Privacy and sync
Your records stay on your device unless you turn on iCloud sync, and some never leave it at all.
HourLife has no account and no sign-in, and it sends nothing about you anywhere: there is no analytics or tracking in the app. Buying Premium goes through the App Store.
iCloud sync
Sync is off until you turn it on, in Settings → Data & Privacy → iCloud sync. The change takes effect the next time you open the app. From then on your records sync through your own private iCloud, between your iPhone and your Mac.
Settings → About tells you where you stand: Data reads "Stored on device" or "iCloud store enabled".
What never syncs, even with sync on
These are kept in a separate store that stays on the device you entered them on.
- Sleep, cycle and fasting records, and every reading from Apple Health
- The Apple Health values your habits read (the habits themselves sync)
- Health records you type in: symptoms, medicines, doctors and visits
- Sobriety goals and slips
- Everything in Secure Box
- Your search index and search history
Secure Box
Secure Box is a locked space for the notes, images, cards and documents you would not leave in an ordinary note: IDs, medical records, recovery codes. Open it from its tile in the Library or from Settings → Data & Privacy.
Its contents are encrypted with a key that only your PIN can unlock. You open it with Face ID and a PIN, Face ID alone, or a 4–6 digit PIN alone, and choose when it locks again: as soon as you leave the app (the default), after 1 or 5 minutes, or only when the app closes.
A forgotten PIN cannot be recovered. The only way back in is "Destroy & reset Secure Box", which deletes everything in it. Secure Box never syncs, so its contents exist only on the device where you added them.
Getting your data out
Export is free. In Settings → Data & Privacy → Data & Export, pick a day, week or month, the modules to include (Habits, Tasks, Focus, Hours, Workouts, Journal, Mood, Energy, Health), and a format: plain text, Markdown, PDF or JSON. A preview shows exactly what the file will say.
Auto Export to iCloud Drive comes with Premium. It writes a file every day, week or month into iCloud Drive → HourLife → Exports. Switches let you leave out journal text, mood notes, gratitude entries, Brain items, task titles and habit names. Health, mood, energy and workout records are always left out of auto-exports.
Exports are for keeping, reading or using elsewhere. HourLife cannot import them back.
Deleting
Anything you delete goes to Recently Deleted (Settings → Data & Privacy) and can be restored for 30 days. After that it is gone for good.
AI
There is no AI in HourLife. "Copy AI Summary" in Calendar puts a summary of your period on the clipboard, for you to paste into an assistant of your choosing, or not.
What HourLife asks for, and why
Each permission is asked for when you first use the feature that needs it. HourLife never asks for your location. Picking a person from Contacts uses the system picker, which shares only the contact you choose.
- Face ID
- Unlocking Secure Box.
- Camera
- Scanning documents into Vault and Secure Box.
- Photos
- Cover photos and pictures you attach.
- Microphone and Speech Recognition
- Turning your voice into text when you capture.
- Calendars
- Reading your events into Calendar.
- Health
- Reading sleep, activity, body and vital readings. The only thing HourLife writes back is mindful minutes from Meditation.
- Notifications
- Reminders and nudges you set up.
The legal version is the HourLife privacy policy.
HourLife
Your private Life OS
What would you like to know?
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Keep this going in the app.
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