Account, sign-in and privacy

Use the web app for account security, browser sessions, data exports and account deletion. Open the menu under your avatar for Settings, Profile and Sign out. The desktop and phone and tablet apps open the browser when an account action needs it.

Appearance

In the web app, open Settings → Appearance and choose Light, Dark or System. System follows each device’s light or dark setting. Your choice is saved to your account, and the guided setup’s Light or dark step saves the same preference. You can keep your current choice during setup and change it later here.

At Sign in, enter your verified email address and password, or choose an available provider. The public service offers Google, GitHub and Apple. Availability can differ on another server: use the buttons its sign-in page shows. Microsoft is currently unavailable. ORCID is optional profile information, not a sign-in method.

If you have enabled two-factor authentication, finish with a six-digit authenticator code or choose the recovery-code option. Each recovery code works once. An expired sign-in asks you to start again.

Choose Forgot? beside Password on the sign-in page to request a reset email. Open the link from your inbox, enter a new password and choose Change password, then sign in again. A successful reset signs out existing sessions. If no message arrives, check spam and that you used your account’s address; the request response does not reveal whether an account exists. For an expired or used link, request a fresh one. Contact support if delivery still fails.

A Google, GitHub or Apple identity with the same verified email can sign in to an existing account. An Apple hidden-email address can differ from the address you already use for Distari. Connect it from your existing account’s settings first to keep one library. See Start with a project for creating an account and agreeing to the Terms.

Open Settings, then Sign-in & security.
In Sign-in methods, choose Connect beside an available provider and complete its sign-in. After returning, check that the provider says CONNECTED.
To remove it, choose Disconnect beside that provider.

Keep a working way to sign in. Distari disables disconnecting your only linked account when you have no password. Set a password or connect another provider first. Disconnecting a provider keeps your library.

In the same settings section, Set a password adds a password to a provider-only account. Change password asks for the current password, the new password and its confirmation. Use at least twelve characters. If other browser sessions exist, Sign out of my other … devices lets you end them while keeping this session. Choose Set password or Update password to save.

Remove password appears when another sign-in method is connected. It asks you to confirm your current password; two-factor authentication still applies to your linked accounts afterward.

Review signed-in devices and app access

Open Settings, then Access tokens. The Signed-in devices list shows active browser sessions, their last use and, where available, their IP address. THIS DEVICE marks the browser you are using. Choose Sign out on another session to end it. To end this session, use Sign out in the avatar menu.

Apps and integrations use access tokens, listed separately on the same page. Choose Revoke beside the token for a phone, tablet, computer, extension or integration you no longer trust or use. This stops that credential’s access; it does not delete your account or its research. See Create a token for names, scopes and expiry, and the browser extension guide for disconnecting capture.

Before signing out of an offline app, let queued edits finish syncing. Sign-out removes local account data. If browser sign-out cannot reach the server, the sign-in page explains that it is unfinished: reconnect and choose Retry sign-out. See the client guides for their offline and held-change recovery steps.

Set up two-factor authentication

In Settings, Sign-in & security, turn on Two-factor authentication.
Scan the QR code with an authenticator app, or enter the setup key there.
Enter the app’s six-digit code and confirm setup.
Save the recovery codes somewhere private and separate from this device, then choose I have saved them. They let you sign in if you lose the authenticator.

Under Recovery codes, View shows your codes after you confirm your identity; Regenerate replaces them and invalidates the old set. Save the replacement codes before closing the dialog. Each code can sign you in only once, and the settings show how many remain unused.

To turn two-factor off, use its toggle and complete the confirmation with your current password or an authenticator code, as the dialog offers. Distari does not offer SMS backup. Never send your password, authenticator setup key or recovery codes to support.

Choose browser analytics

In Settings, Privacy, Usage analytics lets you allow optional analytics or turn it off. The choice belongs to this browser and applies to the public site, guide and web app; it does not follow your account to another device. If the build has no analytics configured, the control says so and is disabled.

Signed-out visitors can change the same choice through Analytics preferences in the privacy notice. Phone, tablet and desktop apps do not load Google Analytics. The Privacy section also contains the data-export controls below; it has no public-profile or personalised-recommendation switches.

Choose Product news email

Product news is occasional email about new features, changes and events at Distari. It is separate from your notifications: turning it off keeps digests and notification email, and turning it on changes nothing else.

On the web: Settings, Notifications, Product news. The switch saves as soon as you change it.
On a phone or tablet: This phone or This tablet, under Notifications.
On a computer: Settings, Notifications, Product news · email.
When you sign up: the Send me occasional product news box starts unticked. Leave it unticked and you get none.
From an email: every Product news email ends with an unsubscribe link, and your mail app’s own unsubscribe button works too. The link turns off Product news only; the page it opens says so before anything changes.

