FamilyRoots support
How can we help?
FamilyRoots is a private, free-for-life family archive app for building and preserving your family tree, photos, notes, milestones, and heirloom exports.
Contact Support
For app support, please open a public support issue or contact the developer through GitHub.
When requesting help, include your device model, iOS version, app version, a short description of the issue, and screenshots if helpful. Do not include sensitive family information in public issue text.
iCloud Sync
FamilyRoots supports optional private iCloud sync through your Apple ID. If sync appears unavailable, confirm that you are signed into iCloud, iCloud Drive is enabled, and the app has iCloud access on your device.
Family Sharing & Collaboration
Share one encrypted family space with relatives using an invite code. The family owner and admins approve who joins and can review protected changes before they apply, and approved updates refresh privately through iCloud. Members can hold owner, admin, editor, contributor, or viewer roles.
If an invite does not work, confirm all 12 characters of the code are entered correctly, make sure both people are signed into iCloud, and ask the sender to publish a fresh invite. Everyone sharing a family should be on the latest version of the app.
Photos
If profile photos do not appear correctly, reopen the profile, choose the photo again, and confirm that photo library access is allowed in iOS Settings.
Voice Stories & Interview Mode
Record family stories from a person's profile, with guided interview prompts. Transcription happens entirely on your device; a transcript appears on the story shortly after saving. If the record button says microphone access is off, allow it in iOS Settings. If no transcript appears, your device or language may not support on-device speech recognition; recordings are never sent to a server.
Document Scanner
Scan certificates, letters, and other documents into a person's album using the camera. Recognized text is available from the scanned page's viewer and is processed on-device. If the scanner does not open, confirm camera access is allowed in iOS Settings. Handwritten or blurry pages may not produce recognized text.
Family Map
Add a birthplace on a person's profile to see them on the family map. The map displays birthplaces only; the app does not use your device location.
App Lock
You can protect the app with Face ID or Touch ID from Settings. If unlock fails, confirm Face ID is set up in iOS Settings and that FamilyRoots is allowed to use it.
Export & Import
FamilyRoots supports Heirloom PDF export, per-person Life Story PDF export, a shareable tree image, JSON archive export, and GEDCOM 5.5.1 import and export so you can preserve or share a copy outside the app, or move data to and from other genealogy tools.
Relationship Calculator
From a person's profile, open the relationship calculator to see how they connect to anyone else in your tree, with terms like grandmother, aunt, or second cousin. Each relative also carries a generational badge based on their birth year.
Appearance & Reading
FamilyRoots offers light and dark appearance and an Easy Reading mode with larger text and higher contrast. You can adjust these in the app's settings.
Privacy
FamilyRoots does not use ads, third-party analytics SDKs, or paid subscriptions. Review the full Privacy Policy.