Privacy and data

iCloud sync

Your records on all your devices, through your own private iCloud database. What it guarantees, and the one thing it does not.

Sync is off until you turn it on, under Settings ▸ Backup & Restore ▸ Where your data lives.

How it works#

Monestra syncs through your own private CloudKit database — the same mechanism Apple's own apps use. Monestra runs no server and has no account system. Your data goes to your iCloud, under your Apple Account.

If you have Advanced Data Protection enabled, that database is end-to-end encrypted and Apple cannot read it either.

Requirements#

An iCloud account signed in on the device, with iCloud Drive on, and network access.

When iCloud is not available#

Monestra falls back to local-only on the same database file rather than refusing to start. Signed out of iCloud, on a plane, or on a device where the container has not been created — the app opens and works, and records why in its status.

The known gap#

Monestra can detect a database that fails to open. It cannot currently detect a container that opens successfully and then never mirrors — silent non-syncing looks identical to having nothing new to sync.

If two devices disagree and both report syncing, the reliable check is to make a small edit on one and watch for it on the other. If it does not arrive, sign out and back in to iCloud on the lagging device.

Sync is not a backup#

They solve different problems, and this is worth being blunt about.

Sync propagates changes, including deletions. Delete a record on your iPhone and it disappears from your Mac — that is sync working correctly. It does not protect you from your own mistakes.

A backup is a point in time you can return to. If you only do one of the two, do backups.

Household sharing#

Sharing a dataset with a spouse or family is designed but not built. Sync today is private-database only: your devices, nobody else's.