The Gift Journal is organised around people rather than shopping lists. You can remember ideas, hints, preferences, occasions and gift history throughout the year, then use that memory when an occasion approaches.
This guide explains the complete app step by step. It covers iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch, including privacy, iCloud, sharing, backup, Portable Journal Export and the v1.9 Safari Quick Add / Browser Saves workflow on Mac.
Start here
- Getting started — first launch, adding people, sample data and the five main iPhone/iPad tabs.
- People — Contacts import, manual people, birthdays, relationship notes and thoughtful context.
- Ideas, Hints and Context — quick capture, photos, links, provenance and converting a Hint into an Idea.
- Occasions, planning and budgets — birthdays, Christmas, custom occasions, multi-person occasions, readiness and budgets.
- Wishlist — your own private list and selective sharing.
- Gift status, fulfilment and history — chosen/bought/arrived/wrapped/given, delivery and return information, reactions and repeat-gift memory.
- Sharing and Protected items — curated sharing, app-to-app Gift Journal transfers and device-authenticated protection.
- Apple Watch — exactly what the Watch companion can and cannot do.
- Reminders and widgets — notification behaviour, readiness and privacy-safe widgets.
- Using The Gift Journal on Mac — desktop navigation, editing, search, Quick Look, drag/drop, Print/PDF/CSV and widgets.
- Safari Quick Add / Browser Saves — coming in v1.9: confirm a page in Safari, let it wait in a durable queue, then review and approve it inside the Mac app.
- iCloud, backup, restore and Portable Journal Export — what each preservation tool is for and how to use it.
- Settings, trial, Full Unlock and support — appearance, regional settings, ownership, privacy/legal and feedback.
- Platform capability guide — where each feature is available.
- Troubleshooting — sync, notifications, Watch, imports, protected items and recovery.
Technical documentation
If you are a developer, archivist or advanced user who wants to
understand a Portable Journal .zip file, see Portable Journal Export v1 format.
A note about privacy
The Gift Journal is local-first and does not require a proprietary Gift Journal account for the core journal. Selective sharing is deliberately narrower than a Portable Journal Export. Protected items add an additional device-authenticated disclosure boundary for selected records.