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Jolly List help

Jolly List plans gifts for Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, birthdays and anything else you celebrate: budgets, ideas, and every gift from idea to wrapped. It’s in beta on TestFlight. The answers below cover the questions testers ask most.

Getting started

The first time you open the app it offers a short tour. The tour loads a made-up family and walks you through the main screens, with a couple of things to try yourself. Afterwards you can keep playing with the sample, or set up your own list. The sample is never saved to iCloud and is deleted when you leave it. You can take the tour again any time from the banner while you’re in the sample, or from Settings, under Help.

Sharing with a spouse

In Settings, tap Share with spouse and send the invitation. When they accept it, you both see and edit the same list through iCloud. Each of you needs an iCloud account. Settings, under iCloud, shows whether this device is syncing and when it last did.

Surprises stay surprises. On each device, pick who you are (Settings, I am). Gifts for that person are hidden on that device: in lists, totals, reminders and exports. It keeps you from seeing your own presents by accident. It isn’t a security feature, and anyone who changes the I am setting can see everything.

Occasions and birthdays

Add Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or your own occasion in Settings, under Occasions. Each has its own date, shop-by deadline and, if you like, its own budget. Hanukkah dates come from the Hebrew calendar.

Birthdays are added on each person’s page. Tap Get birthday from Contacts to pick the person from your contacts. Jolly List doesn’t ask for access to your address book: the picker runs outside the app and only the birthday of the person you choose comes back. A tracked birthday gets its own countdown, and a reminder three weeks before.

Stocking stuffers

Any gift can go in someone’s stocking: switch on In the stocking on the gift’s page, or touch and hold the gift in the Gifts list and choose Put in stocking. It stays a normal gift, counted in that person’s budget. On their page you can set a goal, a number of stuffers, an amount, or both, and Home shows every stocking on its own.

Saving ideas from other apps

In Safari, the Amazon app or another shop’s app, tap Share, then Jolly List. The name, picture and price come along when the page includes them. Prices taken from a page are a starting point; check them.

Amazon orders and shipping emails

Importing orders. Amazon will send you your order history as a file (on Amazon, Request Your Data, then Your Orders). In Settings, choose Import Amazon orders and pick the file. Jolly List suggests which orders match the gifts you already track, and you confirm each one.

Updating gifts from shipping emails. Open an Amazon shipping or delivery email in Mail, select the text, tap Share and choose Jolly List. It finds the gifts in that order and marks them Shipped or Arrived.

To have that happen on its own, set up a Shortcuts automation once:

  1. Open the Shortcuts app, tap Automation, then New Automation, then Email.
  2. Set Sender to contain amazon.com, and choose Run Immediately.
  3. Add the action Update Gifts from Order Email (from Jolly List), and give it the Shortcut Input, which is the email’s text.

This works with the Mail app. Gifts are matched by order number first, then by name, and a gift’s status only ever moves forward.

Reminders

Turn reminders on in Settings, under Reminders. Each kind can be switched off on its own: occasions coming up, shop-by dates, return windows, late deliveries and birthdays three weeks out. Reminders are scheduled on each device, so each of you chooses your own.

Backups and your data

Your list lives on your devices and in your own iCloud account. To keep a copy of your own, choose Export a backup in Settings and save the file somewhere safe; it includes gifts for everyone, so keep it private. To restore it, start setting up a new list on a fresh install and choose Restore from a backup.

To delete everything, use Delete this season and start over in Settings. It removes the list from every device that shares it. To remove the copy in iCloud as well, open the Settings app, tap your name, then iCloud, then Manage Storage, and delete Jolly List’s data.

Privacy

Jolly List collects nothing: no accounts, no analytics, no advertising. The details are in the privacy policy.

Getting in touch

Found a bug, or something confusing? In TestFlight you can take a screenshot and share it to TestFlight with a note. Or email testflight@djrmun.com. Mention which device you’re using and what you expected to happen.