MindFence

Support

Write to [email protected] and a person will read it.

Getting started

1. Grant Screen Time when asked. Without it iOS won't let any app block anything, including this one.
2. Set Location to Always, not "While Using". A rule about where you are has to work while the app is closed.
3. Save the place you're in, then write a rule that points at it.

A rule didn't fire

Almost always one of these:

• Location is set to "While Using". Settings ▸ MindFence ▸ Location ▸ Always.
• Wi-Fi is off. iOS positions you far less precisely without it, and boundaries get missed.
• The fence is too small, or you didn't go far enough past it. iOS needs a little over a hundred metres and wants you to stay put for twenty seconds or so before it accepts you've crossed.
• The phone rebooted and hasn't been unlocked since. Boundary monitoring resumes at the first unlock.
• Low Power Mode. It defers background work.

Arriving is noticed more reliably than leaving. That's iOS, not a setting — and it's why a rule you can't end until you leave lets go on its own if we stop being sure where you are.

A place says "Never confirmed here"

The fence has never once contained your phone. Usually the pin is on the wrong side of a building, or the fence is too small. Open the place, move it, or make it bigger.

Pairing didn't work

Both phones need to be signed into iCloud. Invitations expire after fifteen minutes and work once, so make a fresh one if in doubt. For a rule about being somewhere together, you both need a place saved under the same name — that's how the phones match, and it's why neither has to know where the other is.

Turning it off

Rules can be switched off or deleted, except one that's holding — that one ends when you leave. Deleting the app removes everything it kept.