Documentation
How to use PutAName
Everything you need to know about reminders, contacts, the Remember tab, maintenance tracking, and backing up your data.
Reminders
The Reminders tab is your daily dashboard. It shows two groups: reminders that are due now (or overdue), and reminders coming up within your look-ahead window (default: 7 days).
Swipe actions
Swipe left on any reminder to reveal three actions:
Done for Year appears on annual reminders (birthdays, anniversaries). It advances the reminder to the same date next year. Delete permanently removes the reminder.
Filtering
Tap the filter icon (funnel) in the top-right corner to show only Birthdays, Anniversaries, or Custom reminders. The icon fills in solid when a filter is active.
Annual reminders
Birthday and anniversary reminders are created automatically when you add those dates to a contact. They repeat every year — dismissing one moves it forward 12 months, not off permanently.
Contacts
The Contacts tab is a searchable list of everyone you're tracking. Tap any contact to see their full detail: event log, family members, birthday, anniversary, and custom fields.
Adding a contact
There are two ways to add a contact:
From your iPhone's Contacts app — tap the + button and choose Import from Contacts. This pulls in their name, phone, email, and — importantly — their birthday exactly as it's stored in your phone, so you don't have to re-enter it.
Manually — tap + and fill in the details yourself. You can set a name, phone, email, birthday, anniversary, and notes. Enable Birthday Reminder to automatically create an annual reminder.
Logging events
Inside a contact, tap Log an Event to record an interaction — a lunch, a call, a note about something they mentioned. You can optionally turn any event into a reminder.
Family members
Add family members under a contact to track their birthdays and relationship. If a family member is also in your contacts list, you can link them — their birthday reminder will appear only once.
Red badge on a contact row
A red number next to a contact's name means they have one or more reminders currently due. Tap the contact to see which ones.
Remember
The Remember tab is for memorizing names — not tracking reminders. Use it when you've met a group of people and want to be able to put names to faces later.
Groups
Organize people into groups: Conference attendees, Book club, Wedding guests. Tap a group to see everyone in it. Swipe left on a group to edit, archive, or delete it.
Archiving groups
When a group is no longer active (like Respite 2025), swipe left and tap Archive. Archived groups are hidden but not deleted — tap Archived (N) at the bottom of the list to reveal them, then swipe to Unarchive.
Hints
Each person can have a hint — a short phrase that helps you remember them ("met at the Smiths' party", "drives a red truck"). The hint appears below their name and is searchable.
Maintenance
Track service history and upcoming maintenance for your home, vehicles, appliances, or anything that needs periodic attention.
Categories and items
Create categories (e.g., Car, House, Pet) and add items within them (Honda CR-V, HVAC system, Rocky). Each item has its own service log.
Service entries
Tap an item to log a service entry — what was done, the date, the cost, and any notes. Enable Set a reminder on an entry to get notified when it's due again.
Reminders
Maintenance reminders appear on the Reminders tab alongside contact reminders. Swipe to dismiss or snooze them the same way.
Backup & Restore
Your data syncs automatically via iCloud, but it's good practice to keep a local backup too.
Exporting a backup
Go to Settings → Export Backup. This creates a JSON file you can save to Files, Dropbox, or email to yourself. The file includes all contacts, maintenance records, and Remember groups.
Importing a backup
Go to Settings → Import Backup and choose your JSON file. Import merges — it adds new records without deleting anything that's already there.
CSV import
You can bulk-import contacts from a spreadsheet. Go to Settings → Import from CSV and choose your file. The file must be a plain CSV (comma-separated) with these five columns in order:
| Column | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
Last | Last name | Shaw |
First | First name | Alexis |
Date | Birthday in MM/DD/YYYY format | 08/30/1971 |
knowYear | 1 if the birth year is known, 0 if only the month and day are known | 1 |
Event | Type of date — use Birthday | Birthday |
The first row must be the header exactly as shown above. Each subsequent row adds one contact. If a contact with the same name already exists, the import skips that row rather than creating a duplicate.
Notifications
Go to Settings → Notifications to set the time you want daily reminders delivered. Changing this reschedules all pending notifications.
If you declined notification permission when first asked, go to iPhone Settings → PutAName → Notifications to turn them on.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is a birthday showing on the wrong day?
Birthdays are stored as calendar dates (not times). If you entered a birthday while in one time zone and now view it in a different one, the display logic automatically accounts for this using UTC-based date math — so the date should always show the day you entered regardless of where you are.
If you see a date that's off by one day, check whether the birthday was set correctly in the contact's detail view.
Why does the same birthday appear twice in Reminders?
This can happen if a person is both a direct contact and listed as a family member on another contact with their birthday reminder enabled. PutAName automatically suppresses the family-member copy — only the direct contact's reminder shows. If you're still seeing duplicates, check that the family member is properly linked to their contact (tap the family member row to link them).
How do I turn off a birthday reminder for one person?
Open the contact, tap the edit button (⋯ menu → Edit Contact), and turn off the Birthday Reminder toggle. This removes the annual reminder without deleting the birthday date itself.
Does PutAName work without iCloud?
Yes — all your data is saved on your device even when iCloud is off. You just won't get sync across other devices. Export a backup regularly if you're not using iCloud, so you have a copy in case you switch phones.
I deleted all my data. How do I restore from backup?
If iCloud sync is enabled, wait about 60 seconds after deleting before importing — iCloud needs time to process the deletions. Then go to Settings → Import Backup and choose your backup file. If the import seems to do nothing, try enabling Airplane Mode first, import, then turn Airplane Mode off.
Can I use PutAName on my iPad or Mac?
PutAName is built for iPhone and runs on iPad in iPhone-compatibility mode. A native iPad version is not available yet. iCloud sync means your data is always up to date when you switch between devices.
How do I report a bug or request a feature?
Visit the Support page and send an email. Include which version of the app you're using (visible in Settings → About) and a description of what you expected vs. what happened.