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On your iPhone, in the Files app under On My iPhone › Hearthtold: one folder per storyteller, with the recordings (.m4a), transcripts (.txt), chapters (.md), photos and the book (.pdf). If iCloud Drive is on, Hearthtold also copies each folder to iCloud Drive › Hearthtold, in your own iCloud. Settings › Your files shows whether that copy is on.

In the iPhone’s Settings, tap your name, then iCloud, then iCloud Drive. Turn on Sync this iPhone, and make sure Hearthtold is switched on there. Until a recording is copied, the Storytellers screen reminds you that you have the only copy.

Settings › Save everything, then choose the storyteller. Hearthtold makes one archive with every recording (and one joined recording per conversation), the transcripts, the chapters, the photos and the book. Share it to Files, a computer or a drive you keep safe. Save everything is free, whether or not you have Plus.

Install Hearthtold and sign in to the same Apple Account with iCloud Drive on. On the first screen, tap Open from iCloud Drive, and choose the storyteller. You can also open a storyteller’s folder at any time from Settings › Your files › Open a storyteller’s folder…; for a Save everything archive, choose the Files folder inside it. Keep Hearthtold open on Wi-Fi while the files come down. A folder that was already on the iPhone is moved, not deleted: you’ll find it in the Files app under On My iPhone › Hearthtold › Recently Deleted.

Hearthtold writes out what’s said with Apple’s speech model for the storyteller’s language. If the model isn’t on your iPhone yet, the conversation is still recorded, and it is written out as soon as the model is downloaded. Download it on Wi-Fi before your visit: the storyteller’s screen shows “Get ready before your visit”, and Settings › Speech model lists each language.

Chapters made for you need Apple Intelligence: an iPhone 15 Pro or later, with Apple Intelligence switched on in Settings › Apple Intelligence & Siri, finished getting ready, and a language it supports. Without it you can still split any conversation into chapters by hand, one for each question you held Ask for, then merge or split them. A conversation under a minute is too short for chapters. Keep Hearthtold open while chapters are made; if you leave, it starts again when you come back.

Your first conversation’s chapters are free (the first conversation, on any storyteller, whose chapters finish). After that, chapters for more conversations come with Plus.

Only chapters ticked Listened and checked can go in the book: switch on the ones you want on the book screen. A chapter with changed words waiting to be accepted has to be accepted or corrected first. Exporting the PDF comes with Plus on an iPhone that can run Apple Intelligence, and stays available if Plus ends. On an iPhone that can’t run Apple Intelligence, exporting the book is free. On an iPhone 15 Pro or later with Apple Intelligence switched off or still getting ready, turn it on in Settings › Apple Intelligence & Siri and let it finish; Plus, and the book’s PDF, are offered once it has.

No. What they say while Off the record is on is still recorded, in its own audio files, but it isn’t written out and never goes into a chapter or the book. To remove it, tap Delete audio on its line in the transcript; it goes to Recently Deleted for 30 days.

A call, Siri or an alarm pauses the recording and closes the file, so what you have is safe; tap Resume to carry on. If the phone locks or you switch apps, Hearthtold keeps recording. If the app is closed or the phone dies, the conversation is recovered from its saved files next time you open Hearthtold, losing at most the last minute.

Settings › Hearthtold Plus › Restore Purchases, or Restore Purchases on the Plus screen. Use the same Apple Account you subscribed with.

Settings › Hearthtold Plus › Manage subscription, or in the iPhone’s Settings, tap your name, then Subscriptions. Cancel at least 24 hours before the end of the current period to stop it renewing. If Plus ends, everything you’ve made stays, chapters already made can still be edited, and the book of chapters already made still exports.

Refunds are handled by Apple. Ask for one at reportaproblem.apple.com.

A storyteller: open them, tap Edit, then Delete. A conversation: open it, tap More, then Delete conversation. A chapter: More, then Delete chapter (its words stay in the transcript). Each asks you to type “delete”, and the item goes to Settings › Recently Deleted for 30 days, where you can restore it or delete it now for good.

Turn them on in the iPhone’s Settings › Hearthtold. Recording needs the microphone; photographing old prints needs the camera. Adding photos from your library needs no permission.