Questions and answers
Plain answers about what Where You Were does, and what it doesn’t.
- Is it really free?
- Who is it for?
- Does it need “Always” location?
- How are days counted?
- Which color does each country get?
- Does it work in every country?
- Where is my data? Do you see it?
- What if I lose or replace my phone?
- Can I change a day?
- Can I send my days to someone, like my accountant?
- Does it drain my battery?
- Does a new year erase my days?
- Does it check my border records?
- Is this tax, legal or immigration advice?
Is it really free?
Yes. There is no price, no subscription, no ads, no in-app purchases and no account to make. Nothing is locked.
Who is it for?
Anyone who wants to remember where they’ve been and when: dual citizens, snowbirds, expats, families who live across borders, and people who travel for work. It runs on iPhone only.
Does it need “Always” location?
No. Your iPhone first asks whether to allow location While Using the App, and that is enough. The app notes the country whenever you open it, and days in between count as the last known country.
If you also allow Always, a low-power check notices when you have moved a long way, so a new country can be picked up even on days you don’t open the app. It does not run GPS all day.
If you would like Always and the iPhone doesn’t ask, tap Open Settings in the app and set Location to Always. If you say no to location, you can still set days by hand.
How are days counted?
Each calendar day holds one country, using your iPhone’s own date. When the iPhone gets a location reading, that day is that country.
Days are not left blank. A day with no new reading counts as the last known country, until a new reading shows a different one. If that’s not right, tap the day and choose the country. Only days before your first reading, and days that haven’t happened yet, are empty.
If you are in two countries on the same day, the day shows the latest reading. Some rules count any part of a day spent in a country, so a travel day might matter to both. Because the app keeps one country per day, you can tap a crossing day and change it with a note. Ask your advisor how your rules treat travel days.
Which color does each country get?
There is no home country built in. The first country your iPhone is recorded in gets the first ink, sage. After that, each new country gets the next ink in the order you first visit it: muted blue, terracotta, dusty plum, ochre, slate teal, faded rose, olive and warm grey. A country keeps its color. After the ninth country, the colors start again from the top.
Does it work in every country?
Yes. It works wherever your iPhone can find its location and look up the country, whether that’s Canada, Mexico, Portugal, Japan or anywhere else. Every country gets its own count and its own color, and you can pick any country by hand when you change a day.
Where is my data? Do you see it?
Your days are stored on your iPhone. Only the date and the country are saved, not your exact location. The app has no server, no analytics and no ads, and it does not sync through iCloud, so I never see your days. On the App Store, its privacy label is Data Not Collected.
To turn a location into a country name, the iPhone uses Apple’s built-in map service, which means the location is sent to Apple for that lookup. That is covered by Apple’s privacy policy, and nothing comes to me. More in the privacy policy.
What if I lose or replace my phone?
There are two ways to keep your days safe:
- Your iPhone backup. A regular iCloud or computer backup normally includes the app’s data, so restoring it onto a new iPhone should bring your days back.
- Your own copy. Every so often, tap Download my data in Settings and save the PDF and CSV files somewhere safe, like email or Files.
Without either of these, days on a lost phone can’t be recovered. I don’t have a copy.
Can I change a day?
Yes. Tap any day on the calendar, choose the right country, and write a short note about why, such as “Drove back across the border after dinner.” Then tap Save with receipt.
Every change keeps a permanent receipt: the old country, the new country, your note and the time. The day is marked as edited, and location never changes it again. Later days with no reading of their own follow the country you chose. Receipts can’t be erased, so your record stays honest.
Does it drain my battery?
It’s built to be light. It only asks for a rough position, to about a kilometer. With Always, it uses the iPhone’s low-power check that only wakes the app after a big move, instead of running GPS all the time. It also checks once when you open the app. You can see how much battery any app uses in your iPhone’s Settings, under Battery.
Does a new year erase my days?
No. Days are kept year after year. The calendar shows the new year’s count, and you can switch back to any past year or to All time whenever you like. App updates don’t erase days either.
Does it check my border records?
No. The optional Verify card has buttons that open official pages, for example the U.S. I-94 website and the Government of Canada entry and exit page, in Safari, so you can compare them with your calendar yourself. The app never logs in to or reads those sites. Land crossings often don’t show up in those records. You can hide the Verify card in Settings.
Is this tax, legal or immigration advice?
No. Where You Were is not tax, legal or immigration advice. It keeps a record of the country your iPhone was in each day. Residency rules, like the 183-day rule in many countries, usually look at more than a day count. Please check with a qualified advisor.
Email me at swithbell@icloud.com, or see Support.