Frequently asked questions

Nothing. Every feature is available for free – no subscription, no recurring fees, no ads. There is no limit on the number of rounds either.

No. ArrowNotes stores your data on your device. Only if you turn on iCloud sync does it also live in your private iCloud account – your Apple ID is enough for that, there is no sign-up with me.

Open the “Rounds” tab and tap the plus at the top right. Give it a name and date, choose training or competition, indoor or outdoor, and define the sections – either from a template or by hand with target face, size, distance, number of ends and arrows per end.

On the target face you tap the point of impact – the position is stored and feeds the hit pattern. The keypad is faster but stores no positions. On the target photo you place markers on the arrows; with the perspective correction confirmed, those positions count for the analysis too.

Sections separate parts of a round with a different target face, size or distance – for example the four distances of a WA 1440 or the targets of a field course. Every end belongs to exactly one section.

Take a photo of the target face with the camera icon and open it. Tap the ring value in the palette at the bottom; the marker appears in the centre of the view. Press and hold to lift it, then drag it onto the arrow – a loupe shows the spot beneath your finger.

Photos are rarely taken square to the target. The correction puts a template over the photo and takes the perspective out. Only then do image points become real positions on the target face that sit correctly in the hit pattern. If the angle is too steep, the app declines instead of producing inaccurate values.

No – they stay on your device and, if you enabled sync, in your private iCloud account. The only exception is the training data donation, which you have to switch on explicitly: it uploads the corrected crop of the target face anonymously to improve the planned automatic arrow detection. That is voluntary and can be revoked at any time.

Six World Archery formats: recurve with the set system (2/1/0 set points) and compound with cumulative scoring, each as individual, team and mixed team. The number of sets and arrows comes from the format; target face and distance are up to you.

If it is level after all sets, the “Record shoot-off” button appears in the round. If the scores tie there as well, the app asks who was closer to the centre – it cannot derive that from the data.

No. All figures are normalised per arrow – fifteen arrows from a match count exactly as much as fifteen others.

In the rounds list, swipe right on the round. You get the score distribution, the average per end, the values per distance and the hit pattern.

All hits of the round on the target face, plus the group centre and the average spread in centimetres and inches. If the round uses several target faces, each gets its own image – otherwise the centimetre values would refer to the wrong diameter. Swipe to move between the faces.

At the start, when switching between preparation, shooting and warning, and at the end, the app can play a sound and give haptic feedback.

Yes, the timer settings have two separate switches for that.

Yes, on the iPhone it keeps running and uses system signals. When you return to the app, the display is up to date again.

The watch shows the last round, the arrow counter, the statistics and the timer. Input – ends, counter, timer start – goes straight to the iPhone and is stored there.

Check that the watch is in range and that Bluetooth or Wi-Fi are on. Briefly open ArrowNotes on the iPhone – the watch usually catches up by itself afterwards.

watchOS does not allow third-party apps to run continuously in the background. That is why the timing runs on the iPhone and the watch acts as a remote control.

In the app settings under “iCloud sync”. You need to be signed in to iCloud on the device and ArrowNotes has to be allowed there (Settings > Apple ID > iCloud).

Rounds, ends, equipment, sight settings, your profile and target photos. The exchange with the watch runs separately, over the direct connection to the iPhone.

Yes, in the settings, as a file. Importing restores that state and replaces all existing data. Target photos are deliberately not part of the file – it would grow unwieldy. They are still synchronised via iCloud.