Frequently asked questions

Viharo is a travel companion for iPhone and iPad that stays with you for the whole trip: packing, the things you need on the road, and coming home. Unlike a plain packing list, it learns from every trip: it remembers what worked, what got used up or lost, and gives better advice next time. With circles you also lend gear with the people you travel with, and every trip leaves you a Memory.

No. No registration, no password, no e-mail. Just install and go — your data stays on your phone and in your own iCloud.

Tap “+ New list” on the home screen. The easiest way to start is to let the Preparation guide walk you through it — a few questions and your list is ready. Press and hold the button to pick a different start — say, an empty list or your last template.

It builds your list from the trip type (feel free to pick several — they merge), accommodation, who’s coming, activities and transport. And it’s not just for the start: you can run it on an ongoing trip and let it rebuild the list.

Five quick starts: an empty list, just My basics, from the Gear Closet (your gear), the last template you used, and the Preparation guide. What a plain tap does is up to you — choose it in Settings.

Yes — Viharo is one app for both iPhone and iPad, and iCloud keeps both devices in sync. You also get a home-screen widget.

Ten: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Czech, and Slovak. Add from a list restores accents in all ten.

Pack is the classic packing list. Buy holds things you don’t have yet — once you mark them as bought, they move to Pack automatically. And Do is for pre-departure tasks: water the plants, turn off the boiler, pause the newspaper.

Your packing progress — it grows with every item you check off. Once everything’s done, the “Packed!” card celebrates and offers to jump to the On the road phase.

Yes: Settings → Controls → “Check only by tapping the box”. Tapping the row then does nothing; you check an item only with the box on the left. It applies to items, purchases, and to-dos alike.

Type it into the row at the bottom — it joins the section you’re in. Set the quantity right as you type: “3× t-shirt”, “3x t-shirt” or just “3 t-shirt” — Viharo tidies it up to 3× t-shirt on its own. To change the quantity of an existing item, press and hold → Edit. You can turn on quantities in Settings; tasks don’t use quantities.

Smart suggestions are tips below your list — from the weather at your destination, from your past trips (what got used up, what you bought), from your friends’ gear in circles, and general ideas; a tap adds them. “Don’t forget” shows classic items your list is still missing. Both can be turned off in Settings → Smart features.

No. In Packing, tap “Add from a list” (or on the Home screen, hold “+ New list” → From a list). Paste text from the clipboard, snap a photo of the paper, or pick a photo from Photos. Viharo sorts the lines into Pack / Buy / Do, fixes typos and accents, and picks up counts (“2× t-shirt”). You confirm everything in the preview; nothing is added without you.

Printed text and screenshots read reliably; handwriting depends on the hand, and block letters work best. Recognition runs on your phone, and nothing is uploaded.

It’s most likely in “Never take” — the list of things you told Viharo not to offer. You’ll find it in Settings → Lists; remove the item there and templates will start offering it again.

Sure. In Edit trip (tap its name), switch off “Travel phases” — you get a clean packing list with no phase switcher. And if that’s how you always want it, make it the default for new trips in Settings. Only trips with multiple stops always go through the phases — packing for the next leg and coming home are part of the story there.

Nothing gets deleted. Notes, purchases and tasks are just tucked away — and whenever you turn phases back on, they’re right there.

Create your bags (suitcase, backpack, carry-on…) and assign items to them — one by one with a press and hold, or in bulk via “Split into bags”. Every item then carries a tag, so at the airport you know exactly where to look, and you can filter the list by bag and pack one bag at a time.

The bag is yours — write its lock code (or any note) in the bag editor — it’s also at hand on the card once you finish packing. The code is never included in a shared link or PDF.

Add stops right when creating the trip, or any time later via the “Stops” row in Edit trip. Each stop can have its own dates — Viharo then shows the whole route in the list header.

It closes the current stop and moves you smoothly to the next one — your items, notes, and purchases carry over with you. The finished stop is stored in Past trips, where you can revisit it any time.

Yes, any time. Open Edit trip (tap the name) and add or adjust the route in the “Stops” row — even mid-trip.

