STRATA
Support
Strata is made by one person. Email gets a reply.
If something is broken, confusing, or missing, write to me directly. There is no ticket system and no bot — just an inbox I read.
Get in touch
I usually reply within a few days. If you are reporting a bug, it helps enormously to include your iPhone model, your iOS version, and what you did just before the problem appeared.
I cannot see your entries, so I have no way to look at your journal to diagnose something. Everything I know about a problem has to come from your description of it.
Common questions
Where is my writing stored?
On your phone, and nowhere else. Strata has no servers and no account. Nothing you write is transmitted anywhere unless you export it yourself.
Does Strata sync between my devices?
No. Syncing would mean sending your writing through somebody's server, which is the thing Strata is built to avoid. To move your journal to another device, export a backup and restore it there.
How do I move to a new phone?
On the old phone, open Settings and export a backup. Save the file somewhere you can reach from the new phone. On the new phone, install Strata, open Settings, and restore from that file. If you set a passphrase on the backup, you will need it to restore.
I forgot my backup passphrase.
Then that backup cannot be opened. There is no recovery, no reset, and no master key — not for you and not for me. This is deliberate: a backup that I could open for you is a backup anyone could open. Your journal on your phone is unaffected, so make a fresh backup with a passphrase you will remember.
Are backups encrypted?
Only if you set a passphrase. When you do, the file is encrypted on your device with AES-256-GCM and a key derived from your passphrase, and the passphrase is never stored or sent anywhere. If you export without a passphrase, the file is not encrypted and your writing is readable by anything that opens it — keep those files somewhere private, or delete them once you have restored.
App Lock is not asking for Face ID.
Check that Face ID is set up for Strata in the iPhone Settings app, under Face ID & Passcode. If you denied the permission the first time, that is where to turn it back on. Strata never sees your face or fingerprint — it asks iOS to verify you and receives only a yes or no.
How do layers work?
A moment starts as a single thought. When you come back to it later and add another line, that line becomes a layer on the same moment rather than a new entry. Each layer is timestamped, so an entry gradually becomes a record of how a thought developed rather than a snapshot of one afternoon.
Can I get my writing out of the app?
Yes, and without asking me. Export any entry as a PDF or an image card, print it, send it through the share sheet, or export your whole journal as a backup file. Your writing is not locked inside Strata.
How do I delete everything?
Settings has a Delete All Data control that clears the entries, layers, templates, drafts, tags, and preferences held on your device. Deleting the app does the same thing. Neither can reach copies that have already left the app, so anything you exported, printed, or shared has to be deleted wherever you put it.
Something crashed and I lost work.
Tell me what you were doing when it happened, in as much detail as you can stand. Strata has no crash reporting, which means a crash leaves no trace anywhere I can see. Your description is the only evidence there is.
Requesting a feature
Send it to the same address. Strata is a small app and stays that way on purpose, so not everything gets built — but knowing what people are trying to do with it shapes what comes next more than anything else does.