Frequently asked questions

Common questions about Bakimora. For a question not answered here: support@bakimora.app

What is needed to add the person I care for?

The permission of the person you care for, or of a representative authorized to give permission for this use. At setup (and when adding a person later), after you type the name and details, the app opens a decision page:

• Your relative decides: you hand over the phone or read the card aloud. Difficulty reading, seeing or using the screen is no obstacle; what matters is understanding what the notebook is, who will see it, and that saying no is fine. With permission for record keeping and family sharing, the notebook opens; whether caregivers may see it is a separate, optional choice.
• An authorized representative decides: in Türkiye, a guardianship order or a power of attorney; in the US, a court order or a valid authorization that covers this use. The representative states that the authority covers this use, keeps the document, and can show the relevant part if asked.
• Without permission, tap "Not now": what you entered in this step is not saved.

Being a relative or running the circle does not, by itself, give anyone the authority to give permission for someone else.

How does my relative change the decision?

At any time, in one of three ways: on your relative's own phone under Settings → My decision; on any family phone, by having the card reopened (on the Circle tab, "Change … decision" on your relative's card); or by writing directly to privacy@bakimora.app, without going through the family.

• Withdrawing permission for record keeping or family sharing stops adding, sending and downloading your relative's records, and the deletion of those records from the phones and the server begins. Deleted records cannot be brought back. Where the law allows, limited information may be kept to document the decision and the deletion (privacy notice, "Retention periods").
• Turning off only caregiver access stops caregivers from viewing, writing or exchanging files; the family notebook goes on.
• The code on the request card is not required, but adding it when you write makes our work easier; the code is also under Settings → Agreements and declarations. The code alone does not authorize anyone to view or delete records: before acting, we check your identity or authority.

I changed phones or deleted the app. What happens to my notebook?

Your notebook isn't lost: the records are on your family's phones, and encrypted on our server. How you get back in on the new phone depends on your role:

• If you run the circle: open Bakimora with the same account (Apple on an iPhone, Google on Android). If your key backup is on, a card says "There's a notebook on this account"; tap "Bring my notebook back". If the card doesn't appear, tap "I lost my phone" and enter your 12 recovery words.
• If you're a family member: open Bakimora with the same account. If your key backup is on, the same card appears; tap "Bring my notebook back" and you carry on in the circle as the same person. If the card doesn't appear, ask the admin to take you out of the circle and invite you again.
• If you're a caregiver: someone in the family can take you out of the circle and invite you again.

On Android, the backup reaches a new phone only if you restore from your old phone's backup while setting the new phone up. On an iPhone, the backup arrives by itself if iCloud Keychain is on.

What if the invitation link reaches the wrong person, or gets copied?

Nothing opens. The link holds no key that opens the notebook: it carries a one-time invitation and what the code at the door is worked out from. A phone that taps the link does not enter the circle: it waits at the door and shows a 6-figure code on its screen. The circle's admin hears that code from the person they invited, types it on their own phone, and the phone is let in; only then are the circle's keys sent, encrypted, to that phone alone. If the code does not match, the admin can try once more; a second mismatch refuses the phone. The admin can also refuse a phone they don't know. A refused phone's link is spent, and a new invitation is made for the right person. An invitation is good for 48 hours; if no approval comes in that time, the waiting phone sees "No approval came" and asks for a new one.

Settings says "Your key isn't backed up". What should I do?

You'll only see this on Android. The sentence under it says why:

• No screen lock: set a PIN, pattern or password on your phone.
• A screen lock, but Google backup is off: turn on Google backup in your phone's settings.
• The phone runs Android 8: this version can't back up the key encrypted. If you're the admin, write your 12 recovery words on paper and keep them safe; if you're a family member, ask the admin for a new invitation when you change phones.

Once it's on, come back to Bakimora and the backup is made by itself. If it isn't right away, unlock your phone once and come back to the app again.

I got "A new phone came in as admin under your name".

Someone came into your notebook from a new phone, under your name, as admin: with your key backup or your 12 recovery words.

• If it was you (your new phone, say): there's nothing to do. The notice goes once you look at the list of phones.
• If it wasn't you: open Settings → The notebook's key → Your phones, and tap "Take this phone out" under the phone you don't know. It won't see anything written from then on. Then go back to Settings and renew the key with The notebook's key → Renew the key (see "When should I renew the key?" below). If you share your Apple or Google account with someone, turn off the key backup first.

I got "A new phone joined your circle under …'s name".

