daystills Support

Page last updated: September 4, 2026

Need help with daystills? Email daystills@obsidian-raven.com. We aim to reply within three business days.

Missing memories? Do not delete or reinstall the app. Follow the missing-memory steps below before changing or removing anything.

daystills is a private photo journal for iPhone and iPad. Your personal journal remains local on your device and requires no daystills account. Optional shared journals use Apple iCloud and CloudKit only when you choose to create, join, or contribute to one. daystills has no developer-operated journal server or sync server, advertising, analytics, or tracking.

Missing or inaccessible memories

daystills marks its personal photo copies and journal metadata as excluded from device backups. Do not rely on an iCloud or computer device backup to recover this journal. The app has no complete photo-backup or journal-import tool, and the support contact cannot retrieve local photos or captions from a lost, erased, or reinstalled device. Keep important photos separately in Apple Photos or another destination you control; these independent copies do not restore journal captions, dates, or earned progress.

If personal content appears missing or daystills reports a storage-protection error:

Do not delete or reinstall the app.
Do not choose Delete personal journal.
Record the exact message and what happened immediately before it appeared.
Contact support with the daystills version/build, device model, iOS version, and reproduction steps.

For a missing shared journal or photo, first use the shared-journal troubleshooting steps below. A shared item can be unavailable because of network, Apple Account, invitation, iCloud storage, or CloudKit synchronization state even while the personal journal continues to work locally.

Do not attach a private journal photo or caption unless you deliberately decide it is necessary for the request.

Getting started

Open Today and choose the camera or photo-library action.
Take or select a cover photo for the local calendar day.
Add an optional caption for that photo, then save the memory.
After saving, choose Done to return to Today. To keep more from the same day, use the upper-right Add another photo button on Today or open the memory and choose Add another photo.
Revisit saved personal memories in Timeline, Gallery, or Calendar.

daystills saves its own local copy of each personal-journal photo. Changing a cover, removing an additional photo, or deleting a personal memory does not modify or delete an item that also exists in your Photos library.

Each saved photo has its own optional caption. Open a memory and use the edit action beside a photo's caption to change only that photo's words. If you choose another saved photo as the day's cover, its caption moves with the photo rather than staying attached to the old cover position.

Optional shared journals

Open Timeline, then choose Shared to view the optional shared-journal area. Shared journals are separate from your personal journal. Nothing from the personal journal is added automatically.

To create or join a shared journal, the device must be signed in to an Apple Account with iCloud and CloudKit available. The owner creates a journal, uses Manage people to send Apple's private invitation, and chooses which photos to add. An invited participant opens and accepts the Apple invitation, then opens daystills to see the journal. Everyone invited in this version can add and edit shared memories.

CloudKit processes the shared photos, captions, dates, invitation membership, changes, and service metadata needed to synchronize the journal and limit access to invited participants. Shared content uses the organizer's iCloud storage. iCloud Photos does not need to be enabled; CloudKit shared journals are separate from iCloud Photos. daystills does not operate an account or journal-sync server.

For a shared photo upload, daystills prepares a separate copy and strips embedded location, GPS, EXIF, and similar camera metadata before sending it to CloudKit. The original personal-journal photo copy remains unchanged and local. The prepared copy is removed from local staging after preparation or later recovery.

Owners can use Manage people to invite or remove participants or stop sharing. Owners can also choose Delete shared journal. After CloudKit processes the deletion, the journal and its shared photos are no longer available to participants. This does not delete personal-journal memories or Apple Photos items. Apple may retain service records or backups under its policies and legal obligations. Participants can use Apple's controls to view the share or leave it.

If a shared journal or photo is waiting for iCloud:

Confirm the device is online and signed in to the expected Apple Account.
Open the shared-journal area again or use Sync now when it is available.
Confirm the invitation was accepted with the Apple Account intended for that participant.
Check available iCloud storage, especially on the organizer's account.
Do not recreate or repeatedly delete the journal while a contribution is still waiting for iCloud.

Support cannot act through your Apple Account, accept invitations, or manage participants. daystills does not provide a support-operated recovery service for shared content.

Auto-save shared photos to the camera roll

Auto-save shared photos is off by default. Open Settings → Photos & widget to enable it. Read the confirmation and allow Add Photos Only access. It saves available existing and new photos from all your shared journals when you open Shared or tap Sync now. Keep Shared open while copies are saving; this does not run while the app is closed.

Turning this off, leaving a journal, or removing a shared photo does not delete camera-roll copies. They use device storage and may sync through iCloud Photos or another photo-backup service you configure. This setting never adds personal photos to a shared journal and does not read your photo library to find duplicates.

An interrupted or unconfirmed save is not automatically retried. Check Apple Photos before explicitly retrying, because the copy may already have been saved. Photos already in your library, reinstalling the app, or changing devices can also create duplicates. A Photos permission or save failure does not remove the shared-journal photo; review the notice in Shared before retrying.

Lifetime Pro and restoring a purchase

Lifetime Pro is an optional one-time purchase, not a subscription. It unlocks Pro themes, the custom-theme builder, and Pro Year in Frames covers. Daily journaling and shared journals stay free. Days-kept themes and covers are earned separately. Family Sharing is not included. The price shown in Settings → Lifetime Pro comes from your App Store storefront before you choose to buy.

Apple handles payment and purchase records. You do not need a daystills account. To recover access on another device:

Use the same Apple Account you used for App Store purchases. The Apple Account used for purchases can differ from the one used for iCloud shared journals.
Open daystills. It checks existing Pro access automatically.
If access is missing, open Settings → Lifetime Pro → Restore purchases and follow any Apple prompt.

Restoring Pro does not transfer personal journal photos, captions, earned progress, or theme settings. Do not delete or reinstall daystills to restore a purchase; keep your journal intact.