It considers the whole route: the weather row shows the forecast stop by stop, and smart suggestions take all the places into account at once. So if the first stop is hot and the third is in the mountains, the list offers you both.

The “Where is it?” search goes through the whole trip, including stops already closed — it finds the item along with its bag tag. And you can open a past stop by tapping the route in the list header, or via Past trips.

The room photo belongs to the stop where it was taken — each stop has its own accommodation and its own checkout. You’ll find it in the past stop, which you can open any time from the route in the header.

Open the trip’s Attachments. Add a file from Photos or Files, from the clipboard with Paste (it appears when the clipboard holds a PDF or an image), or by drag and drop on iPad. The fastest way is Save to Viharo: in Mail, Photos, or Safari, tap Share → Save to Viharo and pick the trip. Attachments are part of PRO; one share can carry up to 10 files, PDFs up to 20 MB, and images are downsized.

Invite to pack together — one live list for everyone going: everyone checks off and adds items, and changes appear instantly. Send a read-only link — a web page for someone who just wants a look, no app needed. Send as a new list — a copy that lands right in the recipient’s Viharo and lives its own life from there. And in a circle you can post a trip as a group trip and invite the whole circle to pack together at once.

Press and hold the trip card → Sharing → Invite to collaborate, and send the invitation, say, via Messages. The recipient taps it, accepts — and from then on you’re packing together. They need Viharo and must be signed in to iCloud.

A companion checks off, adds items, notes, purchases and tasks, and manages their own bags. The owner additionally controls the trip header (name, dates, destination), phases, finishing the trip, and sharing itself — and can switch the list to read-only. Only the owner can permanently delete things on a shared trip.

The name, photo, and color others recognize you by: in circles, when packing together (next to checked-off items and in the companions list), and on shared memories. Fill it in under Settings → Circles and Memories → My Card; one card works everywhere. Without a card, packing together shows only your Apple Account name, and a circle shows “Member”.

The invitation is a link with no addressee — Viharo doesn’t know in advance who you sent it to. A companion appears in the companion list the moment they accept.

Only the owner edits the trip header — so it doesn’t change out from under anyone. If you’re a companion, ask the owner for the change; everything else is yours to edit.

Lock codes are sensitive, so they’re never shared automatically — the bag’s owner has to allow it for the given trip. Once they do, tap the bag’s tag to read the code; you can also turn off showing others’ codes in the list’s sharing options.

Attachments stay private until their author marks them for sharing. Ask them to turn on sharing with companions for that attachment — then it reaches everyone.

Items carry the name of whoever added them, and bags the name of their owner. On someone else’s bag you also see who’s packing it — so “Kate carries this one” is clear at a glance.

That one of your companions has the list open right now. You’ll see it on the trip card and in the list header — handy when you’re checking things off together.

If you're the owner, press and hold the trip card → Sharing, then cancel the read-only link or end the collaboration — companions get the choice to keep a copy. A companion can also leave a shared list on their own at any time.

30 days from the last time you sent it. Whenever you send or refresh it again, the clock resets — and you can cancel it any time, after which it stops working immediately. The same 30 days apply to a “Send as a new list” link — once the recipient takes the list in, it’s theirs and the link isn’t needed anymore.

A circle is the people you travel with: family, friends, your club. In a circle you show each other your gear and lend it, ask for what you’re missing, post group trips, and share memories from your travels. You’ll find circles on the Home screen (the Circles row) and in Settings → Circles and Memories.

In Settings → Circles and Memories → Your circles, tap “Create circle”, then give it a name, an emoji, and a color. Creating one circle is free; additional circles of your own are part of PRO. Joining other people’s circles, lending, asks, group trips, and taking over a circle from someone else are always free. An archived circle doesn’t count toward the limit; restoring it counts as creating one.

In Manage circles you’ll find the invite: a link you can send in a message, or a QR code the other person scans with the Camera app. The invite opens right in their Viharo; anyone without the app sees a page with an App Store link. On first joining, everyone fills in My Card (a name is required; it’s how others recognize you).

