Straight answers.

Cinder is an iPhone and iPad contact-cleanup app with a deliberate review flow and separate Removal List. You can review 15 unique contacts free. Cinder Pro unlocks unlimited review, Quick Contact Filters, backups and recovery, import and export, and final contact removal. The lifetime unlock is free for a very limited time, through September 14, 2026; the regular U.S. $4.99 one-time price returns September 15.

Anyone whose address book has grown messy, especially busy professionals who need to separate real people from old leads, company-only entries, duplicate cards, and incomplete records without rushing into deletion.

No. Keep, Make Forever Contact, Request Info, and Mark for Removal do not edit or delete the Apple contact card. Mark for Removal only adds the contact to a separate list for later confirmation.

Open a locked feature or finish the 15-contact free review, tap Unlock Cinder Pro, then tap Agree & Continue to Apple. Confirm Apple shows $0 during the launch offer before completing the one-time purchase. If you already own Cinder Pro, tap Restore Purchase.

No. Cinder Pro is a lifetime, non-consumable in-app purchase with no subscription and no expiration. It is free for a very limited time, through September 14, 2026; the regular U.S. $4.99 one-time price returns September 15. Continued use still depends on a supported device, App Store availability, and your Apple Account. Apple provides iCloud storage separately.

Yes. Download Cinder from its verified App Store product page. Cinder is built for iPhone and iPad.

Unlock Cinder Pro in the app and confirm Apple shows $0 before completing the purchase. Apple then grants the same lifetime cinder.clean.unlock non-consumable entitlement used by the regular one-time purchase. It is not a trial and does not turn into a subscription. Starting September 15, Apple’s regular U.S. price is $4.99 one time; prices can be localized by storefront.

Eligible App Store preorders unlock Cinder Pro automatically when Apple verifies the original preorder before August 31, 2026 at 00:00 Eastern. Keep Cinder updated and use Restore Purchase to refresh both Apple’s purchase entitlement and verified preorder record. TestFlight, Sandbox, and Xcode transactions do not establish eligibility. There is no code to redeem or claim deadline. Customers who completed Apple’s $0 Cinder Pro purchase keep that one-time unlock. If Pro remains locked, contact Cinder support.

Read how preorder verification works.

Start with the How Cinder works tutorial. It links to focused guides for swiping, Request Info, Quick Contact Filters, duplicates, Recovery Snapshots, .vcf files, rebuilding, phone moves, and safe deletion.

Keep finishes that contact for the current review. Make Forever Contact keeps the contact and protects it from future Cinder reviews. Request Info opens a message you review before handing it to Messages or Mail. Mark for Removal puts the contact on the Removal List for another review before deletion. Undo reverses the latest supported action.

Right is Keep. Left is Mark for Removal. Up is Make Forever Contact. Down is Request Info. The outlined lock on the card is another way to make a Forever Contact. See the swipe guide with the matching buttons.

Yes. The five visible buttons cover Mark for Removal, Undo, Make Forever Contact, Request Info, and Keep. The outlined lock on the card is another visible way to make a Forever Contact. See the first-review tutorial.

Focused starting points for common cleanup jobs: Duplicate Groups, Similar Contacts, Missing Essentials, Corporate Contacts, Locations, and Contact Sources. They are organizational clues, not guaranteed facts. See the Quick Contact Filters guide.

Cinder groups possible matches using contact data available on the device. A suggestion can be wrong, and Cinder can miss real duplicates. Always compare every record and the proposed merged card before removing originals. Follow Duplicate Groups step by step.

A Quick Contact Filter for reviewing people at companies and company-only contact cards. It helps you focus the list; it does not decide that a contact should be deleted.

They use available address and phone-number clues to narrow a review. Area codes and contact addresses can be old, mobile, or unrelated to where someone lives. Treat the results as a starting point.

A Forever Contact is someone Cinder skips in future reviews. That protection is Cinder-only: it does not edit Apple Contacts, make the person an Apple Favorite, or stop another app or synchronized account from changing or deleting the live card. The separate Forever Recovery Vault can keep one verified Forever Recovery Snapshot for each protected person. See the complete Forever Recovery Vault guide.

