Plumb Daily – Release notes

0.5.1: safer sync, and Photos album imports on the Mac

2026-09-29T00:00:00+10:00

I uploaded 0.5.1 to TestFlight on 29 September 2026, for iPhone and Mac. It makes sync and saving to Photos safer – Settings says when sync is stuck, and synced photos stay in their scene. The Mac can import a Photos album, and every change I'd listed as in the works is here too.

On iPhone

New

Settings shows when iCloud sync is failing or stuck. A Sync problem row names the cause in plain English, such as "Your iCloud storage is full" or "You're not signed in to iCloud".
The Sync problem row stays until that kind of sync works again, even after you close and reopen the app.
Settings also notes when iCloud set-up has waited over 2 minutes, or when Low Power Mode is on.

Changed

Landscape scenes take the phone held either way round. Before, the shutter greyed out and asked you to rotate. A portrait scene held upside down asks you to turn the phone the right way up.
The wording covers slideshows as well as time-lapses. Exclude from time-lapse is now Leave out of video (and Include in time-lapse is now Include in video). Saved time-lapses is now Saved videos.
Camera and notification messages name Plumb Daily instead of Time-Lapse.
In the scenes list, a reminder's time sits right beside its bell.

Fixed

Photos that sync in before their scene stay in that scene. The app used to move them into a "Recovered photos" scene.
Save missing to Photos saves photos that synced from your other devices, including ones you haven't opened on this iPhone. It used to skip them without saying. Now it tells you how many it couldn't save, or that Photos access is off.
Save missing to Photos no longer makes duplicates on a second iPhone or after you reinstall the app. It finds photos another device already saved to your library. It asks before saving copies of any it can't check.
Moments whose video is on another device no longer show "Not yet saved to Photos". Nor do they keep the Save missing to Photos button on screen.
The stencil outline no longer draws a false line down its right side and along the bottom. Existing stencils redraw once, the next time they load.
Change the style, timing, transition or motion after a video renders, or fails to, and the Create button comes back. The export sheet used to stay on "Saved to your Photos library", with a Watch button that played the old video.
Last synced always shows in Settings while sync is on. Before the first sync it reads "Not yet – still connecting", where it used to say "Never". It now counts changes received from your other devices, not just changes sent.
After you turn sync on or off, Settings says "Takes effect next time the app opens" until the app has opened again. The note stays even if you close and reopen Settings. Sync status shows or hides straight away, and describes the sync that's running now.
The photo viewer's date shows in white, not black on black. Rows on the Saved videos shelf drop their hard-to-read orange.
"Notifications are off" now appears when you turn on a reminder while notifications are turned off for the app.

On the Mac

New

Choose File, then Import from Photos Album… to bring in one of your albums or a shared album. It's also on an empty scene.
Each photo comes in as its original and lands on the day it was taken.
Import the same album again as it grows, and only the new photos are added. Importing again never changes the key photo, or the scene's lens, zoom and orientation lock.
Settings shows when iCloud sync is failing or stuck. A Sync problem row names the cause in plain English, such as "Your iCloud storage is full". It stays until that kind of sync works again, even after you quit and reopen the app.
Settings also notes when iCloud set-up has waited over 2 minutes, or when Low Power Mode is on.

Changed

When sync is held up, the sidebar's iCloud icon turns orange. The status beside it names the problem, such as "iCloud waiting – Low Power Mode is on".
Hover over that status and it points you to Settings, which says where to turn Low Power Mode off.
Adding photos skips any the scene already has, whether they come from Finder or an album. A note says how many were already there. Shots a second apart and bursts are all still added.
One import runs into a scene at a time. Its progress stays on show when you switch to another scene and back.

Fixed

The stencil outline no longer draws a false line down its right side and along the bottom. Existing stencils redraw once, the next time they load.
Last synced always shows in Settings while sync is on. Before the first sync it reads "Not yet – still connecting" – the Mac used to leave the row out.
Switching the photo browser to List view a second time no longer shows every toolbar button twice.

Testing the beta

Plumb Daily is in beta testing on TestFlight, Apple's app for testing apps before release. If you're a tester, TestFlight shows the newest build it has for your device. It includes these changes, unless a later release says otherwise. How to test the Plumb Daily beta covers feedback and crash reports.

If you use more than one iPhone, update them all to 0.5.1, so every phone keeps synced photos in their scene.

Plumb Daily isn't on the App Store yet. Join the Plumb Daily waitlist and you'll get one email when it is.

0.5.0: Align All lines up every photo on the Mac

2026-09-23T00:00:00+10:00

I uploaded 0.5.0 to TestFlight on 23 September 2026, for iPhone and Mac. Even with the camera guides, handheld photos drift a little from day to day. Align All now corrects that drift on your Mac, and your iPhone's exports use the same alignment.

