help & faq.

clinch needs an iOS Personal Automation wired in the Shortcuts app for each app you want intercepted. when you tap + on Overview, the second phase of the sheet walks you through the 12 steps. the most common reason it doesn't fire on first try:

• "Run Immediately" wasn't switched on at step 7.
• "Notify When Run" wasn't switched off at step 7.
• the App picked at step 11 doesn't match the trigger app from step 5.

open Shortcuts → Automation, tap your automation, and check the three above. if all looks right and it still doesn't fire, reboot the iPhone — iOS sometimes caches automation metadata until restart.

add: Overview → tap the + in the top right (or "▸ choose an app" if you have zero apps) → pick one → follow the walkthrough.

remove: Overview → long-press the app tile → "remove". this only removes the app from clinch's grid; the iOS Personal Automation keeps firing until you delete it from Shortcuts → Automation.

this is iOS routing the Universal Link to the browser instead of the installed app. it's usually because the device has at some point opened the same link in Safari and remembered the preference. clinch tries the app's URL scheme first now, so this should be rare. if it still happens:

• make sure the app is installed and you're signed in.
• reboot the iPhone — clears iOS's Universal Link cache.

open Customize → tap the "break the scroll." upgrade card → tap "restore purchases" at the bottom of the paywall. clinch reads from your Apple ID, so as long as you're signed into the App Store with the same Apple ID that bought it, it restores in seconds.

subscriptions are managed by Apple. open iOS Settings → tap your name at the top → Subscriptions → tap Clinch → Cancel. you keep Pro until the end of the current billing period.

the lifetime purchase isn't a subscription — there's nothing to cancel.

the trial is attached to the annual plan only. tap the annual tier on the paywall, then tap "▸ start" — iOS shows the trial in its confirm sheet. trials are one-per-Apple-ID; if you've trialed before, Apple may skip straight to the billing prompt.

Apple handles all refunds. go to reportaproblem.apple.com, sign in, find the Clinch purchase, choose "Request a refund". if Apple declines for any reason and you think it shouldn't have, email me and i'll help.

no. clinch only knows the apps you pick yourself, because you wire the iOS Personal Automation for each one. iOS doesn't tell clinch about anything else — Apple doesn't expose a "list of apps you opened today" to third-party apps, full stop.

your events log (the data behind the patterns + stats) lives on your device, in an App Group container. it never leaves the phone.

clinch sends anonymous aggregate counts to TelemetryDeck — things like "an intercept was shown" or "an intent was picked", binned by day-of-arc bucket. no app names, no per-user identifiers, no precise timestamps. TelemetryDeck salts and rotates user identifiers; we never set our own.

you can switch this off entirely in Customize → privacy → help improve clinch. the toggle is default-on for new installs; off, no signals leave the device.

after you continue from an intercept, clinch opens a 12-second bypass window so iOS's automation re-fire doesn't loop you back into the intercept you just dismissed. the bypass is scoped per-app — opening Instagram is suppressed for 12s after you continued Insta, but other apps' automations should still intercept normally.

if a different app silently skips intercept during that window, that's a bug — please send a crash log or note via email.

no. when you tag an intercept with "real reason" or "ai wait", the whole session is excluded from prevented/proceeded counts, peak hour analysis, and weekly trends. those weren't doomscrolls, so they shouldn't dilute the signal. the event still appears in your "recent moments" timeline so you can see it happened.

it's off by default. if it ever feels naggy, double-check Customize → notifications → still-there nudge is off.

yes. Customize → interceptors — each row has a toggle. clinch's rotation only picks from the ones you've kept on. (pro tier unlocks 3 more: physiological sigh, finger labyrinth, tile puzzle.)