A family member brought the notebook back on a new phone, with the backup in their own Apple or Google account. That person's other phones and the admin's phones get this notice.

• If you know the phone (that person's new phone, say): there's nothing to do. If the old phone is lost, the admin can take it out (see "I lost my phone" below).
• If you don't: the admin taps the notice, or opens Circle, taps that person's row and then "Phones (…)", and taps "Take this phone out" under the phone nobody knows; the person stays in the circle. If you're not the admin, tell the admin. If that person shares an Apple or Google account with someone, the backup should also be turned off in Settings → The notebook's key on that person's phone.

I got "…'s watch reported an irregular rhythm" (or a high heart rate, a low heart rate, or "…'s watch recorded an ECG").

Your family member's Apple Watch gave that notification, or your family member recorded an ECG on the watch; Bakimora passes the news on to the family phones that have "What the watch reports" on in Settings → My notifications. The caregiver doesn't get this notice.

• The ECG notice does not give the result. It only says an ECG was recorded; Apple's result (for example, "Sinus rhythm") and the average heart rate stay inside the app, on the Vitals tab, and do not appear on the lock screen. The result is Apple's wording, not Bakimora's interpretation.
• Bakimora doesn't interpret it. The notice says only what the watch reported and when; it carries no number and no advice. What to do is for you and your family member to decide.
• It isn't an alarm. The news may not come right away: it sets off once your family member's phone has heard from the watch and has reached the internet. That's why the notice gives the time the watch reported it and, if it came late, the time it reached you. It comes as an ordinary notification and may make a sound, depending on your phone's notification and Do Not Disturb settings.
• Tap the notice and Today opens on its Vitals tab; the last three things the watch reported are there. A notification more than a day old doesn't come as a notice.
• No notice doesn't mean the watch reported nothing. Your family member's phone may be off or offline, or yours may have been off at the time. The "last data" line on the same tab shows when that phone last brought anything.
• You get this notice when your family member uses an iPhone and an Apple Watch. Your own phone can be an iPhone or an Android phone.

I'm moving from an iPhone to Android (or from Android to an iPhone).

The key backup only moves to a phone of the same kind: an iPhone's is in your Apple account, an Android phone's in your Google account. To change kinds you need your 12 recovery words:

1. On the old phone, open Settings → The notebook's key → Recovery words and write the words on paper. (If the phone keeps them, they're shown there.)
2. On the new phone, open Bakimora, tap "I lost my phone" and enter the words in order.

This is only for whoever runs the circle. Family members and caregivers have no words: when they change kinds of phone, they're taken out of the circle and invited again.

I share my Apple or Google account with someone in my family.

On an iPhone, the key backup is in iCloud Keychain and reaches every device on the same Apple account; an iPad set up with that account, for example. If someone opens Bakimora there and taps "Bring my notebook back", that device comes into your notebook under your name. If you're the admin, you get the "A new phone came in" notice; if you're a family member, your other phones and the admin get "A new phone joined your circle under …'s name". On Android, Google's backup is only restored while a new phone is being set up.

If you don't want this, turn the backup off in Settings → The notebook's key. Then changing phones takes the admin's 12 recovery words, or a new invitation for a family member.

I lost my phone, or it was stolen.

• If you're the admin: bring your notebook back on the new phone (as above), then take the lost phone out in Settings → The notebook's key → Your phones. If the phone was stolen, or the paper with your words went too, renew the key as well.
• If you're a family member: bring your notebook back on the new phone (as above), then ask the admin to take the lost phone out: in Circle, your row, then "Phones (…)"; you stay in the circle. Your last phone can't be taken out, because it's also your way to bring the notebook back from your account; bring it back on the new phone first. Without a backup, the circle takes you out and invites you again.
• If you're a caregiver: someone in the family can take you out of the circle and invite you again.

The phone of a family member or caregiver who was taken out deletes the notebook on it the next time it connects.

When should I renew the key?

If someone else got hold of your 12 recovery words or your Apple / Google account, if a phone you don't know came in under your name, or if your phone was stolen. Only the admin can: Settings → The notebook's key → Renew the key.

• The notebook gets a new key. The old words and the old backup in your account can no longer bring the notebook to any phone. A phone that came in with the old key leaves the circle and won't see anything written from then on.
• This phone carries on as the admin; the notebook, medications and records stay as they are. Your family doesn't need to do anything. Your other phones in your name leave the circle too; you bring the notebook back on them with the new key. Invitations nobody has used yet are cancelled.
• If you share your account with someone, turn off the key backup first; otherwise the new key goes to that account too.
• If you'd written the old words down, or the backup is off, the new 12 words are shown right away; write them down. Otherwise the new words wait in Settings.
• Renewing protects what comes after. Whatever someone with the old key may have taken before can't be taken back.

