Help with Leafin

Where is my library?

On your iPhone, and in your own iCloud if you use it. Leafin runs no server that holds your books.

Does it sync between my devices?

Yes, through your own private iCloud. Sign in to the same Apple Account on each device and your books, sessions, passages, shelves, goals and settings follow. You › Settings › Your data › iCloud sync shows whether your books are up to date, still syncing, or only on this iPhone, and why. On a new iPhone, Leafin brings your library from iCloud first, which can take a little while. Without iCloud, everything still works on the one device.

My books are not on my other iPhone

1. Look at You › Settings › Your data › iCloud sync in Leafin on each device. It says what is in the way — not signed in, iCloud full, or iCloud off, and why.
2. Check the Apple Account. Both devices need to be signed in to the same one, with iCloud on for Leafin: open the Settings app, tap your name, then iCloud.
3. Give it a few minutes. Open Leafin on both, with a connection. A large library takes longer the first time.
4. If iCloud is full, what you do on that iPhone stays there until there is room. Nothing is lost.

A book added on two devices before either had synced stays as two books, since each may carry its own sessions and notes. Delete the one you don’t want.

Using Leafin offline

Nearly everything works without a connection: your library and shelves, the timer (on screen and on your Lock Screen), logging past reading, stats and recaps, passages, goals, streaks and reminders, export, adding a book by hand, and Discover’s collections as they were last downloaded. Plus stays unlocked offline for the time you have paid for.

A connection is needed to search for a book or look up a barcode, a list or a shelf, to download covers, for more by authors you love, for iCloud sync, and to buy or restore Plus. A book added offline stands in its cloth, and Leafin looks for its cover the next time it opens with a connection.

Adding many books at once

In Add a book, tap the scan icon in the search field, then Scan several: the camera stays open, so scan one book after another and each joins a tray at the foot. Under the search field, Paste a list takes one book per line, and Photograph a list reads a photo or screenshot of one on your iPhone. Up to fifty books come in at a time, and you check the list before anything is added.

Stopping the “Allow Paste?” question

Paste a list’s Paste button is iOS’s own, so iOS does not ask before it pastes. If you paste another way — touching and holding the list, then Paste — iOS may ask whether Leafin may paste from another app. To stop it asking, open the Settings app, find Leafin (under Apps, on iOS 18 and later), tap Paste from Other Apps, and choose Allow.

Photographing a whole shelf

Leafin reads the spines on your iPhone, then uses Apple Intelligence’s on-device model to tell one book from the next. So Photograph a shelf needs an iPhone with Apple Intelligence, on iOS 26 or later, with Apple Intelligence turned on. On any other iPhone, Scan several brings in a pile of books instead, or Paste a list.

Bringing a library over from Goodreads or another app

Export your library from Goodreads or another app as a CSV file, then in Leafin choose You › Settings › Your data › Import from Goodreads or another app and pick the file. Every row is accounted for: the import tells you what was added, what you already had, and anything it could not read.

From another app, your read, currently reading, to-read and did-not-finish books, ratings, reviews, dates, rereads, tags, moods and pace come across, where its file has them. Leafin keeps half stars, so a rating in quarter stars goes to the nearest half, rounding up when it is exactly between two: 3.75 becomes 4. Paused books go on a shelf called Paused. Where a file has no page counts, Leafin fills them in from Open Library as it finds each book’s cover; any it cannot find are listed for you to check.

Goodreads is a trademark of Goodreads, LLC. Leafin is not affiliated with or endorsed by Goodreads.

Taking your library with you

You › Settings › Your data › Export your library writes a CSV file with every book, your dates, ratings, every reading session, passages, moods and pace. To bring it back — after Delete all data, or on a new iPhone without iCloud — choose You › Settings › Your data › Import from Goodreads or another app and pick the file: a Leafin export comes back in full. Covers are looked up again; a cover you photographed is not in the file.

Restoring Leafin Plus

Plus belongs to your Apple Account, not to one iPhone. On a new iPhone, or after deleting and reinstalling Leafin, choose You › Settings › Leafin Plus › Restore purchases in Leafin (it is on the Leafin Plus screen too). Leafin asks the App Store and says “Plus restored.” If it finds nothing, check that this iPhone is signed in with the Apple Account you subscribed with. Restoring never charges you again.