If you received an Apple offer code for Lifetime Pro, open Settings → Lifetime Pro → Redeem Pro code. Enter the code in Apple's system redemption sheet. daystills does not read, store, or validate the code itself; Pro activates only after Apple returns a verified Lifetime Pro entitlement. Each one-time-use code works once. You can also redeem an Apple-provided redemption link outside daystills, then reopen the app or use Restore purchases with the same App Store Apple Account.

Waiting for approval: Complete approval through Apple. If the request was declined or cancelled, choose Review purchase options; it checks for a completed purchase without buying again.
Price unavailable or check failed: Your personal journal remains available. Check connectivity and try again. A failed check is not proof that you never purchased Pro.
No purchase found: Confirm the purchasing Apple Account and whether Apple shows a completed purchase. Do not assume an iCloud invitation or Family Sharing grants Pro.
Refunds or revocations: Apple manages these purchase changes. Confirmed revocation can remove Pro appearance access, but does not delete personal memories.
Code already used, invalid, or expired: Follow the message in Apple's redemption sheet. daystills support cannot reactivate, inspect, or transfer an Apple code.

If Apple charged you and access remains missing, review Apple's purchase-restoration help and contact support with the app version and exact status message. Do not send payment card details, Apple Account passwords, or private journal photos.

Camera access and photo selection

daystills requests camera permission only after you choose Camera. If camera access was denied:

Open the iOS Settings app.
Find daystills in the app list. On newer iOS versions, choose Apps, then daystills.
Review the Camera permission.
Return to daystills and try the action again.

Choosing Library uses Apple's system photo picker. daystills does not request access to your whole library and receives only the item you explicitly choose, so there is no Photos permission switch to recover. You can cancel the picker without changing either journal. You can continue using parts of daystills that do not require camera access.

Saving camera captures to Apple Photos

Open Settings → Photos & widget to control Save new camera captures to Apple Photos. It is on by default for a new personal journal. Existing journals may begin with it off so an update does not silently change where camera captures are copied.

When it is on, daystills requests iOS Add Photos Only access after a successful in-app camera capture and adds one independent item to Apple Photos. daystills still keeps its own personal-journal copy. Deleting the Apple Photos item does not break the personal journal, and deleting the personal memory does not delete the Photos item. Photos copies may follow your iCloud Photos settings and use additional device or iCloud storage.

daystills does not add another Photos item when you choose an existing item through Apple's picker. If Add Photos Only is denied or a Photos write fails, the camera draft remains available to save in daystills; only the extra Photos copy is skipped. To recover denied access, open iOS Settings, find daystills, review its Photos access, and choose the add-only option available on your iOS version.

Changing the app icon

Open Settings → App icon to choose Layered memories or Stacked frames. iOS displays a confirmation after the icon changes. The choice affects the daystills icon on that device's Home Screen and in Spotlight; it does not change journal photos, captions, themes, earned progress, shared journals, or Lifetime Pro access.

App-icon selection is a device appearance choice rather than journal data. Choose the preferred icon separately on another device. If neither choice can be selected, confirm that the installed daystills version includes the App icon page, close any open iOS confirmation, and try again. Do not reinstall the app to troubleshoot an icon choice because reinstalling can remove the local personal journal.

Daily reminders

Open Settings → Daily experience, turn on Remind me to add a photo, and choose one or more custom times with the time picker. daystills can schedule up to six quiet local notifications at the selected local times.

If a reminder does not arrive:

Confirm notifications are allowed for daystills in iOS Settings.
Confirm Remind me to add a photo is still enabled and each displayed time is correct.
Check Focus, notification-summary, and device notification settings that may delay or silence delivery.
Choose a near-future time and keep the app installed while testing.

daystills reminders are local notifications. They do not use a remote-notification account or push token.

Open a saved memory and choose the share icon. daystills opens Apple's system share sheet so you can choose an available person, app, or service. This is separate from adding a memory to an optional CloudKit shared journal. daystills does not automatically publish a photo or choose a destination for you.

Once you send a photo elsewhere, the receiving person or service controls that copy. Deleting the daystills memory does not delete a copy you already shared.

Exporting journal metadata

Open Settings → Data & privacy and choose Export journal metadata. daystills prepares a JSON file containing personal-journal metadata, every per-photo caption, dates, current settings, and progress, then opens Apple's system share sheet so you can save or send it. The export does not include journal photo files or shared-journal content. It is not a complete backup and cannot restore your personal journal inside daystills.

Deleting data

To remove one added personal photo while keeping the memory, open the entry and choose Remove beside that photo. That photo and its caption are removed; the cover and every other photo caption remain.
To remove one personal memory, open it and choose Delete memory. This removes the entry and all of its daystills-owned local photo copies, not originals that also exist in Photos.
To delete your local personal journal, open Settings → Data & privacy and choose Delete personal journal. This removes personal entries, daystills-owned photo copies, personal settings, the cached export file, and scheduled reminders. It does not remove Apple Photos items, shared-journal content, or the local shared-photo auto-save receipts described in the privacy policy; those receipts are removed when the app is removed.
To manage or delete an optional shared journal, use that journal's Manage people or Delete shared journal controls. Shared-journal deletion is a separate CloudKit action.

Deletion cannot be undone inside daystills. Copies you deliberately shared or exported are controlled by their destinations. Personal-journal deletion does not remove Photos-library items or shared CloudKit content; deleting a shared journal does not remove personal memories.

When contacting support

Include:

the exact app name, version, and build shown at the bottom of daystills Settings;
device model and iOS version;
whether the issue affects the personal journal or an optional shared journal;
the screen or feature involved;
steps that reproduce the issue; and
the exact error text, if any.

Contact options:

Support email: daystills@obsidian-raven.com
Expected response window: within three business days