Now in beta · Coming soon to the App Store

Help Center

How can we help?

Answers to the most common questions. Still stuck? A real person reads every message.

Getting started

What is Mapsake?

A private, local-first travel atlas (formerly visited. lived. next.). Mark everywhere you've visited, lived, and want to go next on a real satellite globe, and see it as stats, heatmaps, and shareable cards.

Do I need an account?

No sign-up, no login. Your map lives on your device.

Is it free?

Yes. No ads, no subscription, and no in-app purchases.

Which devices does it run on?

iPhone, iPad, and Mac, plus an Apple Watch app and complication and an Apple TV viewer. It targets iOS and iPadOS 18 and later.

How do I build my map quickly?

Import from your Photos library or a travel app you already use. Most people get a full map in about a minute.

Importing your history

What can I import?

Photos (this device), Immich, Google Drive, NomadList, Skratch, Visited, Flighty, FlightRadar24, Tripsy, Polarsteps, and Airbnb.

How are photos turned into places?

Each geotagged photo is clustered and matched to a country, region, or city with a built-in offline gazetteer. No network, and nothing leaves your device.

Can I control which photos count?

Yes. Filter by capture device, altitude and speed (to drop in-flight shots), a minimum photo count per place, an exclude list, and screenshots or edited photos.

What is background sync?

Opt Photos, Immich, or NomadList into automatic syncing and your map grows as you travel, with notifications you control.

Can I export my data?

Yes. Export to JSON, CSV, Excel, or HTML, plus backup and restore (open a backup from Files).

The map & atlas

What are the three lenses?

Visited (everywhere you've set foot), lived (places that were home), and next (trips ahead). Switch one to recolor your whole map; combined shows all three.

Can I color the map by my data?

Yes. Swipe the lens picker to shade countries by photos taken, recency of your last visit, or time spent, as a heatmap with a legend.

What are photo pins?

Zoom in and a pin drops at every spot you took a photo. Tap one to flip through those photos full-screen with each shot's date, camera, location, altitude, and speed.

Can I mark states, cities, and airports?

Yes. Countries to states and provinces to cities, plus airports. States can be colored individually.

Does it work offline?

Overlays, stats, search, and your data are fully offline. The live satellite imagery streams from Apple Maps when you're connected.

Passport & sharing

What are passport cards?

Shareable stat cards (percent of the world, continents, flags, time spent, and per-lens breakdowns) in colorful swipeable styles.

Can I share a spinning globe?

Yes. A live spinning-globe card you can share as a looping reel video.

What is the data map?

A shareable world map shaded by your photos, recency, or time spent.

Friends

How do I add a friend?

A private invite link, a QR code, or someone nearby. Whoever connects sees the other's map. It's mutual and private.

What is the friends feed?

A feed of the new places your friends add and the achievements they unlock.

Can I compare maps?

Yes. An overlap map, who leads each continent, shared achievements, and a shareable card.

Can friends see where I live?

Only if you turn on home sharing. Then a pin shows where each of you lives.

Achievements

How many achievements are there?

Around 160: continents, country groups (G7, NATO, EU, the Nordics, OPEC, the Ring of Fire, wine countries, and more), and milestones, with bronze to platinum tiers.

Privacy & your data

Where is my data stored?

On your device (SwiftData), optionally synced across your own devices via your private iCloud. No third-party servers, no analytics, no ads.

Do you track me?

No analytics, no tracking, no account.

How do I delete everything?

Export, back up, restore, and delete are each one clear action in Settings.

Devices & sync

Does it sync across my devices?

Yes, over your private iCloud, with no separate sign-in.

Watch, TV, and widgets?

An Apple Watch app and complication, an Apple TV read-only viewer, and Home, Lock, and StandBy widgets.

Counting & languages

How are countries counted?

Choose UN members or de-facto states, and decide how transcontinental countries are handled.

What languages are supported?

English, Spanish, German, French, and Portuguese, chosen in iOS Settings.

Troubleshooting

My Apple TV shows no places.

The TV reads from iCloud. Make sure it's on the same iCloud account and give sync a minute.

A friend invite isn't connecting.

Both people need to open the link. Pull to refresh on the Friends tab.

Photos aren't importing.

Grant Photos access and check that your Record photo filters (device, altitude, speed, minimum count) aren't excluding them.

Still need help?

Send feedback right from the app (Settings, then Send Feedback), or reach out and a real person will get back to you.