Trip Chronicle
Record drives automatically or manually, match photos to the journey, and keep your private trip story safely backed up.
Trip Chronicle organizes your travels into a day-by-day journal. Record drives yourself, optionally enable automatic detection for a hands-off experience, and add the moments, flights, photos, notes and expenses that complete the story. Everything stays private without an account or sending your travel history to the developer, with optional automatic backups in your personal iCloud Drive.
Every journey and stop remains editable. You can correct a place, split or merge journeys, review incomplete route points, add anything the app missed, and export the finished trip as a polished PDF travel journal for sharing or printing.
Why I built it
Road trips leave behind plenty of photos, receipts and half-remembered stops, but rarely one useful record of the whole journey. Recording everything manually is easy to forget once the drive begins.
Trip Chronicle was built to make that organizing easy whether you prefer to record each journey yourself or let the app detect drives automatically, while keeping you in control of every detail and keeping your travel history private on your iPhone and, only if you enable it, your personal iCloud Drive.
— Ron
What it does
Manual journey recording
Start before driving and end when you arrive—in the app, with Siri, or from Shortcuts.
Optional automatic detection
With your permission, recognizes vehicle travel during an active trip and builds each day's driving timeline.
Meaningful stops
Keeps destinations and longer stops while helping separate them from short pauses in traffic.
Always editable
Edit places, times and route points, add missing journeys, or merge and split journeys when needed.
Maps at every level
Review individual journeys, complete days, or the full trip on a map.
Journal moments
Save photos, notes and a flexible location as moments alongside the day's journeys and stops.
Photos matched to the journey
Find photos from the journal day and use capture time and location to match them to the most suitable stop or journey.
Flights and other travel
Keep flights and other travel separate from driving, with an optional possible-flight suggestion after landing.
Expenses and receipts
Track spending by currency and category, with on-device receipt text recognition.
Trip summaries
See distance, driving time, journeys, stops, places and expenses for the whole trip.
Private by design
No account, ads, analytics or developer server. The developer cannot access your journal or backups.
PDF travel journal
Export maps, daily routes, stops, moments and photos—with optional expenses and print-friendly pages.
Automatic iCloud backups
Optionally keep the latest three complete backups in your personal iCloud Drive, with restore and deletion controls.
Need help?
Questions, bugs, or ideas — I read every message.
rons.apps26@gmail.comFrequently asked questions
How does automatic tracking work?
Automatic recording is optional. Start or schedule a road trip and enable it if you want Trip Chronicle to use iPhone motion and location signals to recognize vehicle travel and build journeys in the background. It requires Motion access and location access set to Always so detection can work while the phone is locked or another app is open.
Can I record a journey without automatic tracking?
Yes. Tap Record a Journey before driving and end the recording when you arrive. Manual recording works with While Using location access and does not require Motion access. With an active trip, you can also start or stop manual recording using Siri or Shortcuts.
What can I add besides drives and stops?
Add journal moments with a title, notes, photos and a location chosen from your current position, a stop from that day, the map or manual place details. Flights and other travel can be recorded separately so the complete trip stays in one timeline.
How are photos matched to stops and journeys?
Open a journal day, journey, or stop and choose Photos from This Day to quickly find photos captured on that date. When available, Trip Chronicle uses a selected photo's capture time and location to match it to the most suitable stop. If there is no reliable stop match, the photo remains with the selected journey or journal day. The matching happens on your iPhone.
How does possible-flight detection work?
After landing, Trip Chronicle may suggest a possible flight when local device signals indicate air travel. You decide whether to keep it and can edit all flight details. The app does not continuously save a GPS trail throughout the flight.
Does Trip Chronicle record me all the time?
No. Automatic journey recording is tied to an active road trip. You can turn tracking off at any time, and the app clearly shows its current tracking state.
What if a journey or stop is missing or incorrect?
You can edit dates, times and places, choose a location on the map, create journeys and stops manually, or merge and split journeys. Automatically detected entries can also be reviewed before confirmation.
How are stops detected?
The app looks for a meaningful period without vehicle movement. Brief pauses such as traffic and fuel stops are intended to remain part of one journey, while longer visits can become stops or separate journeys. You can always add, edit or remove a stop yourself.
Can I use the app without an internet connection?
The core journal, tracking, photos, notes and expenses work locally. Apple Maps, place search and resolving coordinates into place names may need a network connection and can be limited while offline.
How does receipt scanning work?
Receipt images are processed on your device using Apple's text-recognition technology. Suggested amounts, dates and merchant names should be reviewed before saving because receipt layouts and image quality can affect recognition.
Can I back up or export my journal?
Yes. Automatic iCloud Backup is optional and off by default. When enabled in Settings > Backup and Restore, Trip Chronicle creates a complete backup immediately, then about once a day while the app is open and after you finish a trip. The latest three backups are kept in your personal iCloud Drive, where you can restore or delete them. You can also create manual backup files, export trip data and diagnostics, or make a polished PDF travel journal.
How do I remove my data?
You can delete an individual trip, remove stored receipt images, or erase all app data from the privacy and data-management settings. See the Privacy Policy for more details.
Does the app have ads or track me?
No. There are no ads, accounts, analytics, or third-party tracking SDKs. See the Privacy Policy.