Support
Most of it is answered here. The rest reaches a person.
Written in plain words, and kept honest about what the app cannot do. Write in English or Vietnamese — we read both.
Moving, backups and losing a phone
How do I move my grove to a new iPhone?
Your whole grove fits in one file. In Settings ▸ Export trees, pick your trees and choose .tmln backup — it is free, unwatermarked, and the only format that carries your photos, videos and voice notes with it. Save it to Files, AirDrop it, or drop it in any cloud folder you already trust. On the new iPhone, tap the .tmln file anywhere in Files and it opens straight into Timegrove, or use Settings ▸ Import a backup.
Will importing overwrite what is already on the new phone?
No. You tick the trees you want, and anything already there is merged memory by memory — nothing you have written is replaced by an older copy. Sealed capsules travel still sealed and open on their own day, on the new phone. Private memories are in the backup too: it is your archive, not something to hand over.
I lost my phone and had no backup. Can you recover it?
No, and we want to be straight about why: the app never keeps a copy on a server, so there is no server to restore from. That is the same fact that makes the privacy promise real. It is also why export is free and unlimited, and why iCloud backup exists — switch it on and a scheduled .tmln file lands in your own iCloud Drive, where you can see it in Files under Timegrove.
Can a PDF book or an HTML story be turned back into a tree?
No. Those two are keepsakes to read and to print, not a backup — the app cannot import either of them back. Only .tmln restores a tree. Please do not rely on a PDF for a move.
Premium, billing and refunds
I paid before and reinstalled. How do I get Premium back?
Sign in to the App Store with the same Apple Account you bought it on, then press Restore purchases on the plan screen. Nothing needs to be bought again, and a lifetime purchase stays lifetime.
How do I cancel the subscription?
Through Apple, not through us: on your iPhone open Settings, tap your name, then Subscriptions, and cancel Timegrove there. We are never told your card details and cannot cancel on your behalf — Apple owns the whole transaction.
Can I get a refund?
Refunds are Apple's to give. Use Report a Problem on Apple's own site with the receipt they emailed you. If something in the app was broken and that is why you are asking, write to us as well — we would rather hear it than not.
I bought the yearly plan. Can I switch to lifetime?
Yes — buy the lifetime option ($59.99) whenever you like, then cancel the subscription in Apple's Subscriptions screen so it does not renew. The two do not stack, and nothing in your grove changes when you switch.
The free plan
What do I get without paying?
3 trees with 100 memories in each, all 13 kinds of memory, the Rail timeline, iCloud backup, and unlimited unmarked JSON and .tmln export. Rich exports — the PDF book and the HTML story — are 1 a month on the free plan and carry a small credit line. It is not a trial and there is no countdown on it.
What happens to my trees if I stop paying?
Nothing is deleted. Every tree and every memory stays exactly where it is; the extra timeline styles simply stop drawing, and export goes back to the free allowance. You can still read everything and still take it all with you.
Privacy and security
Can you read what I write?
No. There is no account, no server of ours, and nothing is uploaded — so there is nothing on our side to read. Settings ▸ Privacy Report inside the app shows you the same thing from the inside, including a count of the bytes sent off your device, which is zero.
What happens if Face ID fails on a locked tree?
The app falls back to your device passcode, the same way Apple's own screens do. The app never sees your face or your passcode — iOS answers yes or no and that is all it is told.
Can a sealed time capsule be opened early?
Not by you, not by someone holding your phone, and not by us. It is encrypted on the device until its day. That is also why a capsule cannot be recovered if you delete it — there is no master key anywhere.
When something is wrong
My voice note was not turned into text.
Transcription runs entirely on the iPhone, and iOS does not have an offline speech model for every language. When it has none for yours, the app keeps the recording and quietly skips the text rather than sending your audio anywhere to get it. The note itself is never at risk.
I deleted something by mistake.
A deleted memory or tree waits in Recently Deleted for 30 days before the app erases it for good, so there is time to change your mind. After 30 days it is gone, unless it is in a backup you took.
Is there an Android version, or a web app?
Not today, and we will not put a date on it. The .tmln format was designed to be portable rather than clever, so another app could read the same files one day — but nobody is building one right now, and "soon" would be a nicer sentence than a true one.
What should I include when I write to you?
What you expected, what happened instead, and roughly when. The app version from Settings ▸ About and your iOS version help a lot. Never send us a .tmln backup to debug with — it is your whole archive, and we do not want a copy of it.
Still stuck? Write to us.
This form does not send anything by itself. It writes the email for you and opens it in your own mail app, so nothing is submitted here and nothing is stored here.
- No endpoint. The page has nowhere to post to.
- No database. There is no table of people who wrote in.
- A person answers, usually within 2 working days.
Or write straight to [email protected].