Support

How do I add my first place?

On iPhone or iPad: tap the + at the bottom-right of the Map, or long-press anywhere on the map to drop a pin at that exact spot. On Mac: ⌘N opens the new-place sheet.

Do I need to make an account?

No. Wendmark uses your iCloud account, which is already on the device. There's no Wendmark login, no separate sign-up flow.

How do photos auto-fill the location?

When you attach a photo, Wendmark reads its EXIF metadata for GPS and capture-date. If the photo's EXIF was stripped (common with HEIC and edited photos), it falls back to asking the Photos library directly for the asset's stored location and creation date. The first time this happens, iOS asks for read-only photo-library access.

What's the difference between "Add" and "Bulk add from photos"?

Add creates a single place with full detail — name, category-specific fields, multiple photos, notes. Bulk add lets you pick up to ten photos at once and confirm a place per photo, fast. Use bulk for catching up on a trip; use single-add for places you want to write more about.

Why are there two map styles?

The Standard / Hybrid / Satellite styles use Apple's elevation-aware MapKit — the right call when you're navigating or want photo-realistic terrain. The Minimal style is a hand-rendered rotatable dot-globe with about 17,000 stippled land dots and a soft halo. Same pins on both, different mood.

How do I rotate the dot globe?

Drag horizontally to spin yaw, drag vertically to tilt pitch. The globe follows your finger like spinning a beach ball — drag east, the globe rotates east. Pinch to zoom. Long-press a continent to drop a pin at that coordinate.

Why are some pins clustering and others not?

The realistic Apple map clusters places by category and proximity at wide zoom levels (so you don't see 200 NYC pins on top of each other), then uncluster as you zoom in below a 1° span. Tap a cluster to fly into it.

How do I unlock a city trophy?

Pin any place inside the city's boundary polygon. Wendmark checks the polygon every time the place set changes; the trophy unlocks automatically (with a celebration overlay) the first time a place lands inside.

What are the "secret" trophies for?

Ten obscure achievements that are hidden in the trophy case until you earn them. They reward unusual patterns — visiting two near-antipodal places, crossing the international date line, marking a place between midnight and 5 AM, etc. The point is to be a fun surprise, so the criteria stay opaque until each one unlocks.

If I delete a place, do I lose my trophies?

The trophy will revoke if its criteria no longer hold. Wendmark trophies reflect the current state of your library — delete the only place in Oklahoma City and the "OKC" trophy goes back to locked. This is intentional; the app is a personal log, not a game.

My places aren't appearing on my other device.

Walk through this list before assuming a bug:

1. Both devices signed into the same iCloud account (Settings → [Your Name] on iPhone; System Settings → Apple ID on Mac).
2. iCloud Drive enabled on both devices. CloudKit needs it.
3. Wendmark toggled on under iCloud Apps. iPhone: Settings → [Your Name] → iCloud → Apps Using iCloud → Wendmark on. Mac: System Settings → Apple ID → iCloud → toggle Wendmark.
4. Enough free iCloud storage. Photos sync as CKAsset blobs and count toward your iCloud quota.
5. First-run wait. After installing on a fresh device, expect a few minutes for everything to materialize, especially photos.

How do I force a sync?

Settings → iCloud → "Save pending changes." This flushes any buffered local writes to CloudKit; the actual sync timing is controlled by the OS based on your network and battery state.

Why are photos showing up but their image data is blank?

The photo record arrived but its CKAsset blob is still downloading. Give it a few more minutes on the device that's behind. Don't toggle anything off in the meantime.

What does the Apple Watch app do?

Two things. A recent places list — the last ten places, scrollable, tap any to see metadata. And Quick Add — drop a pin at your current location with a category picker, syncs back to iPhone via the App Group snapshot. The watch deliberately doesn't show photos to keep the UI fast and the battery happy.

What widgets are available?

Five sizes: small (recent place), medium (recent list), large (map preview with last 8 pins), the Stats hero (year-to-date count), and a Lock Screen circular complication (places this month). Long-press the home screen → + → search "Wendmark" to add them.

Why are widgets showing stale data?

Widgets read a snapshot file written by the main app on every change. iOS controls the refresh schedule; the snapshot is regenerated immediately when the iPhone app is in the foreground. If you've been in airplane mode or haven't opened the app in a few days, force a refresh by opening Wendmark briefly — the widgets will update within a minute.

How does the dictate-notes button work?

It uses Apple's SFSpeechRecognizer with on-device recognition where the user's locale supports it. Audio never leaves the device for the on-device path. The first time you tap the mic, iOS asks for both microphone and speech-recognition permissions.

The mic button shows an error.

Open Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone (and Speech Recognition) → confirm Wendmark is toggled on. The toggle in Settings overrides the in-app toggle. If both are on and it still won't record, restart the app — sometimes iOS holds the audio session after a phone call or interruption.

What's the "On this day" notification?

If you opt in (Settings → Notifications → On this day), Wendmark schedules a noon-local notification on every calendar day that matches a past place's anniversary. The body names the place and how many years ago. Notifications are scheduled locally — Wendmark doesn't have a notification server, no push tokens are uploaded anywhere.

What's the streak protection notification?

If you have a 2+ month streak (a place added in each of the last two consecutive months) and you haven't pinned anything yet in the current month by the 28th, Wendmark sends one local notification at 8 PM on the 28th telling you the streak is at risk. As soon as you add a place that month, the notification is canceled.

Where is my data stored?

On your devices and in your private iCloud. See the privacy policy for the full picture — the short version is "nowhere we can see."

How do I export everything?

Settings → Library → Export to JSON. Produces a single file with every place, every category-specific field, and the photo count. Photos themselves are not in the JSON (the file would be unwieldy); they live in your iCloud library.

How do I delete everything?

Settings → Library → Delete all places. Removes every record from this device and propagates the deletion through CloudKit to your other devices. Irreversible — there's no undo and no separate "deleted items" bucket.

Does Wendmark support VoiceOver?

Yes. Every button, badge, and pin annotation has an accessibility label. The trophy case, stats view, and place detail are all VoiceOver-readable. If you find a control that's missing a label, please tell us — we treat that as a bug.

Reduce Motion?

Settings → Appearance → Reduce animations. With it on, the spring transitions, pin-drop staggers, and globe-ripple animations all collapse. The stagger delay between batched pins drops to zero so they appear simultaneously instead of one-by-one.

Dynamic Type?

The app respects the system text-size setting through XL. The XXL+ accessibility sizes are tested but some dense layouts (the trophy grid, the year heatmap) may show truncation; we'll keep tuning these.

How do I report a bug or ask for help?

Email support@wendmarkapp.com. Include:

— What you were trying to do.
— What actually happened.
— Your device + iOS / macOS version (Settings → General → About on iPhone; Apple menu → About this Mac on Mac).
— Whether the issue reproduces or was a one-off.

For sync-related issues specifically, Settings → iCloud → Sync diagnostics produces a short status snapshot — pasting that text into your email helps a lot.