Help with MaskWise

No. MaskWise has no server that processes your content. Detection, masking, and restoration all run on your Mac. The app does not need an internet connection to do its core work, and your documents are never uploaded anywhere.

The link between a token and its original value is kept in an encrypted vault, secured with strong, industry-standard encryption and stored in your Mac's Keychain. The mapping is scoped to each document, and nothing leaves your machine. Clear the vault at any time and that link is gone for good.

No. MaskWise does not profile you, your documents, or your activity. There is no usage tracking and no advertising. Anything you teach the app, such as your own vocabulary and corrections, is encrypted on your Mac and used only to improve detection locally.

Only the text you choose to paste back into the app, and only on your device. MaskWise uses that text to match tokens and restore your original values. It is not transmitted anywhere, and it is not retained after you finish.

No. MaskWise is a tool that helps you keep sensitive values out of external AI services. It does not by itself guarantee compliance with any law or regulation. You remain responsible for how you handle information and which AI services you use. When in doubt, review your obligations with your own compliance or legal team.

MaskWise recognizes a broad set of personal and sensitive data, including:

• Names of people, organizations, and places
• Email addresses and phone numbers
• Postal addresses, ZIP codes, and IP addresses
• Financial identifiers such as card, IBAN, and bank account numbers, validated with checksums to reduce false matches
• Government identifiers such as SSN, passport, and driver's licence numbers
• Medical record numbers, dates, and dates of birth

You can also teach it your own recurring terms under Settings, and each category is colour coded so it is easy to see at a glance.

Yes. After detection, MaskWise highlights every match so you can confirm the results before masking. You can toggle off anything that is not sensitive, correct a wrong type, or add something it missed. No automated system is perfect, so this review step lets you keep control over exactly what is replaced.

Each masked value is replaced by a structured token in the form ⦅TYPE-INDEX-CHECKSUM⦆. For example, a name might become ⦅PERSON-001-K7⦆ and an email ⦅EMAIL-002-Q3⦆. The prefix tells you the category, the index keeps repeated mentions of the same value consistent within a document, and the short checksum lets MaskWise verify and repair the token when it reads the AI's reply. The real value stays in your encrypted vault.

Copy the response from your AI tool, paste it into MaskWise, and choose Restore. MaskWise matches each token in the text and replaces it with the original value, locally. Your finished result is ready to copy or save.

Restoration depends on the tokens surviving the round trip. MaskWise can repair tokens that an AI lightly reformatted, using the checksum built into each one. But some tools rewrite or shorten text so heavily that a token no longer matches, and MaskWise will never guess a value it cannot verify, so it leaves that token in place and flags it.

If a token still does not match, paste the original masked text back in, confirm the token is intact, and try the AI step again with the instruction in place.

MaskWise restores your values into clean, readable text and Markdown. Rebuilding the exact original layout of a complex spreadsheet or slide deck from an AI response is intentionally outside the scope of the app, because a partial reconstruction would be unreliable in work where accuracy matters. You get dependable, restored text that you can paste back into your own document.

The free Basic plan supports text, PDF, RTF, and Markdown files, plus text you paste in. Pro adds Word (DOCX), Excel (XLSX), and PowerPoint (PPTX). You work with one document at a time, which keeps the experience focused and predictable.

The masked output is always Markdown. MaskWise does not write back into the original DOCX, XLSX, or PPTX layout.

• Basic is free and covers text, PDF, RTF, and Markdown, with up to 10 documents each month.
• Pro removes the monthly limit and unlocks Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Masking runs on your Mac on every plan. For current pricing, visit maskwise.ai.

MaskWise Pro is an auto-renewing subscription handled by Apple through the App Store. You can view, change, or cancel it in System Settings on your Mac under your Apple Account, or in the App Store. Refund requests are also managed by Apple through reportaproblem.apple.com. If you need help with any of this, write to us and we will point you to the right place.

MaskWise runs on macOS Tahoe 26 or later. Install it from the Mac App Store, and updates arrive the same way. No account or sign in is required to start with the free features. The optional deep scan needs a Mac that supports Apple Intelligence.

Yes. The on-device recognition model loads the first time you use it in a session, which can add a short delay. After that, detection is fast. Because the model runs locally, this brief warm up is the trade for never sending your data away. Teaching MaskWise your recurring terms also lets the instant rules do more of the work.

Try these steps in order:

• Quit MaskWise completely and reopen it.
• Make sure your Mac is running macOS Tahoe 26 or later.
• Check the App Store for an available update.
• Restart your Mac if the issue continues.

If none of these help, write to us with your macOS version and a short description of what happened, and we will work it out with you.