“Members can invite” controls whether members can invite others too. “New invite link” invalidates every previous link and QR code.

Yes. In the circle settings (also when creating it), turn on “Approve new members”. Anyone arriving through an invite waits in a queue, sees only the circle’s name, and writes nothing to it. You approve or decline them in Manage circles. Members already in the circle stay.

Names come only from cards. An invite link doesn’t carry the Apple Account name, so until a member fills in My Card, they show up as “Member”. You can give anyone a nickname just for yourself (on their card → Nickname); it takes priority everywhere you see them.

Only the categories you pick for that circle (Pick categories in Manage circles). Each circle can get a different pick: family sees everything, the club sees only tents and stoves. Whatever you don’t pick stays yours alone.

On an item in someone else’s gear, tap “Ask to borrow” and say when you’ll return it. The owner accepts (Lend it) or declines (Not this time). Once the item changes hands, the owner marks it as picked up; after the trip you report it returned and the owner confirms. If the loan has a due date, you get a reminder the day before and the day after; the owner can also send you a reminder.

Every item keeps its own passport: where it has been, who borrowed it, and how it went. You can also give an item away for good.

When you tap “Continuing my journey” or move the return date in Edit trip, Viharo asks whether to move the return of borrowed items too. The new due date is exactly the new end of the trip, and the owner sees it in their notification center.

When you need something nobody in the circle is offering, post an ask in Looking for. Members reply Lend it or Not this time, and you get a notification. The ask closes by itself once it’s resolved or its date passes.

A shared trip posted to the circle: emoji, name, destination, and dates. Everyone answers I’m in or I’m out, so you know who to count on. Attach your own trip to it (or create one from it), and invite the people going to pack together. Post a group trip from Manage circles, or from a trip via Send the list → Plan as a group trip.

The default is packing together: one list, a tap checks an item off for everyone, one bag, one count. The trip’s owner can switch to Each for themselves under Sharing: a tap then marks the item as packed by you, a hold packs it for everyone (a shared item like a tent also gets a shared bag). “Everyone brings their own” gives each person their own count, “Not taking” applies only to you, and “Nobody takes it” applies to all. A trip created from a group trip starts in the each-for-themselves mode.

Technically, a circle lives in the iCloud of the person who founded it. When the founder wants to step back, they offer the circle to another member. The successor accepts (the offer is good for 7 days), the others simply confirm their membership in the new circle, and loans, asks, and group trips carry on. A transfer is free, even if the successor already has a circle. A circle can be transferred only when it has no loans or asks in progress.

In Manage circles: Archive puts the circle to sleep (nothing happens in it, and you can restore it anytime), Leave removes you from it, and Delete ends it for everyone. Loans in progress are closed with the note “circle ended”, and the item passports record it. A removed member gets a “You’re no longer a member” line.

Borrow requests and replies, pickups and returns, asks, group trips, new memories, and circle transfers. They arrive as a banner on the Lock Screen and in the app’s notification center (the bell on the Home screen). Mute a specific member on their card; allow system notifications in iOS Settings → Viharo.

Offer one of your templates (say, “Club camp”) to the circle, and others add it to their own with one tap. The template is copied, so everyone can tweak it their way.

When you finish a trip (Home → Finish trip), Viharo looks at the photos taken during the trip’s dates, picks the best ones, and builds a card: a cover, a strip of days, and the trip’s facts (how many days, stops, and items came along). A trip with multiple stops gets one Memory for the whole journey. You’ll find them in Past trips and on the Home screen.

Yes. The selection is only a suggestion: swap the cover, hide photos or whole days, or pick the photos by hand. The Memory remembers your choices.

For Memories (and the room photo when you check out). Limited access to selected photos is enough. Photo selection runs entirely on your phone; nothing is uploaded, and the app stores only references to the photos you picked.

Tap Share memory and pick a circle. A finished view (an image with the trip’s facts) goes to the circle, where others flip through it like a story and can react. A Memory goes to each circle only once; a shared one shows “Shared ✓” and “In circles: …”. Outside circles, share a Memory as an image or PDF through the regular share sheet.

