ThroughlineFrequently asked questions
Calendar & sync, privacy, and how Throughline keeps your details on your phone.
My calendar isn’t syncing — captured appointments don’t show up, or my existing events don’t show in Throughline.
This is almost always because your calendar account hasn’t been added to the iPhone’s built-in Calendar. Throughline works through Apple’s Calendar, so it can only read from — and write to — accounts that iOS itself knows about. (Google is the most common one, but the same applies to Outlook, iCloud, or any other provider.)
Here’s the part that trips people up — most often with Google: having the provider’s own app installed (like the Google Calendar app) is not the same as connecting that account to iOS. They’re separate. If Throughline only offers a calendar called Calendar · Default to add events to — or your calendar isn’t in the Add to list at all — the account isn’t connected to iOS yet, so events land in the phone’s local calendar and never reach it.
The fix — connect your account to iOS Calendar:
- Open Settings → Apps → Calendar → Calendar Accounts (on older iOS: Settings → Calendar → Accounts).
- Tap Add Account, pick your provider (Google, Outlook, etc.), and sign in.
- Make sure the Calendars toggle is turned ON for that account.
- Open Throughline → the You tab → under Calendar, tap Add to. Your calendar will now appear in the list — select it. (If it doesn’t show right away, fully quit and reopen Throughline so it re-reads the calendars iOS exposes.)
- Check Calendars to show in the same screen and make sure your calendar is enabled there too.
Note: some calendars are read-only (for example, shared or subscribed calendars). Throughline can only add appointments to a calendar you have write access to.
Appointments are being added, but to the wrong calendar.
Open the You tab → Calendar → Add to, and pick the calendar you want new appointments written to (for example, your Google calendar instead of Calendar · Default). New auto-added appointments follow this setting; ones already created stay where they were.
Does Throughline send my calendar to your servers?
No. Calendar features run entirely on your device through Apple’s Calendar. Your events are never sent to our servers. You can revoke calendar access anytime in Settings → Privacy & Security → Calendars.
Where do my notes live?
On your phone. Everything you capture stays in the app on your device — we can’t see it. Notes only leave the device through the cloud features you choose to switch on, and even then only the specific data that feature needs — de-identified first.
Is my voice recording uploaded?
No. When you talk, the speech-to-text happens on your iPhone. The audio recording is never uploaded — only the text transcript exists, and it stays on your device unless a cloud feature you’ve enabled needs it.
Do you track me, run ads, or sell my data?
No, none of those. There are no advertising or analytics SDKs in the app, we don’t use the Advertising Identifier (IDFA), and we never sell or rent your personal information.
What about the cloud features — what leaves my phone?
Throughline does its best work when the cloud features are switched on — and it’s built so you can turn them on without handing over your private details. Whatever you enable, your phone de-identifies the text first (see the next section), so the cloud AI only ever works on a blanked-out version. Here’s what each one sends:
- Emailed digests — your phone renders the digest and sends the finished email to our backend, which delivers it via Amazon SES.
- Smart resurfacing — a minimal summary of your open notes (their titles only, never the original words) is sent so Claude can pick what to surface.
- Cloud capture — on devices that can’t run on-device AI, the captured text is sent so Claude can organize it into notes.
You stay in control of which features are on, and you can change your mind anytime in the You tab. Full detail lives in our Privacy Policy.
How do I delete my data?
In the app: You tab → Delete account. That removes your account and associated data from our backend (sign-in, email, stored digests, tokens). Your on-device notes stay on your device until you delete them or remove the app. Backups are purged within 30 days. Questions: hello@throughlineproductivity.com.
Throughline is built so your private details never have to leave your phone — even when an AI is helping you. Here’s the plain-English version of how that works.
1. Your phone does the work
Everything you capture is stored on your device, and your voice is turned into text on your device. For most people, day to day, nothing you say ever leaves the phone. As we put it in the app: your phone renders everything; the cloud only delivers it.
2. Personal details are scrubbed off before any AI sees them
When you turn on a cloud feature, your phone runs a de-identification step before anything is sent. It looks through the text and swaps out identifying details — names, phone numbers, emails, addresses and the like — replacing them with neutral placeholders.
The AI model only ever sees the placeholders. The little “dictionary” that maps a placeholder back to your real details never leaves your phone; once the AI responds, your device swaps the real details back in locally. So the cloud helps organize your thoughts without ever learning who or what they’re about.
3. Anything that does travel is locked in transit
The little that does leave your phone for a cloud feature you’ve switched on is sent over encrypted HTTPS connections, and we store as little as possible at the other end. We hold no password (we use Sign in with Apple), and your session token is kept in the iOS Keychain on your device.
4. We keep what we hold tiny by design
No ad SDKs, no third-party analytics, no cross-app tracking. The less we collect, the less there is to ever protect, leak, or be asked to hand over. The full breakdown — including every subprocessor we use — is in the Privacy Policy.
Still have a question?
If your answer wasn’t here, email me directly — a real person reads every message and will get back to you.
Email hello@throughlineproductivity.com