Effective date: July 30, 2026
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No. Cairn keeps a reference to a photograph in your own library and reads it on your device when it needs to show it. For photographs you place into a moment it also saves a small copy on your phone so the album survives you deleting the original. Nothing is uploaded anywhere.
So it can find the pictures of your animal that you already have and build the album for you, instead of asking you to start from nothing. The search runs on your device.
That is normal and Cairn expects it. You can give a rough month and year, or pick a life stage instead, and every age in the app will read as an approximation. Nothing is blocked by not knowing.
That happens when the original was removed from your photo library, or when Cairn only has limited library access. Check iOS Settings, then Cairn, then Photos, and choose full access. Photographs you had placed into a moment keep their saved copy either way.
Because Cairn keeps everything on your device and nothing on a server, do this now rather than later: open Settings in the app and export an archive, then keep it somewhere you trust such as iCloud Drive. Keeping your normal iPhone backups switched on protects it too. You can restore from an archive on a new device.
Open the Life tab, then the Vault, then "Share these records". It produces a PDF of everything on that page. This is free and always will be.
No, and that is deliberate. It keeps what you and your veterinarian recorded and shows it back to you plainly. It never interprets a weight, never calculates a due date, and never scores how your animal is doing. Those conversations belong with your vet.
Never. Cairn does not generate your animal's voice, image, or messages, including after they have died. Everything in your album was made by you.
The whole album with no limits, the whole Vault including its PDF export, the daily capture, a Look Back every day, and every part of the later years and remembrance features. A subscription adds unlimited Look Backs, a letter every week, and the Life Book.
Cairn goes quiet. It sends nothing at all for 90 days unless you tell it you are ready, and it stops offering you anything to buy for that animal. If you are subscribed you can cancel and still keep everything, including the Life Book if you bought it. Nothing is taken away.
iOS Settings, then your Apple Account, then Subscriptions, then Cairn. Deleting the app does not cancel a subscription. The Life Book, if you bought it outright, stays yours after cancelling.