The free trial

The yearly plan comes with its first month free, for an Apple Account that has not had the trial before. From the first day, everything in Plus is unlocked. Five days before the month ends, a notification (if you allow them) and a note on Leafin’s Home screen say the date the trial ends and what the year will cost. On the yearly plan, if Leafin’s notifications are on, one comes about thirty days before each renewal with the date and the price. When the month is up, the yearly plan begins at $29.99 a year, or the price the App Store shows where you live, unless you have cancelled.

Cancelling Leafin Plus, or a free trial

Choose You › Settings › Leafin Plus › Manage subscription in Leafin, or open the Settings app, tap your name, then Subscriptions, and choose Leafin Plus. Cancel a free trial at least 24 hours before it ends and you are not charged at all. Nothing you made is lost when Plus ends.

What happens when Plus ends

Everything you made stays: your books, shelves, passages and history. You can read, search and share every passage you saved, even past the fifteen that are free; saving another waits for Plus. The Currently reading widget carries on as before. Any other Leafin widget on your Home Screen or Lock Screen stays where you put it and says it is part of Leafin Plus; tap it to see Plus, or remove it as you would any widget.

Refunds

All purchases and refunds are handled by Apple: Leafin never sees your payment details and cannot refund a purchase itself. To ask for a refund, go to Apple’s Report a Problem page, sign in with your Apple Account, and choose the Leafin purchase. Apple’s guide to requesting a refund has the details.

For readers in Japan, the notice that Japan’s Act on Specified Commercial Transactions asks for is on 特定商取引法に基づく表記.

Deleting everything

Leafin keeps nothing on a server, so deleting your data is in your hands, and it takes one button: You › Settings › Your data › Delete all data, in the Delete section at the foot of the page.

1. It offers to export first. An export is a CSV file with every book, your dates, ratings, reading time, passages, moods and pace. Tap Export to keep one, or Don’t export to go on without it.
2. It asks twice, and the second time it says exactly what will go, by number: your books, reading sessions, passages and shelves, with your goals, reminders and settings. Nothing is deleted until you tap Delete everything; tapping Keep my data at either question leaves everything as it was.
3. It deletes everything on that iPhone and, when iCloud is on there, in iCloud, so your other devices signed in to the same Apple Account clear too when they next sync. With iCloud off on that iPhone, your other devices keep their copy; turn iCloud on first to clear them too. It also forgets your answer about usage statistics, resets what Google Analytics kept on the phone and deletes any crash report not yet sent, then Leafin starts again from its first screen.

Your Plus subscription isn’t affected. It belongs to your Apple Account, not to Leafin’s data, and Restore purchases brings it back on any device.

If iCloud isn’t on for Leafin on that iPhone, only the iPhone is cleared, and Leafin says so before you confirm. To remove Leafin’s copy in iCloud as well, open the Settings app, tap your name, then iCloud › Manage Account Storage (or Storage), choose Leafin, and tap Delete Data.

Another device that was offline. If an iPhone or iPad signed in to the same Apple Account was offline when you deleted, what you changed on it while it was offline — a book added, a session logged — can come back to your library when it reconnects. To be sure everything goes, connect your other devices and open Leafin on each before you delete; if something does come back, run Delete all data again.

Deleting the app afterwards removes Leafin itself and its widgets. Anything you saved to Photos or shared yourself — shelf pictures, recap cards, passage cards — is yours and stays where you put it.

A note says there’s a problem with my payment

Apple couldn’t take the payment to renew Leafin Plus — often a card that has expired. For a while Apple keeps trying, and during Apple’s billing grace period Plus stays on. Tap Update payment on the note, or in You › Settings › Leafin Plus, to open Apple’s subscriptions page and put it right. After the grace period Plus pauses until the payment goes through. Nothing you made is lost, and the note goes as soon as the payment does.

Leafin crashed

Sorry. If you share statistics with Leafin, a crash report reaches us by itself, with nothing from your library and not linked to you; if you share analytics with app developers in your iPhone’s Settings, Apple passes one on too. If you don’t, or if it keeps happening, write to support@leafin.app and say what you were doing — that helps most to fix it.

A book will not look up

Leafin looks books up in Open Library. If it doesn’t know a book, you can add it by hand in a few seconds, and photograph its cover yourself.

Is Leafin only for iPhone?

Yes, for now. Leafin is for iPhone, running iOS 17 or later. There is no iPad, Android or web version.

Privacy

No ads and no ad tracking. Your library is never sold, and nothing about you is shared with advertisers. Usage statistics go to Google Analytics only if you say yes, are not linked to you, and can be turned off in You › Settings › Privacy. The privacy policy sets out everything the app sends, and to whom.