A deleted trip sits in the trash and can be restored together with its Memory. Deleting the trip permanently ends the Memory; the app warns you when you do it. Views you’ve already shared to circles stay there.

During a trip, Viharo shows a strip of today’s photos in your list. Turn it off in Settings → Circles and Memories → Day card on the trip.

The Gear Closet is an overview of your travel gear. It fills up by itself from finished trips — what travels with you, what proved useful — plus anything you add by hand. Open it with the Gear Closet button next to the Pack section, or in Settings → Lists. In a circle, it’s what you lend from.

In the Gear Closet, write a place next to each item — “basement, top shelf”, “hallway drawer”. Before the next trip you read from the list instead of searching the house.

The things you always take — toothbrush, charger, documents. They join automatically when you create a trip from a template or with the guide; and if you want just them, press and hold “+ New list” and choose “Just My basics”. An empty list starts truly empty.

In Settings → Lists → My basics. Add, remove and shape it exactly your way — the change applies to the next trip you create.

Most naturally in the Home phase — if something went unused the whole trip, Viharo itself asks whether to skip it next time. And any time by hand in Settings → Lists → Never take.

Delete it in Settings → Lists → Never take — and templates and the guide start offering it again right away.

Press and hold “+ New list” and choose From the Gear Closet: pick items from your gear and the list is done. Whether to add My basics too is a switch right in the picker.

The Gear Closet remembers: you’ll see the item highlighted in the overview and on the home-screen strip until you resolve it. And on the next trip with the same thing, Viharo suggests adding it to Buy — the used-up repellent won’t be forgotten again.

On your phone and in your own iCloud — with Apple, under your Apple Account, where Viharo can’t see it. There is no account with us, because none is needed.

We don’t know you, and your data is stored nowhere but your device and your iCloud. Circles and packing together run through iCloud (Apple), not through us. Only two things touch our server: sharing a link or a copy (the content is encrypted on your device first, the key travels only in the link, and we never receive it), and delivering circle notifications (the server is just a courier: it hands the banner to Apple and stores nothing from it). Photos for Memories and reading lists from a photo stay on your phone.

No. No analytics, no trackers, no ads, no selling of data. We couldn’t even if we wanted to — we don’t know you.

The list is encrypted right on your device, and the key becomes part of the link — the part a browser never sends to the server. Only the person you send the link to can read it. This is called end-to-end encryption, and it applies to both read-only links and sent copies.

In Settings → Data you’ll find data export to a file — save it to Files, iCloud Drive, or wherever you like. It carries your data and preferences: trips, templates, checklists, My basics, Never take, the Gear Closet, bags, and the app’s appearance. Photos, attachments, circles, and Memories aren’t in the file — those live in your iCloud.

“Restore and replace everything” returns the app exactly to the backup’s state — handy on a new phone; it double-checks before running. “Add selected only” leaves your current data alone and just brings in what you pick from the backup — say, one old trip.

Settings → Data includes Erase all data — it clears the device and iCloud. Circles live in their founder’s iCloud: leave other people’s circles from the circle’s settings, and transfer or delete your own. And since you have no account with us, there’s nothing to cancel; shared links expire on their own within 30 days, or you can cancel them right away.

Deleting the app doesn’t remove your iCloud data — after a fresh install it comes back by itself. Without iCloud, Viharo keeps running locally on the device; you lose sync between devices, collaboration, and circles, while packing works unchanged.

No. For free you get one active trip with the whole core of the app: all three phases, the Preparation guide, templates, My basics, learning from past trips and backup. Free Viharo isn’t a demo — it’s the real thing; PRO adds the extras.

The whole trip from start to finish: creating a list with the guide or a template, Add from a list, packing, things on the road, the accommodation checkout with a room photo, and the wrap-up at home. Plus the Gear Closet, learning from past trips, Memories, one circle of your own (joining circles, lending, asks, and group trips are always free), read-only share links, sending a copy to a friend, iCloud sync, and a full data backup.

