Frequently Asked Questions

How do I reset my password?

On the login screen, tap Forgot Password and enter your email address. You'll receive a link to set a new password. If you signed in with Apple or Google, you don't have a Focal Point password — manage that account through Apple ID or Google instead.

How do I sync my data across devices?

Focal Point syncs automatically across every device signed into the same account. Sign in on each device with the same Apple ID, Google account, or email and your projects, tasks, notes, and documents appear everywhere within seconds. Sync uses Firebase under the hood and works whenever the device has a network connection.

How do I share a project with someone?

Open the project, tap the share icon, and enter the email address of the person you want to invite. They'll receive an in-app invitation to join. Shared projects let collaborators see and edit tasks, notes, and documents based on the tier you assign them — Member (read/write) or Admin (read/write plus member management and project delete). Both you and your invitee need active Premium subscriptions. See Projects & Sharing for the full model.

I accidentally deleted something. Can I recover it?

Yes. Deletes in Focal Point go to Trash with a 30-day recovery window. Open Settings → Trash to see everything you've deleted recently — tasks, notes, bookmarks, events, projects, kanban columns — and tap Restore on any row to bring it back. Project restores cascade: bringing back a project brings back every item inside it. After 30 days the nightly cleanup hard-deletes the item and recovery is no longer possible. Account deletion is the one exception — it remains permanent with no recovery window. If you want to hide a project without the 30-day timer, use Archive instead — archived projects stay restorable indefinitely. See Account and Projects & Sharing for the full deletion semantics.

How do I cancel my Premium subscription?

Subscriptions are managed through the App Store. On iPhone or iPad, go to Settings → [Your Name] → Subscriptions, find Focal Point, and tap Cancel Subscription. On Mac, open the App Store and click your name in the sidebar → Account Settings → Subscriptions. Your Premium features stay active until the end of your billing period.

What is Ask Focal Point and how do I use it?

Ask Focal Point is the built-in AI assistant (a Premium feature). Open it from the ✨ Ask Focal Point entry and ask things in plain language — "what's due this week?", "summarize my open tasks", "add a task to call the plumber tomorrow". It can read your tasks, notes, projects, and trips, and make changes with your okay (risky or financial actions ask for confirmation first, and new items it creates come with a one-tap Undo). It only sees data you have access to and stays focused on your Focal Point content. See Ask Focal Point for the full guide, including chat history, retention, and privacy.

What's the difference between Free and Premium?

Free includes core productivity: projects, tasks, notes, calendar, basic templates, and document storage up to your free quota. Premium adds Trips, the Ask Focal Point AI assistant, smart reminders, additional templates, expanded storage, and priority support. See the Premium overview for the full list.

Does Focal Point work offline?

Yes for reading and editing your existing data. Changes you make offline queue up and sync the next time you're online. Brand-new shared content and account changes (like inviting a collaborator or signing in) require a connection.

Can I attach photos and files to tasks and notes?

Yes. Tasks, notes, projects, and trips all support attachments — photos, PDFs, audio recordings, and most common file types. Attachments count against your Document Storage quota; see Document Storage for details and supported types.

How do reminders work?

Focal Point has a few kinds of reminders:

• Task reminders — attach one or more to a task and they fire as device notifications before its due date (a few minutes, hours, or days ahead).
• Standalone reminders — quick nudges that don't need a whole task ("take out the trash," "call the pharmacy"). Add one from the Reminders area; they can repeat on a schedule (daily, weekly, and so on) with an optional end date.
• Smart Reminders (Premium) — follow your favorite sports teams and Focal Point nudges you ahead of game time, using live schedules so you don't have to track them yourself. Pick a sport, follow teams, and set how far ahead you want the heads-up.

How do I export my data or delete my account?

Both live in Settings → Account. Export sends a JSON archive of your projects, tasks, notes, and document metadata to your email. Delete removes your account and personal data permanently. See the Account article for what survives deletion (such as your contributions to shared projects) and what doesn't.

Does deleting a project also delete its tasks and notes?

Yes. Deleting a project moves every task, note, event, bookmark, sticky note, whiteboard page, and document attached to it (plus those items' comments) into Trash alongside the project — from every collaborator, not just yours. Personal tasks and notes you created outside the project aren't affected. The trashed project can be restored within 30 days, which brings every linked item back in one step. After 30 days the nightly cleanup hard-deletes the project and the cascade fires irreversibly. See Delete a single project for the full list.

If you want to put a project away without losing the contents, use Archive instead — archived projects stop appearing in your active list but can be restored any time.

Why does my due date sometimes show one day off?

It shouldn't — calendar-day due dates render the same day in every timezone. If you set a task due July 1, it reads as July 1 whether you're in Denver, Reykjavik, or Tokyo. The same is true for trip start/end dates.

If you do see an off-by-one render, it's almost always because you (or an integration) set the due to a specific time (e.g., midnight UTC) rather than a calendar day. Re-open the task and pick the date from the calendar picker rather than entering a time — that uses the calendar-day path. See Tasks → "Due dates" for details.

What's the difference between a global tag and a project tag?

Global tags are yours alone and work everywhere — on tasks in any project, and on personal tasks. Use them for cross-cutting labels like "blocker," "deep-work," or "errand."

Project-scoped tags live inside a single project and are only visible to that project's members. Use them for project-specific categories like "frontend," "backend," or "design-review." A task can have any number of tags, mixed scope. See Tasks → "Tags" for examples.

Why are there cost rows in Settings → AI Cost that I didn't trigger?

Some AI features run in the background automatically — mostly when you create a stop in a trip (Focal Point tags it with category, typical duration, and walking distance shortly after creation so you don't have to). These show up in the cost ledger under triggeredBy: background. It's normal, it's covered by your Premium subscription, and it's how the app feels "alive" without you running an AI command for every detail. See Premium → "AI features and your cost ledger" for the full ledger semantics.

Why do hotel reservations create extra stops on my trip's itinerary?

Lodging reservations (hotels, Airbnbs) automatically spawn anchor stops on every day they cover — an "end-of-day" stop on every night you sleep there and a "start-of-day" stop on every morning you wake up there. This is so the day-by-day view has somewhere to render "you're at the hotel" instead of looking empty when you don't have other activities planned. They share the hotel's name, address, and map pin.

If you don't want them, you can delete an anchor like any other stop — the reservation won't re-spawn it unless you edit the reservation later. See Trips → "Lodging auto-anchors" for details.