I want to hand the circle over to someone else.

Settings → Circle → Hand over the circle. The person taking over writes down their own 12 recovery words. Once the handover is done, that person runs the circle, and you stay on as a family member.

Care has ended. I want to close the circle or delete my account.

• Closing the circle (admin only): Settings → Account → Close the circle. The notebook's records are deleted from our server, and its encrypted documents are queued for deletion. The phone that closes the circle deletes its notebook at once; other family member and caregiver phones delete theirs after connecting, when OK is pressed on the "This circle has been closed" page. A phone that never connects again keeps its copy. Your key backup is deleted too. Technical records of the circle and its closed phones stay on our server so phones can be told the circle has closed; the contentless record of acceptances and decisions is kept for up to three years after the relationship ends, and a legally required hold or restriction may extend that (privacy notice, "Retention periods"). If a deletion hold covers the circle, closing cannot complete; the app says "Nothing was deleted: deletion is on hold for now." If you want the summary for the doctor (PDF), take it first.
• Deleting your account: Settings → Account → Delete my account, or bakimora.app/delete.

Can I put reports and prescriptions in Bakimora? Who sees them?

Yes. In the Docs tab, take a photo of the paper or pick its PDF, and give the document a name, a kind (Report, Prescription, Test result, Other) and a date. A document is saved once the person's decision card allows record keeping and family sharing. The document is encrypted on your phone and opens on the family phones that can see that person's records (a cared-for person's own phone sees only that person's records). Caregivers do not see documents. Your caregiver can photograph a prescription or a receipt and leave it for the family; the family then gets a notice such as "Gülgün left a document". The document's name does not appear in the notification; tapping it opens Docs. Our server holds only the encrypted document: neither we nor Supabase can open it, and we do not know its name or its kind. Which person a document is about we know only by a random id, so that person's decision can be applied.

Can a caregiver add a document?

Yes, if the person's decision allows caregiver access. On the caregiver's Today → Notes tab, "Leave a paper" photographs the prescription or the pharmacy receipt and leaves it for the family: the paper is encrypted on the caregiver's phone, and its key travels so that only the family's phones can open it. After sending, the caregiver cannot reopen the paper in the app and has no Docs tab; an encrypted copy waits on the phone until sending succeeds, then the app removes it. Once it is sent, the caregiver's screen says "The paper was sent. It isn't known whether the family has seen it. No copy is left in the app." For you it shows as left by that caregiver, and by its kind when it has no name. A caregiver cannot delete what they left; the family does.

I deleted a document. Is it really gone?

Yes. When someone in your family deletes a document and that phone syncs it, the encrypted file is marked for deletion on our server and is gone within 24 hours; a deletion hold required by law can delay it. The family's other phones delete their copies the next time they connect; it is gone from our backups within 30 days at the latest. Deleting cannot be undone; the app asks first, naming the document. If you had shared or printed the document before, those copies are outside Bakimora, and we cannot take them back.

Do documents take up room on my phone?

An encrypted copy of your family's documents stays on your phone, so you can open them even without internet. When these copies grow past a set amount, the ones you have not opened for the longest are removed by themselves; open one again and it comes down from the server. Nothing is written to the phone's photo gallery.

Can I search inside the documents?

Yes. Type a word into the search field at the top of the Docs tab; documents whose name or extracted page text contains that word are listed. A short excerpt is shown when the page text matches but the name does not. For a document a family member added, that phone reads the words off its pages on the phone itself and sends them, encrypted, to the family's other phones; a paper a caregiver left is read when a family phone opens it. Our server cannot see the words. An older document's words are read the first time it is opened on a phone. A password-locked PDF is found by its name only. The app finds the words; it does not interpret them.

Can Bakimora read my notebook?

No. Records leave the phones encrypted with your family's key; our server carries and keeps those encrypted packages and cannot open them. What our server can see is not the notebook's content: the accounts, the connected phones, which records belong to the same person, and the cared-for person's decision (which choices, and when). The key is on your family's phones and, if it's on, in the encrypted keychain of your own Apple or Google account; neither we nor Apple nor Google can read it. In short: we have a server, but not the key.