Support
One address, answered by the person who wrote the app. The questions below cover most of what comes in — if yours is not here, write.
Contact us
Email is the support channel. We usually reply within one working day, Sydney time.
KeenShift · Sydney, Australia. There is no phone line — email carries the detail we need and reaches us faster. If you are writing about a specific fern, tell us which entry and what your room or bed is actually like: light, humidity, and how often you water. That is usually the whole diagnosis.
The library
How many ferns are in the app?
Thirty-seven species, in four collections: Indoor (10), Garden (8), Native (15) and Specialist (4). They are stored inside the app, so the whole reference works with no connection and does not change under you.
Why are there no photographs?
Because FernsBook is a written reference, and we would rather have thirty-seven entries written carefully than a hundred stock images. Identification is done in the Identification, Similar ferns and Native range panels — habit, frond shape, how the clump sits — which is also how a fern is actually told apart from its lookalikes. If you want a photo library, this is not the app, and we would rather you knew that before you paid for anything.
Can FernsBook identify a fern from a photo?
No. There is no camera feature and the app never asks for camera or photo access. Search the app for what you can see — "black wiry stems", "mounted", "shuttlecock" — and the Similar ferns panel on each entry is written to steer you between the species people most often confuse.
What do the difficulty grades mean?
- Beginner — forgiving of an ordinary room and a missed watering or two.
- Steady — reliable once its spot is right.
- Careful — needs a watering and humidity rhythm you genuinely keep to.
- Expert — wants conditions most homes do not have; buy it with your eyes open.
How does search work?
It matches across every field of every entry at once — names, collection, difficulty, light, water, humidity, soil, habit, native range, best use, the warnings, companions, propagation and the curator note. So describing the place works as well as naming the plant: try "humid bathroom", "dry shade" or "mounted". The chips under the search field narrow results to one collection.
Can I request a species?
Yes — email us. The library is deliberately finite and each addition is written by hand, so it grows slowly, but requests genuinely drive what gets written next.
My notes
Where are my notes stored?
On your iPhone, in the app's own local database. They are not uploaded, not synced, and not visible to us. There is no account they could be attached to.
Will my notes move to a new iPhone?
Only inside a full device backup or a device-to-device transfer that includes app data. FernsBook has no cloud sync of its own, so installing the app fresh on a new phone gives you an empty notebook. If a note matters, keep a copy somewhere else as well.
I deleted the app and my notes are gone.
Deleting an iPhone app deletes its local database with it, and because nothing was ever uploaded there is no copy for us to restore — not even for us. This is the trade for an app that collects nothing.
How do I delete a single note?
Open the My notes tab and swipe the entry to delete it. That removes it immediately and permanently.
What is the care log, and where does it live?
It is a dated record of what you actually did to a particular fern — watered, misted, fed, repotted, pruned, moved — kept on the species page, with the most recent of each summarised in a line like "Watered 9 days ago · Fed yesterday". It is a Pro feature, and it is stored in the same on-device database as your notes. Nothing about it is uploaded.
Can I get my records out of the app?
Yes, on Pro. My notes → the share button builds a plain-text file containing every note and the full care log, and hands it to the standard iOS share sheet, so you can put it in Files, mail it to yourself, or paste it anywhere you like. The file is made on your phone and goes only where you send it — it never passes through us. It is also the sensible way to keep a copy before changing phones.
The fern coach
How many questions do I get?
Three per day on the free tier. The count resets at midnight in your own time zone, and the Settings tab shows how many you have left today. FernsBook Pro removes the cap.
What actually gets sent when I ask?
Your question, plus the name and collection of the species you were reading so the answer is about that fern. Nothing else — there is no account, so there is no identity attached. The Privacy Policy spells it out in full.
The answer looked generic, or said the network was unavailable.
When the coach cannot be reached, the app writes an answer locally from that species' own light, water, humidity, soil and watch-out panels and tells you on screen that it fell back. That reply is drawn from the entry you are already reading, so it will feel familiar. Be aware that a fallback is still an answer, so on a free account it still uses one of your three — otherwise a bad connection would quietly become an unlimited free tier. Pro accounts are never counted either way.
The coach gave me a wrong answer.
It is generated automatically and it can be wrong. The written entry is the part we stand behind; treat the coach as a knowledgeable second opinion. Send us the species and the question and we will look at it — bad answers are how the prompt gets fixed.
It refused to answer my question.
The coach deliberately stays out of medical, veterinary, toxicity, edibility and foraging territory. For anything involving a person or an animal that may have eaten a plant, contact a doctor, a vet or your local poisons information line — not a plant app.
FernsBook Pro
What does Pro actually change?
Three things, and we would rather list them exactly than pad them out:
- The coach stops counting. Free accounts stop after 3 asks a day; on Pro there is no daily limit.
- The care log unlocks. Dated watering, misting, feeding, repotting, pruning and moving entries against each fern, with the most recent of each shown on the species page.
- Export unlocks. Your notes and the full care log as a plain-text file, handed to the iOS share sheet so you can keep it wherever you like.
The library, all eleven care panels, the curator notes, search, the collection filters, the offline fallback, and writing and reading your notes are free on every tier and stay that way. If any of those ever moved behind the subscription, this page would say so.
What does it cost?
US$4.99 per month or US$19.99 per year, auto-renewing. Prices vary by storefront and the app shows your local price before you confirm anything.
How do I cancel?
On your iPhone: Settings → your name → Subscriptions → FernsBook, then turn off auto-renewal. Do it at least 24 hours before the period ends to avoid the next charge. Pro keeps working until the period you already paid for runs out. Deleting the app does not cancel the subscription.
I paid, but the app still shows a daily limit.
Open the Settings tab and tap Restore Purchases, signed in with the Apple Account that bought it. That re-checks the entitlement with Apple. If it still does not take, email us — include the Apple receipt and we will chase it.
The subscription options will not load.
The paywall says so plainly when it cannot reach the store. It is almost always a connection problem or a temporary App Store outage; close the sheet and try again shortly. Meanwhile the whole reference and your three daily questions keep working.
I want a refund.
App Store purchases are refunded by Apple, not by us — request one at reportaproblem.apple.com. Tell us as well if something in the app went wrong, so it gets fixed.
What happens when Pro lapses?
Nothing is deleted. The whole reference stays open, your notes stay exactly where they are, and the coach returns to three questions a day. Your care entries are not erased either — but the care log section locks, so you will not be able to read or add to it until you resubscribe. We would rather say that plainly than let you find out in a fortnight.
Reporting a problem with the content
If an entry is botanically wrong — a range, a synonym, a care claim — tell us which species and what the correct information is, ideally with a source. Species text is corrected in the next app update, and corrections are the fastest feedback we get.
FernsBook gives no medical, veterinary, toxicity or foraging advice. If a person or an animal may have eaten part of a plant, contact emergency services or a poisons information centre in your country immediately — in Australia, the Poisons Information Centre is 13 11 26.