. If you and a colleague need to edit the same lines all afternoon, this will feel slow, and that reading is fair. If the week shows you one library on both machines, with no PhraseVault login and no sync plan from me, that is the job I left the file on disk to do.

The license after the trial is paid once per person, and it covers Windows and macOS. The current numbers live at phrasevault.app/pricing. The folder remains yours either way.