DocsMotion Player

Your devices' keys

Your sensor readings are encrypted with keys that Motion Hub never has (see Sensors in the app). So that each of your devices can read them without you copying keys around, your Motion apps pass the keys to each other themselves, through Motion Hub, locked so that only the device they're meant for can open them.

A device here is one Motion Player signed in to Motion Hub, on a computer or on an Android phone. A watch isn't one: it gets its keys from the phone it's paired with, as Sensors and the watch says.

A device only gets keys once one of your devices that's already approved says it's yours. That way nobody else, not even Motion Hub, can slip in a device of their own.

Your first device

The first Motion Player you sign in with has nobody to approve it, so it asks you:

• On a computer: in Settings › Sensors, No device of yours is approved yet, and This is my first.
• On a phone: in Sensors, The first of your devices with keys, and Make this phone the first.

Say so only if no other phone or computer of yours is approved yet. If one is, approve this one there instead. Once it's your first, it approves the others, and every token you make in Motion has its keys on it.

Approving a new device

When you sign a new computer or phone in to Motion Hub with the same account, it waits to be approved. You approve it on any device of yours that's approved already, and both show a short code to compare. You can start on either one.

Starting on the device you already have:

1. Open Motion Player's sensors there. It shows NAME wants to read your sensors.
2. Click Approve it here (on a phone, Check and approve). Both devices now show a code of six letters and digits, such as 4F7 · K2Q.
3. Check the new device shows the same code, and click The codes match: approve.
4. On the new device, click The codes match too.

Starting on the new device:

1. It says Approve this computer on your phone or another device of yours (on a phone, Approve this phone).
2. Open Motion Player's sensors on a device you've approved, signed in as you. It asks about the new one: go on from step 2 above.
3. If you approve it there first, the new one says Approved there: check the code here too. Check the code, and click The codes match.

Neither device takes the other's keys until you've said the codes match on it. If they don't match, don't approve: click Not mine, which removes the device. A code that doesn't match means something other than your own device asked.

Once approved, the new device gets your tokens and their keys from whichever of your devices next checks in with Motion Hub: a computer does when Motion starts, every 20 minutes while it runs, and while its Sensors are open; a phone, while its Sensors page is open. Every device you approved trusts the others you approved. You're asked once for each new device, never for each sensor.

Seeing your devices

• In Motion on a computer: Read by, in Settings › Sensors, lists your approved devices, this computer among them, with how many of your tokens' keys each holds.
• In Motion on a phone: Read by, on Sensors, lists this phone's wallpaper and your other approved devices, with when each was approved.
• On Motion Hub: the Devices page lists Your devices with Motion Player, which can read your tokens: each one, whether it's Approved or Waiting to be approved, how many tokens' keys it holds, and when it was last seen.

Removing a device

Remove a device you've lost, sold or given away, so it gets no more keys:

• In Motion on a computer or phone: Remove beside it under Read by, then Remove it (on a phone, Remove again). An approved device signs the removal itself, so nothing else is asked.
• On Motion Hub's Devices page: Remove beside it. A device that's still waiting to be approved goes at once. An approved one asks you to show it's you first: your password, or a code from your two-step app or a recovery code. Without two-step sign-in, you can sign in again instead; that counts for ten minutes.

Your last approved device can't be removed from Motion Hub's website. If you've lost it, see Starting over.

Once removed, it gets no more keys, Motion Hub drops the keys kept for it, and the devices it approved stop counting on it. The keys it already took stay on it, though: if it was lost or stolen, make the tokens it held anew.

When a phone or watch loses its keys

On Android, Motion keeps its device keys, your tokens and its Motion Hub sign-in locked with a key in Android's own keystore, and leaves them out of backups.

• If the keystore doesn't answer for a moment, Motion says so (This phone couldn't open its tokens just now, so nothing was changed: try again in a moment) and loses nothing. Try again.
• If the keystore's key is gone for good, as after restoring a backup onto a new phone, what it locked can't be opened again. Motion says The tokens kept on this phone can't be opened any more, and the phone is a new device: sign in, approve it on another device of yours, and your tokens come back from there. If it was your only approved device, see Starting over. A watch says the same, and needs its token sent again from the phone.

Starting over

If you've lost every device of yours that's approved, start your device keys over:

1. On Motion Hub's Devices page, under the list, click Reset my devices.
2. Show it's you, with your password, or a code from your two-step app or a recovery code.
3. Click Start over in a day.

Nothing happens at once. The start-over is due 24 hours later, and Motion Hub emails you when you ask for it. Until then, no device of yours is approved. When it's due, every Motion Player of yours is removed from your account, with the keys kept for them, Motion Hub emails you again, and the next device you sign in with is your first again.

Keys only your lost devices had are gone with them: make those tokens anew.

Cancelling it

If you didn't ask for it, or changed your mind, cancel it before it's due:

• On any approved device: Motion's sensors show Your devices' keys start over and when. Click Cancel it. It works even if a password change signed that app out.
• On Motion Hub's Devices page: Cancel, then show it's you, and Cancel the reset.

Motion Hub emails you to say it was cancelled. If you didn't ask for it, someone has your password: change it.

When you can't start over

Motion Hub refuses to start over:

• without an email address on your account, because the warning has to reach you: add one first;
• within a week of your email address changing, or of a change being asked for, so the warning goes where you'll read it (and your email can't change while a start-over waits);
• within a day of cancelling one: try again a day later.

Last changed 2 November 2026. Something wrong here? Tell us.