Open Forever Contacts and use the centered, title-only Forever Recovery Vault entry directly above Add to Forever Contacts. The manager sorts matched contacts A-Z by family name, then given name, company, and full name. An unmatched Limited-access membership keeps its saved display name instead of guessing a surname. The Add chooser keeps the order supplied by Apple Contacts, including while filtering.

Swipe up, tap Make Forever Contact, tap the outlined lock, or use Add to Forever Contacts. Membership succeeds locally first and works offline. During review, immediate Undo reverses the Keep decision, membership, and dedicated snapshot work created by that action. Adding from the manager creates no review decision and uses no free review.

No. Cinder does not schedule or run background, automatic, monthly, or recurring backups. While open, it may perform read-only change detection, but Recovery Snapshots and Forever Recovery Snapshots are created or updated only after an in-app request or express approval. Reopen Cinder and request or approve a snapshot whenever you want a fresh monthly version. Contact-photo inclusion, rebuilding, removal, and deletion also require your in-app choice.

When Cinder activates, existing Forever Contacts without a remotely verified Forever Recovery Snapshot, including failed or pending attempts, are offered Create Forever Recovery Snapshots or Not Now. Not Now preserves Forever protection and defers creation for that run. A previously approved pending attempt may retry, and the offer can return on a later launch while no remotely verified snapshot exists.

After approval, Cinder exports one complete Contacts Only card, hashes and counts the exact VCF bytes, uploads them, fetches them again from private iCloud, and verifies the hash, byte count, and one-card VCF. Accessible Contact Notes are automatic and fail closed. Only after every eligible Contacts Only snapshot in the approved run verifies does Cinder offer one all-or-none contact-photo choice.

Add All Contact Photos? covers every eligible Forever Contact in that approved run; Cinder never prompts person by person. If you choose Include All Contact Photos, Cinder prepares and round-trip verifies the whole batch before staging any photo upgrade. One preparation or verification failure stages none, and every verified Contacts Only snapshot remains current until its own photo-bearing replacement verifies. Photos already within both 2,048 pixels on the longest edge and 2,000,000 encoded bytes remain byte-identical; larger photos are orientation-corrected, resized, and high-quality JPEG re-encoded until both limits hold. Invalid data fails closed. Keep Contacts Only requests no photo work, syncs across devices for that exact recoverable-data version, and is not offered again until the recoverable data changes.

The sheet remains until you tap Done. Contact Photos Verified appears only when the durable batch receipt is complete and every expected contact has the current photo-bearing snapshot fetched back and verified, with matching counts and hashes and nothing pending or unresolved. Photo Verification Pending shows the completed count; remaining work is staged for upload or final verification, or needs Vault review. Pending is not cloud-verified, and the previously verified Contacts Only snapshots remain current. Notify Me When Verified is off by default. If you enable it and permit notifications, Cinder may send one count-only notice only after the whole batch verifies, subject to scheduling and 9:00 p.m.-9:00 a.m. quiet hours; it contains no contact names or fields and opens the Vault when tapped.

No. With authoritative full Contacts access, Cinder may detect a meaningful change while the app is open and offer Update Forever Recovery Snapshot or Not Now. Detection stages and uploads nothing. Approval re-exports the exact offered data version; Not Now suppresses the offer for that run. The prior verified snapshot remains current until the replacement is uploaded, fetched again, and verified.

Verified snapshots is the number of Forever memberships with at least one snapshot fetched back and verified in private iCloud. Latest verified is the most recent successful verification time. Open either row for the exact contacts and verification dates; these views are informational and do not change data. Verification history and current status are separate, so one contact can count as verified and also appear in Upload Pending, Needs Attention, or another current-status row.