On the Mac

New

Align All lines every photo up with the key photo, correcting small shifts, turns and changes in scale. Click it in the toolbar, press Command-L, or choose Photo, then Align All Photos.
Align Selected Photos (Shift-Command-L) lines up just the selection. A banner shows progress, with a Stop button.
Photos you've lined up by hand are left alone. Any that Align All can't match with confidence are marked "Needs a hand" and listed under Needs Attention.
Adjust Alignment… (Command-J) opens the nudge editor, which lines one photo up by hand against the key photo or the previous photo. Check the fit as an onion skin (one photo laid see-through over the other), a difference or the stencil.
Drag the photo or nudge it with the arrow keys (hold Shift for bigger steps), then turn and scale it with the sliders. Or let Auto-Align make a first attempt.
Alignment shows in the list's Aligned column and as badges in the grid. Right-click a photo to align it, adjust it by hand or reset it.
The inspector's Alignment section gives each photo's shift, turn and scale. Its scene overview counts the photos aligned and those needing a hand.
The export studio's Align photos setting, on by default, applies each photo's alignment to the preview and the video. One zoom for the whole video, up to 1.3 times, hides the black edges alignment uncovers, so the framing holds steady.
Compare has an Aligned toggle, on by default, so you can judge how well 2 photos line up.
Changing the key photo on your Mac or iPhone carries every alignment across, so nothing jumps in the video. Photos Align All hasn't measured yet keep an estimated position until the next run. If the key changes during a run, the run stops and says so.
Get from Photos fetches a moment's video from your iCloud Photos library. Use it on a moment or in the inspector, or in the export studio for every missing moment at once. It needs Photos access and iCloud Photos on the Mac.

Changed

The main window is now a single window: choose Window, then Scenes (Command-0). You can always bring it back, even with only Compare or the export studio open, without opening a second copy.
Compare's Difference view evens out both photos' brightness first. A sunny day against a dull one no longer lights up the whole frame.

Fixed

When the key photo changes on another device, Compare's stencil rebuilds from the new key.
Slideshow videos end on time – the last photo no longer stays on screen for nearly an extra hold.
Adding photos from Finder to a new scene makes the earliest photo the key photo. Before, a video that loaded first could leave the scene with no key photo.
The export studio keeps up with the main window, and re-reads everything before exporting. Its date range follows syncs and deletions, and trims and newly linked videos apply straight away.
Command-Delete in the search field deletes text, not the selected photos. The Delete key still deletes photos, and now works in the full-size viewer too.

On iPhone

New

Photos lined up on the Mac stay lined up in your exports and the export preview, with the same steady zoom.
Changing the key photo on your iPhone or Mac carries every alignment across, so nothing jumps in the video. Photos Align All hasn't measured yet keep an estimated position until it next runs on the Mac.
Your iPhone now records where iCloud Photos keeps each moment's video, so the Mac can fetch it. Older moments get this the next time the app opens. This needs permission to read your Photos library, not just add to it. The app asks for that only when you turn on Save to a scene album.

Fixed

Exporting no longer fails when a moment's video isn't on this iPhone, such as a moment from another phone or the Mac. The video and the export preview leave those moments out.
In a scene started on the Mac, your first iPhone photo locks the lens, zoom and orientation. That photo must match the key photo's orientation. Thumbnails, the export preview and the video take the key photo's shape.
When the key photo changes on another device, the camera's overlay and stencil rebuild from the new key.
Slideshow videos end on time – the last photo no longer stays on screen for nearly an extra hold.
Slideshows cut cleanly into and out of moments, in the video and the export preview. Before, the photo before a moment dissolved towards the photo after it.
A reminder clears when its scene is deleted on another device, and follows a rename made elsewhere. A reminder for a deleted scene opens a "Scene not found" screen you can close.

Testing the beta

Plumb Daily isn't on the App Store yet. Join the Plumb Daily waitlist and you'll get one email when it is.

0.4.0: the first native Mac app

2026-09-23T00:00:00+10:00

I uploaded 0.4.0, the first native Mac version of Plumb Daily, to TestFlight on 23 September 2026. It brought your iPhone scenes to a bigger screen, where you can browse, compare and export them. The iPhone app skipped this version – its next update was 0.5.0, the same day.

