Answers to the questions we get most. If yours isn't here, write to us — the address is at the bottom, and a real person reads it.
On the old phone: Settings → Backup & Restore → Create backup. Save the file somewhere you can reach from the new phone — Drive, email it to yourself, a memory card. On the new phone, install Simply Home and use Restore from backup.
Do this before you wipe the old phone. Android's own phone-to-phone transfer does not carry Simply Home's data, deliberately: the binder is encrypted with a key that is locked to the original device and cannot be transferred, so a copied database would arrive unreadable. The backup file is built to be portable, which is why it is the supported route.
Yes, unless you are saving it somewhere only you can reach. Without a password the file is plain readable text — anyone who opens it sees everything, including your photos. With one, it is encrypted with AES-GCM and a 200,000-iteration key.
We cannot recover a backup password. If you forget it, that file is unreadable, permanently.
No, and we want to be straight about why: we never had it. Nothing you enter is sent to us, and the encryption key lives in your phone's secure hardware. When the app is uninstalled, Android deletes both. There is no copy anywhere for us to restore from.
If you have a backup file, restoring it will bring everything back.
Yes. The database uses SQLCipher with AES-256, and the key is generated on your device and kept in the Android Keystore. You can add a second gate — fingerprint, face, or your screen lock — under Settings → Lock the binder.
Open the item, tap the photo to view it full screen, and use Rotate. Each tap turns it 90°.
If this affected photos you added before version 1.0, that was a bug in how orientation was read from the camera, and it is fixed — but the information needed to correct those older photos automatically is gone, so they have to be rotated by hand. New photos should come in the right way up.
Tap the photo on the item screen to open it full screen. Rotate, Crop and Delete are along the bottom. In Crop, drag the corners, then tap the tick. Swipe left and right to move between an item's photos, and pinch to zoom.
To remove a photo while editing an item, tap the small ✕ on its thumbnail.
Yes, as many as you like — the label, the model plate, the serial number, the receipt. Use the camera icon to take them one at a time, or the gallery icon to pick several at once.
Almost always battery optimisation. Android is allowed to hold back background work to save power, and some manufacturers are far more aggressive than others.
Check: Android Settings → Apps → Simply Home → Battery and choose Unrestricted; and → Notifications to confirm they are allowed. If you declined the notification prompt when you first opened the app, that is where to turn it back on.
Please also don't rely on a reminder as the only safeguard for anything with a safety consequence.
Turn on Warranty when adding or editing an item, set the expiry date, then choose how many days ahead you want to hear about it. The app manages that reminder for you — it updates if you change the date, and disappears if you turn the warranty off. You'll see it in the Reminders list marked as managed by the item.
PDF export, and no advertising. It is a one-time purchase — not a subscription, and it does not renew. Backup and restore are free and always will be; getting your own data out should never be behind a price.
Open Settings → Restore purchase. That re-checks with Google Play and unlocks it. Make sure the phone is signed in to the same Google account you paid with.
If you paid by a method that needs approval — a cash top-up, or a family "ask to buy" request — Play may still be holding the purchase. Those can take a couple of days to clear, and the app will unlock on its own once they do. Please don't buy a second time.
Refunds are handled by Google Play, not by us — we have no way to issue one. Use Google's refund process. If something in the app is broken, tell us first; we would rather fix it.
Settings → Ad privacy options. That row only appears where the choice applies — the EEA, the UK and Switzerland. Everywhere else there is no consent form to reopen. You can also reset your Advertising ID in Android Settings → Privacy → Ads.
No. The app makes no network request of its own — the internet permission exists for the ad banner and for Google Play purchases, and nothing else. The only ways anything leaves your phone are ones you start yourself: a backup, a PDF, or a screenshot you choose to attach to a feedback email. Full detail in the Privacy Policy.
Email support@cypresstech.net — a real person reads it.
Please tell us what you expected to happen and what happened instead, plus your phone model and the app version (shown at Settings → About the App). If you can include a screenshot, even better.