Needs Attention means two qualifying Full Contacts checks at least 24 hours apart could not find the exact contact or one unambiguous phone or email match. Review Later postpones that review seven days without changing membership or the snapshot. Upload Pending means local snapshot work still awaits private-iCloud upload or final verification. iCloud Unavailable and iCloud Storage Full explain the last failed verification attempt. No Recovery Snapshot means membership is active but has neither local pending work nor a verified snapshot. Deletion Pending means the local Vault deletion request remains, but private-iCloud deletion has not been verified; the live Apple contact is unchanged.

Every populated row lists the exact matching contacts, each current status, and its last verified date or No verified snapshot yet. Needs Attention and Review Later offer contact-specific Review Now. Upload Pending, iCloud Unavailable, and iCloud Storage Full offer a Try Again scoped to the listed contacts. No Recovery Snapshot offers scoped Create Recovery Snapshots when Full Contacts access and a visible contact list are available while Cinder is open; private iCloud must still verify the result. Deletion Pending offers scoped Retry Deletion. Verified coverage and Latest verified are read-only detail views.

Only after two authoritative full-access checks at least 24 hours apart cannot find the contact. Cinder checks the exact Contacts identifier first, then only a unique phone or email match. Limited, denied, restricted, or undetermined access; failed, empty, incomplete, or ambiguous data; unknown scope; and account or source transitions do not count as a miss. Nothing is rebuilt or removed automatically.

You preview the saved fields and select what to rebuild first. Cinder creates and verifies a new Apple Contacts card, normally in the default account with a new identifier, then rebinds the same stable Forever membership. It never overwrites an existing contact or rebuilds automatically. Groups, original accounts, linked-contact structure, identifiers, and provider-specific metadata are not promised; Contact Notes fail closed.

The Vault keeps one current verified snapshot per stable Forever membership, plus protected pending work while needed. Removing a Forever Contact deletes or safely queues deletion of that contact's snapshot without deleting the live Apple contact. Delete All Forever Recovery Snapshots preserves memberships. Vault snapshots are outside the 25 ordinary Recovery Snapshot families: they consume no ordinary slot, ordinary deletion cannot touch them, and Vault deletion cannot touch ordinary snapshots. Deleting Cinder does not promise deletion of private CloudKit data.

Forever membership and verified Forever Recovery Snapshots can return after reinstalling Cinder or moving to another supported Apple device when private iCloud is available. Cinder never treats an ambiguous contact match as authoritative. Private Cinder state does not transfer to Android; export an independent VCF before moving platforms.

Duplicate Groups uses stronger, explainable evidence and leads into merge review. Similar Contacts surfaces looser possibilities and offers Review & Merge, Not a Match, or Review Later. Review Later skips only that pair for the current Similar Contacts review; it is separate from Finish Later and does not save a main-review decision. See the feature guide.

No. Cinder creates the proposed combined contact first. The originals can then be marked for removal, but they are not deleted until you later review and confirm the full deletion flow. See Duplicate Groups step by step.

Yes. Finish Later saves the current review so you can continue it later. Finish Now opens the Removal List when contacts are marked. Cinder 1.0 does not have a per-contact Later button or swipe in Contact Review; the Review Later choice inside Similar Contacts is separate.

Request Info helps you compose an editable message asking someone for missing or current contact details. It does not change Apple Contacts, send anything without your review, or decide how that contact should be handled in Cinder.

Swipe down on the active review card or tap Request Info. The card returns to rest, the Request Updated Info sheet opens, and no review decision is recorded merely because you opened it.

Current name, mobile number, landline, work number, home address, personal email, work address, work email, birthday, or an updated contact card. Cinder cautiously preselects likely missing details, but your checked choices control the generated request.

They change the opening and which kinds of missing details Cinder initially prioritizes. Personal contacts usually start Friendly; contacts with company or work context may start Professional. You can switch tones, edit the draft, and save a separate custom opening for each tone.

Yes. Edit the complete draft before sending, or use Copy Request Text to copy the exact current version for Signal, WhatsApp, a direct message, or another app. You can choose whether to append Cinder’s referral; leaving it off keeps the request entirely about the contact update.

