Location Ledger FAQ

Location Ledger is an app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac that automatically records where you are and counts the days, overnights, and time you spend in each US state, country, city, and favorite place. People use it to keep records for state tax residency, such as staying under a 183-day limit.

Location Ledger is free to download and includes a 14-day free trial with full access. After the trial, all features require a Location Ledger Pro subscription, which is $19.99 in the US App Store. Prices in other countries are shown on the App Store.

The trial doesn't ask for payment details, so nothing is charged automatically. To keep using Location Ledger, subscribe to Location Ledger Pro in the app. Your existing records stay on your device.

iPhone and iPad with iOS or iPadOS 26 or later, Macs with Apple silicon running macOS 26 or later, and Apple Vision Pro with visionOS 26 or later. Your iPhone does most of the tracking because it goes everywhere with you, and iCloud sync shows the same history on your other devices.

The 'Always' permission allows the app to record your location in the background, even when you're not actively using it. Without this permission, the app can only track your location while it's open, which would result in incomplete location history.

Location Ledger uses Apple's Significant Location Changes feature and geofencing to track your movements efficiently. This battery-friendly approach records your location when you move a significant distance (typically 500+ meters) or enter or exit a Favorite Place you've defined.

Very little. The app uses Apple's Significant Location Changes API, which is designed to be extremely battery-efficient. It piggybacks on location updates that iOS already performs for other system services, so the additional battery impact is minimal.

Favorite Places are locations you mark as important, like Home, Work, or Gym. The app uses geofencing to detect precisely when you arrive at or leave these places. You can customize each with a name, icon, color, and detection radius.

Go to Settings, then tap New under Favorite Places. Search for or drop a pin on the location you want to monitor. Set a name, icon, color, and radius. The app will automatically detect when you enter or leave this area.

Check that location permission is set to 'Always' in Settings. The app only records significant location changes, so small movements may not trigger updates. Also make sure the app hasn't been force-quit, as this can prevent background updates.

Enrichment is the process of converting raw GPS coordinates into readable addresses (city, state, country, and so on) using Apple's reverse geocoding service. This runs automatically but can also be started manually from Settings if you have pending locations.

New location records need to be enriched with address data. This happens automatically but is rate-limited. If you have many pending locations, you can tap Start Enrichment in Settings to process them. Poor network connectivity can also delay enrichment.

These are different ways to measure presence at a location. Days counts calendar days you visited a location, so visiting multiple places in one day counts toward each. Overnights assigns each night to one location, so the total always matches the calendar days. Time Spent calculates the total duration.

The Days statistic counts each location you visited on a given day separately. If you were in two different cities on the same day, for example traveling from New York to Boston, that day counts as one day for New York and one day for Boston. This shows how many days you spent at each location, even if the total exceeds the calendar days in your selected period.

Days counts any part of a day spent in a location, which matches the convention New York uses for its 183-day test. Each state sets its own rules and exceptions, so confirm the details with a tax professional. If you want every recorded location to count, including places you only drove through, turn off Visits Only and set Minimum Visit Duration to None in Settings under Presence.

Visits Only focuses your timeline and presence stats on places where you actually stopped and spent time, instead of every spot you briefly passed through while moving. It gives a cleaner, more accurate picture of where you've been, so it's enabled by default. If you'd rather see every recorded location change, turn off Visits Only in Settings under Presence. Your full location history is always kept either way. This setting only changes what's shown.

Yes. In Settings under Presence, set Minimum Visit Duration to 1, 2, 4, 6, or 12 hours. Visits shorter than that are hidden from the timeline and presence calculations. Your underlying records are kept.

The Timeline shows your location history chronologically, grouped by arrivals at different places. You can change the grouping level (by place, city, state, or country) and filter to show only visits to your Favorite Places.

Yes. Say "How many days have I spent in New York in Location Ledger?" Siri answers with your count for this year. In the Shortcuts app you can switch the period to last year or the last 12 months, and count nights instead of days.

Four: Days in a Place, Last Visit, Current Location, and Open Location. Each returns a value, such as a number of days or a date, that you can use in your own shortcuts and automations.

Yes. Your favorite places, cities, states, and countries appear in Spotlight search, and selecting one opens its history in Location Ledger. The index is stored only on your device.

Yes. The Current Location widget comes in small and medium sizes and shows how long you've been at your current place, city, state, or country.

Yes. All data stays on your device, or encrypted in your personal iCloud if sync is enabled. Location Ledger does not have any servers and cannot access your location data. You have full control over your data, including the ability to export or delete it.

When enabled, your location data is encrypted and synced across all your Apple devices signed into the same iCloud account. This provides backup protection and lets you view your location history on any device. You can turn this off in Settings under Data to keep data local only.

Yes. With iCloud Sync enabled, your location history syncs across all your Apple devices. Each device can contribute to your location history, and the app tracks which device recorded each entry.

Location records are immutable by design. They cannot be edited or individually deleted, so your location history remains an accurate, tamper-proof record. If you need to remove all data, use Delete All Data in Settings under Privacy.

Go to Settings, open Data, and tap Export CSV. You can export your location history by year. The CSV file includes all recorded data: coordinates, addresses, timestamps, and which device recorded each location.

No. Location Ledger keeps a record of where you were and counts your days. Residency rules differ from state to state, so use your records together with a qualified tax professional.