Micawber Support

Micawber is a zero-based budget for iPhone. Before each month starts you plan all of its income as spending or saving, and then you log what you spend against that plan as it happens.

Everything you enter stays on your iPhone, with backups in your own iCloud Drive. There is no account to create and nothing to sign in to. Micawber needs iOS 26 or later.

Get in touch

Email support@micawber.app with a question, a problem or an idea. In Micawber, Settings › About › Send Feedback starts that email with your version filled in. Writing from elsewhere, it helps to say which version you have: it is under Settings › About › Version.

Micawber’s Settings are in the ••• menu on the Budget screen.

Questions

Is there a subscription?

No. Micawber is one payment on the App Store, with no subscription, no in-app purchases and no ads.

Do I need an account?

No. Micawber has no account and nothing to sign in to. Your budget is kept on your iPhone, and its backups go to the iCloud Drive of the Apple Account you’re already signed in with.

Does Micawber connect to my bank?

No. You log each transaction yourself, against the month’s plan, as it happens. Micawber makes no network connections of its own.

Which currency does it use?

The currency of your iPhone’s region when you first opened Micawber, set in the iPhone’s Settings under General › Language & Region. Micawber keeps that currency from then on, so your amounts always mean the same thing.

Backups

Automatic backups are on from the first time you open Micawber.

When. Once you have added something, Micawber saves a backup as you open or leave it, whenever the latest backup is more than a day old. It also saves one straight after a restore.
Where. In the Files app, under iCloud Drive › Micawber. While iCloud Drive is off or you are signed out of iCloud, backups go to On My iPhone › Micawber instead, and the Budget screen tells you once. Backups kept only on your iPhone are lost with it, so turn iCloud Drive on for Micawber: in the iPhone’s Settings, your Apple Account › iCloud › Drive › Apps Syncing to iCloud Drive, then switch on Micawber.
How many. Each folder keeps the 14 most recent backups and the first backup of each of the last 12 months. Older ones are removed as new ones are saved.
Checking them. Settings › Backups shows when the last backup was saved and where it went, or, if saving failed, when and why.
Switching them off. Turn off Automatic Backups in the same section. No backups are saved until you turn it back on.

A backup is a plain JSON file named like Micawber 2026-10-02 09.14.05 backup.json. In iCloud Drive it is protected by your Apple Account, and if you turn on Advanced Data Protection for iCloud it is end-to-end encrypted.

Exporting a copy yourself

Choose Export JSON from the ••• menu on the Budget screen. Micawber makes one file of everything it holds and opens the share sheet, so you can save it to Files, AirDrop it or send it wherever you like. An export can be restored just like a backup.

Copies taken before an update

When an update to Micawber changes how it stores your data, it first copies its data files to On My iPhone › Micawber, with names containing before update, such as Micawber 2026-09-29 16.34.38 before update 2.store. If the update could not convert your data, Micawber puts that copy back. Micawber never removes these copies; you can delete them in Files.

Restoring

Open Settings › Restore JSON…. It lists the backups in iCloud Drive › Micawber and On My iPhone › Micawber, newest first, each labelled with its place. For an export kept anywhere else, tap Choose File….
Choose a backup or an export. Micawber says when it was taken and how many transactions it holds.
Confirm with Replace Everything. Micawber first saves what it holds now as a file ending in before restore.json, beside the backups, then replaces everything with the file you chose and returns to the Budget screen.

Restored the wrong file? Restore the before restore.json copy to get back what you had. Those copies are never removed automatically.

A file that is not a Micawber export is refused and nothing changes. An export from a newer version of Micawber asks you to update the app first.

Moving to a new iPhone

Install Micawber on the new iPhone, signed in to the same Apple Account with iCloud Drive on, then open Settings › Restore JSON… and choose the newest backup. iCloud Drive can take a minute to list the backups on a new phone, and downloads the one you choose. Without iCloud Drive, send an export to the new iPhone, for example by AirDrop, and restore it with Choose File….

Deleting your data

Settings › Delete All Data… deletes every transaction, budget, category, group and fund entry, after asking you to confirm. Micawber then starts over as it was the first time you opened it: the default categories, nothing planned or spent, and Automatic Backups on.

Your backups are not deleted, so you can still restore one. To remove them too, open the Files app and delete the files in iCloud Drive › Micawber and On My iPhone › Micawber.

Deleting the Micawber app from your iPhone removes everything it holds on the phone, including On My iPhone › Micawber. The backups in iCloud Drive › Micawber stay until you delete them in Files.

Privacy

Micawber collects no data. What you enter stays on your iPhone and in your own iCloud Drive, and the developer never sees it. There are no analytics, no ads and no account. The privacy policy has the details.