If any phone value contains a digit, Cinder prepares Messages using the first mobile, cell, or iPhone-labeled number, or otherwise the first number. It does not fall back to Mail if that Messages route cannot open. Only a contact with no usable phone value uses its first nonempty email address in Mail. If neither route is available, sending stays disabled and Copy Request Text remains available.

No. Cinder cannot read Messages or Mail replies, parse returned details, or automatically rewrite the contact. You review the reply and deliberately update the card in Apple's Contacts app.

No. Opening, editing, copying, or sending a request does not consume a free review by itself. A free review is consumed only when you make a final review disposition for that contact.

Only after it reaches the Removal List, you review the list, complete the Contact Removal Agreement when required, and reach Final Confirmation. Backup & Delete is the final action: after Cinder creates and verifies the Recovery Snapshot, deletion proceeds without another confirmation. You can instead explicitly choose to rely on your own current backup. See the safe-removal walkthrough.

Before final deletion, you can remove contacts from the Removal List or change your decisions. Once the operating system completes deletion, undo is not guaranteed; rebuilding from a backup creates new contact records and is not a perfect restoration.

Yes. If the contact belongs to iCloud, Google, Exchange, Outlook, CardDAV, or another synchronized account, the change may propagate to other devices and services. A synchronized address book is not automatically a separate backup.

Deletion can propagate across connected accounts, and every backup format has limits. The agreement explains those risks before final deletion features are used.

Cinder does not begin deletion. You can retry, choose to delete using your own current backup, tap Cancel Cleanup, or contact support. Save My Own .vcf appears when a cleanup VCF is ready. For a separate full-visible backup, open Settings, then Backups, Import & Export. Read the Recovery Snapshot guide.

Do not treat an unfinished screen as a completed backup or deletion. Let the current step finish, read the result, and verify your contacts and backup before closing the app or changing accounts.

A verified VCF backup stored in your private iCloud database after your in-app request. A pre-deletion snapshot requested with Backup & Delete contains exactly the contacts finally confirmed for removal. A snapshot you create from Settings, Backups, Import & Export contains every contact then visible to Cinder.

CloudKit is Apple’s system for giving an app private space inside your iCloud account. Cinder uses it for Recovery Snapshots. The files are tied to your Apple Account, use your iCloud storage, and are not a separate Cinder-owned server backup. Read the private iCloud tutorial.

Managed Recovery Snapshots are stored in your private iCloud database. Manual VCF exports go to the destination you choose through the iOS share sheet. Cinder does not include an iCloud storage plan.

The private iCloud backup action is unavailable. During final cleanup, nothing is deleted. Retry, save and verify your own .vcf when that option is available, use another current backup you trust, or cancel. See what each backup state means.

Cinder Pro keeps up to 25 ordinary Recovery Snapshot families in your private iCloud database. A verified Contacts Only VCF and its optional matched Contacts + Photos companion share one family slot. Creating ordinary family 26 normally removes the oldest ordinary family together. Forever Recovery Snapshots are separate and use none of those 25 slots.

No. Each successful snapshot family is a separate history item. Family 26 normally removes the oldest family, and Cinder warns if that cleanup cannot be confirmed.

No. Cinder includes every accessible Contact Note automatically and stops if it cannot read, write, and verify a Note exactly. Groups and group membership, source accounts, original identifiers, linked-contact structure, and some provider-specific fields are not preserved.

Contact photos are optional. Cinder protects and verifies Contacts Only first, then can create a matched Contacts + Photos companion. Ordinary and Forever exports share the same photo rules: an already-valid image at or below both 2,048 pixels on its longest edge and 2,000,000 encoded bytes stays byte-identical; larger images are orientation-corrected, resized, and high-quality JPEG re-encoded until both limits hold. Invalid data fails closed.

Each stored contact photo must fit both the 2,048-pixel and 2,000,000-byte limits. Cinder may also show a 52.4 MB whole-snapshot advisory; that notice does not itself block a transfer. Applicable ordinary backup and export screens let you choose the available photo path, while Forever Recovery Vault uses one all-or-none choice for the eligible run. The verified Contacts Only result stays protected.