Several active trips at once and trips with multiple stops, packing together with family and friends, more circles of your own, copying trips, the full bag system (editor, lock codes, “Where is it?”, splitting items into bags), trips from the Gear Closet, custom templates, accommodation checklists, and guide options, weather-based suggestions, attachments including Save to Viharo, statistics, PDF export, and a custom trip photo.

Yes. PRO comes monthly, yearly, or as a one-time purchase; the yearly plan starts with a free week. If PRO isn’t for you, cancel during the trial week and pay nothing.

PRO is tied to your Apple Account, not the device. On a new phone, open Settings → PRO → Unlock Viharo PRO and tap Restore Purchases at the bottom — done.

In the system settings: Settings → your name → Subscriptions → Viharo. The subscription runs to the end of the paid period and isn’t charged again.

No, never. All your data stays — only the PRO features lock. Whatever you created with them remains readable; and whenever you come back, you pick up where you left off.

In Settings → Appearance you choose between two looks — Modern and Classic — plus an app color from the palette. Light and dark mode follow the system, or you can pin one.

In Settings → Circles and Memories: My Card, Your circles, Suggestions from circles (friends’ gear offered while you pack), Memories on the home screen, and Day card on the trip.

Swiping an item is the fastest way to act on it — and in Settings → Controls you choose exactly what a swipe does, per section.

In Settings → Lists → Section order you arrange Pack, Buy and Do however makes sense to you — say, tasks on top if you tend to have the most of them.

New items join the end of their section, and the order is yours — press, hold and drag an item where it belongs. Your order carries over when sharing, too.

Next to the trip list header there’s a sorting menu; you can also pin a trip — pinned ones always stay on top. Past trips in the archive sort the same way.

In Settings → Notifications. When a trip has a departure date and time, Viharo gives you a heads-up as far in advance as you choose — no last-minute packing.

A tap creates a trip your favorite way — which one, you choose in Settings → Controls. Pressing and holding the button always offers all five starts.

In Settings → Lists → Preparation guide. Rewrite trip templates, accommodation checklists and the guide’s options to fit you — and each can be restored to its original state at any time.

Check that both devices use the same Apple Account, have iCloud enabled for Viharo (system Settings → your name → iCloud), and are online. Syncing then takes a moment — typically under a minute; opening the app on both devices helps.

Circles run through iCloud, just like packing together: both sides need to be online with iCloud enabled for Viharo. Changes arrive within a minute; hopping to the Home Screen and back helps. If iCloud reports it’s busy (it happens after dozens of changes in a row), wait a few minutes.

“iCloud is full” is solved by freeing space or buying more storage, “signed out of iCloud” by signing in via system settings — and “try again later” means the server asked for a short breather; it sorts itself out.

Check that notifications are allowed for Viharo in the system settings, and that the trip has a departure date and time — the reminder is scheduled from them. Circle notifications are sent by the app of the member who took the action; if they aren’t arriving, see Which notifications circles send.

By default the widget follows your current active trip — and via press and hold → Edit widget you can point it at a specific trip. After changes, opening the app helps the widget catch up; if it still stalls, remove it from the home screen and add it again.

Check three things: Viharo has access to Photos (iOS Settings → Viharo → Photos), the photos are dated within the trip, and they’re in this device’s library (iCloud-only photos download first). You can adjust the trip’s dates afterwards in Past trips.

Weather needs a destination filled in and a network connection. Forecasts also only exist for the days ahead — for a trip a month away, it appears once the date gets close.

The recipient needs Viharo installed and must be signed in to iCloud. If the invitation still won’t open, ask the owner for a new one — the old one may have expired in the meantime.

The founder created a new invite link, or deleted the circle. Ask them for a fresh link or QR code; old ones stop working on purpose. If you were removed from a circle, an old link won’t get you back in. One more thing: a circle link opens in Viharo 1.1 or later — older versions ignore it.

A circle link opens in Viharo 1.1 or later — older versions ignore it. Update Viharo in the App Store and open the link (or scan the QR code) again.

In the Trash on the home screen. Deletion is a waiting room, not the end — you can bring the trip back any time, or delete it for good.

Write to support@viharo.app and include what’s happening and on which device. We answer every message.