Muting All notifications pauses Product news as well, and switching notifications back on never turns Product news on by itself. Sign-in codes, password resets, receipts and other account and security email keep arriving whatever you choose. The privacy notice explains how we keep your choice.

Download your data

Open Settings, then Privacy.
Under Download my data, choose Request. The button changes to Preparing… while Distari builds the archive.
When Download appears, save the ZIP before the displayed Download until date. Distari also emails a download link to your account address.

You can leave the page and return while preparation runs. Both the archive and its emailed link expire after seven days. Keep the link private: it can download the archive without signing in. After expiry or a failed preparation, use Request again. You can prepare one export at a time and request at most three in 24 hours. Requests are unavailable during maintenance or while staff are using a support session.

The ZIP includes a README.txt explaining its contents:

Material	What you receive
Account	Profile, preferences, sign-in methods, sessions, devices, connected-app and access-token records, webhooks, feedback and other account records. Passwords, token secrets and connected-app credentials are excluded.
Usage and payments	Credit ledger, payment records and AI-usage CSV files.
Projects you own	Project records, citations, notes, annotations, paper records and original PDFs, writing source archives and your Ask threads.
Projects shared with you	Your own notes, annotations, writings you created and Ask threads. Other owners’ papers and PDFs are excluded.

An export can omit PDFs over 60 MB, PDFs beyond the 2 GB combined allowance, or files that cannot be copied within the 15-minute PDF-copy window. Its README lists omitted PDFs and why. A security check or preparation failure can also prevent an archive from being delivered; contact support if requesting again does not help. Download and inspect your copy before deleting your account, because deletion removes its live export archives too.

Delete your account

Uninstalling an app or signing out keeps your Distari account. Account deletion is permanent.

Open Profile from the avatar menu in the web app.
In Danger zone, choose Delete account.
Resolve any shared-ownership blockers first. Transfer ownership of projects other people belong to, or remove that shared ownership. A Lab credit pool with other members also blocks deletion. Distari removes nothing while a blocker remains.
Read the confirmation, type your account email address and choose Delete my account.
In Confirm it’s you, enter your current password or an authenticator code, as the dialog offers, then confirm deletion. If your account has neither, you must have signed in within the last ten minutes. If prompted, choose Sign out and sign in again, then return to delete your account.

On a phone or tablet, Delete account opens this browser flow; see Phone and tablet. If you cannot sign in, follow the public deletion instructions or email privacy@distari.com.

Distari cancels an active subscription before erasure. A cancellation or file-removal failure can stop deletion and require a retry; do not assume a failed attempt completed. Once erasure succeeds, old sessions and tokens stop working and live erased files become inaccessible.

What is erased

Deletion removes your owned projects and their papers, PDFs, notes, annotations and drafts; your Ask threads and private contributions in other people’s projects; profile details, avatar, credentials and recovery codes; sessions, access tokens, device registrations and connected-app credentials; preferences, notifications, feedback, queued account work and live export archives. Your old address and display identity are removed from the account.

What remains and for how long

Shared contributions in projects owned by other people remain under a deleted identity. Pseudonymous credit, payment, refund, audit, support and security records can remain for accounting, disputes and security; refund text and appeal statements are removed. Privacy requests retain their address, and Paddle controls its own payment records. Anonymous operating totals remain without account identifiers.

A separate keyed welcome-credit eligibility hash and its claim date remain while welcome credits are offered, to prevent repeat grants. They contain neither your email address nor account ID. They are pseudonymous abuse-prevention records.

Provider database history rolls off within six hours. Deleted file versions and independent database/file recovery copies can remain inaccessible for seven days, with up to one further hour for normal scheduled cleanup. Cleanup failures can extend physical retention. Restoring a backup must not restore access to an erased account or an expired export. See the privacy notice for the service’s data handling and retained records.

Get account, privacy or security help

Report an account-access or security problem privately to support@distari.com. Describe what happened and when, and include the affected account address or page if useful. Keep passwords, recovery codes, access tokens and private download links out of the message. For an ordinary app problem, Feedback can include the page context and an optional screenshot; review both before submitting.

Support responds by email. Distari’s account and privacy messages go to your account address, and replies normally go to support. Turning off optional notification emails does not stop essential account/security messages, privacy confirmations or support responses. Check your inbox and spam folder if you are waiting for a reply.

For access, correction, export or deletion requests you cannot complete yourself, email privacy@distari.com. Staff verify your identity before fulfilling an emailed request. The response target is one calendar month from receipt; verification does not restart it. A justified extension must be explained with its expected response date within the original period. A confirmation link verifies your identity and starts staff review; it does not itself complete an export or deletion.