FAQ and troubleshooting
Getting in
Do I need an account? A Google account, yes — sign in with it and you are in. There is no separate Planet4.Me account, no password and no email to verify. See Getting started.
Can I use it without Google? No. Google is the only way to sign in, on purpose: it removes password resets, verification emails and account recovery from the app entirely, and everyone in a household already has one.
Do I have to install anything? No. It runs in the browser at planet4.me. Installing it from the browser's Share or Install menu gives you an icon and a full-screen window, and is worth doing on a phone. See Put it on your phone.
An invite link didn't work. Links are good for a week, and the person who made it may have replaced or withdrawn it. Ask them for a fresh one from Settings → Members. After opening the link you still have to sign in with Google; joining happens on the far side of that.
Lists and regulars
Milk didn't come back on the list. The app only puts a regular back when it is confident about its rhythm, and it needs a few purchases to be. Look under the list: the might be running low shelf holds the guesses it is less sure about. Then check the regular's page in Settings → Regulars — a season that says it is out of season, or a pin to a shop you have not been to lately, both keep it off. See Regulars.
Something comes back too early, or too often. Tell the app how much is usually bought, on the regular's page, so a big pack and a small one read as the same rhythm. And undo mis-taps quickly: every check-off is a purchase the app learns from.
I checked something off by mistake. For a few seconds there is an undo. After that, the item is still on screen below the list, struck through, with this trip's other check-offs — tap it to put it back. Either way the purchase is reversed, so the mistake does not teach the app anything.
The trip is at the wrong shop. Settings → Recent trips, open the trip, Change shop. The whole trip moves.
What does "Not found at Kroger on the last 2 trips there" mean? That regular has been on the list across the last two or more trips to that shop and came home unbought each time. It is a fact about the trips, not a nag — maybe the shop stopped stocking it, maybe it belongs to another shop.
Where did the Tidy up card go? It only appears on the Lists home while there is something to tidy. Once every proposal has been accepted or declined, it leaves.
Notes and to-dos
My todo line didn't become a to-do. The marker has to be at the very start of its line, and the to-do is made when the note is saved — a short pause after you stop typing. Once it is, the line is marked "(now a to-do)". The same goes for ask, @name, #tag and a bracketed date. See Lines that do something.
A date in my note isn't on the calendar. In a note, only a date in square brackets — [Sep 4, 2026] — files the note on that day. A plain date becomes a tappable chip and nothing more, so a note that merely mentions a date is not dragged onto the calendar. In a to-do, any date in the text counts.
Where is the delete button? There mostly isn't one, on purpose. A note's X archives it to a shelf inside its group, where it can be restored or, only from there, deleted for good. A to-do is completed, not deleted, and waits on the group's Done shelf with a Put back. A question is archived from the tray on its row, and deleted only from the Archived shelf at the bottom of Questions.
Two of us edited the same note and now a sentence is there twice. That is by design. When two people change the same words at the same time, both versions stand for someone to tidy, because nobody can un-delete a sentence a merge threw away. Delete the version you do not want. See Writing.
Can I assign a to-do to someone? Write their name in it: "call the vet @sam" is Sam's. Once Sam has said This is me on their People page, the Mine filter shows Sam only what names Sam. There is no separate assignment to keep in step.
People
The same person appears twice. Open one entry and merge it with the other. The merge card asks which name to keep, and nothing in any note is rewritten — both spellings keep finding the person. See A person's page.
I can't remove a person. A person can be removed once nothing in the household names them any more. Until then, removing them would leave notes pointing at nobody.
"Mine" shows nothing. Say which entry in People is you first: open your own entry and tap This is me. See This is me.
A person's page looks emptier than it should. The page reads inside the look-back window, ninety days unless changed. Older notes and to-dos still exist; raise Look back in Settings to count them. See Look back.
Sync and offline
What do "offline" and "can't sync" mean? offline · 3 waiting means the phone has no connection and three changes are saved on it, to sync when it does. can't sync means the phone is online but the app's data cannot be reached — nearly always a content blocker or a filtering network, not the app. Your data is on screen and correct either way.
Something I wrote isn't on my partner's phone. Check the chip in the corner on the phone that wrote it. If it says changes are waiting, they go the moment there is signal. If it says can't sync, a blocker or network filter is in the way on that phone.
A chip says "a to-do wasn't saved". The change was refused, and the Service list in Settings has the record. Tap the chip away and try again.
The assistant
I don't see an assistant at all. The assisted features — the assistant, receipt scanning, pantry photos, reading text off a photo — are switched on per deployment. Without them the app runs on its own arithmetic and what you type, and nothing else changes. Ask whoever runs your deployment.
The assistant won't delete or check anything off. By design. It can add to a list, make a to-do, start a note, add a fact to a to-do, and rewrite the note you are reading. Anything that changes your data for good is your own tap; it points at the row.
"The assisted features are paused." This account's allowance is used up for today or this month. Settings → Assistant usage shows both meters and when each comes back: midnight UTC daily, the 1st monthly. Everything else keeps working meanwhile.
What does the assistant see? The household's lists, open to-dos, note titles and questions inside the look-back window; the full text of the note you are reading; other notes when you ask it to read them, up to eight per turn; the photos you attach; and, once you have said This is me, who you are. See What it knows.
Account and data
How do I leave a household? Settings → Members → leave. Whoever started the workspace cannot leave it, but can remove others.
What does the app know about my household? Settings → What the app knows lists every fact it has been told or has inferred, and each can be forgotten from there.
Where is the privacy policy? At planet4.me/privacy, readable without signing in.