Open Settings, then Backups, Import & Export, create or download the VCF you need, and choose Save to Files in the share sheet. Pick a folder, tap Save, then find the file again and check that it opens. Follow the complete Files tutorial.

Open Files, find the exact file, check its date and size, and open it. For a stronger check, use Cinder’s Import .vcf for Restore and inspect the preview without selecting any contacts. Opening or canceling the share sheet alone is not a backup. Use the Files checklist.

Download an independent .vcf while you still have access, store it somewhere you are allowed to use, and verify it. Private snapshots stay with the old Apple Account. If the contacts belong to an employer or managed account, get permission before copying or moving them. Follow the save-and-verify steps.

No. Rebuilding creates new contact records from supported backup data. New identifiers are assigned, records can be flattened, and cards are normally added to your default contact account instead of their original account. Matching contacts can be skipped to avoid overwriting them. Read how rebuilding works.

Yes. Open Settings, then Backups, Import & Export to create a VCF containing every contact currently visible to Cinder. Save or share it to a destination you choose, and protect it carefully because it can contain personal information.

Use Apple’s current Android-to-iPhone setup guidance, sync the correct account, or export and import a .vcf. Transfer options vary by device and operating-system version, so verify the current Apple and Android instructions before starting. See the Android-to-iPhone guide.

Use the Android provider’s current transfer guidance or export and verify a .vcf before importing it into the account you choose. A VCF can move supported contact data, but not private iCloud Recovery Snapshots or Cinder Forever status. See the iPhone-to-Android guide.

Routine review is local-first and does not require a developer-owned contact database. User-approved ordinary Recovery Snapshots and separate Forever Recovery Snapshots use your private Apple CloudKit database. A manual VCF goes only to the destination you choose through the system share sheet.

No Cinder account is required. App Store purchases and private iCloud features depend on the Apple Account already used on your device.

No. Cinder does not use your Contacts data for advertising and does not include an ad network or cross-app tracking flow.

Cinder can only display, review, and backup contacts iOS or iPadOS allows it to access. A backup made with limited permission is not a complete backup of your address book. The Recovery Snapshot guide shows why that matters before deletion.

In Cinder, open Settings, choose Contacts Access, then tap Open iOS Contact Settings. You can also open the Settings app, find Cinder, and change Contacts access there. The exact path can vary by system version. Changing permission does not restore deleted contacts.

Only if you are authorized to review, copy, merge, or delete them. Work accounts can be managed, monitored, or subject to retention rules. Ask your organization before exporting a .vcf or moving contacts to a personal account.

Key controls include VoiceOver labels, values, hints, and actions. Accessibility can vary by screen and system version, so please report any control that is unclear or unreachable. See the current accessibility information.

Many screens adapt to Dynamic Type and larger system text. If any control clips or becomes hidden at your preferred text size, please report it. See the accessible-controls guide.

Major review, onboarding, and backup flows include reduced-motion behavior when Reduce Motion is enabled.

Yes. Swipe Haptics can be turned off in Cinder Settings. Important review choices also appear as words and controls, so vibration is not the only signal.

Cinder includes visible alternatives to gestures, VoiceOver labels for key controls, Dynamic Type support across many screens, reduced-motion paths, light and dark appearances, and an option to turn off Swipe Haptics. Please contact support if a feature does not work with your setup.

Apple processes the Cinder Pro in-app purchase. Cinder does not receive your payment-card information. Apple controls billing, refunds, taxes, storefront eligibility, Family Sharing, and purchase restoration.

Tap Restore Purchase inside Cinder while signed in to the Apple Account that made the purchase. If Cinder Pro remains locked, open a locked feature and try Restore Purchase again, then contact support with the app version, system version, device model, and what you see.

Cinder is built for iPhone and iPad. It does not include a native Android or Mac app.

Use the Cinder support form. Include your app version, system version, iPhone or iPad model, and the exact step where something went wrong. Do not send someone else’s contact details unless they are necessary and you are authorized to share them.