New

Your scenes on the Mac

Plumb Daily runs natively on macOS 15 or later. You install it from TestFlight.
Turn on Sync with iCloud in the iPhone app. Your scenes, photos, key photos and edits then sync both ways through your own iCloud.
The sidebar lists each scene with a thumbnail, photo count and date span. Search your scenes there, start a new one (Command-N), or rename or delete one.
Deleting a scene removes it from all your devices.
The sidebar footer and Settings show when the Mac last synced, or that iCloud is unavailable. Since 0.5.1, they also name the problem when sync is held up.
A scene's photos show as a grid grouped by month, or as a list you can sort by date. You can resize the grid's thumbnails.
A filter narrows the view to photos in the video, photos left out, moments, or moments still missing their video.
Select photos as you would in Finder. The context menu, Photo menu and shortcuts include, leave out, compare or delete the selection.
You can set a new key photo the same way. You can't delete the key photo while other photos line up against it.

Looking closely

Double-click a photo, or press Space or Return, to see it large. A filmstrip and the arrow keys step you through the scene.
Pinch or double-click to zoom.
Moments play only their trimmed part, with the same trim handles as the iPhone.
The inspector shows a photo's date, size and whether it's in the video. For several photos, it shows totals and buttons that act on them all at once.
With nothing selected, the inspector sums up the scene: days with a photo, the longest gap, orientation and lens.
The Compare window shows 2 photos side by side, or as an onion skin (one photo laid see-through over the other). It can also show them as a wipe you drag, or as a difference that highlights what changed. Since 0.5.0, Difference evens out both photos' brightness first.
In Compare, zoom and pan move both photos together, and the arrow keys step through the scene. A toggle overlays the key photo's stencil – an outline of its main edges.

Bringing photos in

Drag photos, videos or whole folders from Finder into an open scene. Or choose File, then Add Photos (Shift-Command-I).
Each photo or video lands in the timeline on the date it was taken. Imports never replace an existing key photo. Since 0.5.1, adding photos skips any the scene already has, and you can import a Photos album too.
RAW and TIFF photos convert to HEIC, so your iPhone can open them.
Moment videos stay on the iPhone that recorded them. The Mac badges those moments and lists them under Needs Attention.
Link a moment's video by dragging the file onto the open moment, or click Link Video and choose it. Since 0.5.0, Get from Photos can also fetch the video from your iCloud Photos library.
Until you link them, the export studio tells you how many moments it leaves out.

The export studio

The export studio (Shift-Command-E) previews a scene's video as it will export. You can play, step or scrub through it.
Choose the dates, whether to include moments, time-lapse or slideshow pacing, transitions and a slow push-in. Then save the MP4 wherever you like.
A date stamp can put each photo's date in the bottom-left corner.
Smooth exposure evens out bright and dull days, so the video doesn't flicker.
Render at HD (1440 × 1080) or 4K (2880 × 2160). A portrait scene swaps the width and height.
The studio shows the video's length and rough file size, and keeps the Mac awake while it renders.

Testing the beta

Plumb Daily isn't on the App Store yet. Join the Plumb Daily waitlist and you'll get one email when it is.

0.3.0: iCloud sync, slideshows and a live preview

2026-08-09T00:00:00+10:00

I uploaded 0.3.0 to TestFlight on 9 August 2026, and its 9 builds ran until 5 September. It was the first version to sync scenes between devices, through your own iCloud – there's no Plumb Daily server. It also added slideshows, and a preview you can watch before you render.

New

Sync through your own iCloud

Scenes and photos can sync between your devices through your own iCloud. Sync is off by default, and it counts against your iCloud storage.
Sync with iCloud is in Settings, a new screen opened from the Scenes screen. After you turn it on, sync starts the next time the app opens. The switch becomes available once the app has finished preparing your library after the update. With sync on, Settings shows your iCloud account and when it last synced.
Other devices show each photo's synced thumbnail until the full image arrives. Video moments stay on the device that filmed them, so other devices show their thumbnail, marked "Video is on your other device". In 0.3.0, a moment like that stopped the export on those devices. Since 0.5.0, the export leaves it out.

Slideshows and a live preview

Videos come in 2 styles: the classic time-lapse, or a new slideshow. A slideshow gives each photo 1, 1.5, 2, 3 or 5 seconds on screen, transition included.
Slideshows offer 6 transitions – cut, dissolve, fade through black, push, slide over and reveal – at a quick, smooth or slow pace.
Slideshows also offer 3 transitions with depth: zoom through, flip (a card turning over) and cube (2 faces folding on a shared edge). The video screen warns that these take longer to render.
The video screen plays a live preview before you create anything – tap it to play or pause. It draws each frame as the finished video will, transitions and zoom included, and marks video moments with a badge.
A new Motion setting, Gentle zoom, pushes slowly into the scene across the whole video, ending 12 per cent closer. The Mac calls the same effect Slow push-in.

Your photos

Pinch to zoom in the photo viewer, up to 5×, and drag to look around. Double-tap to switch between the fitted view and a 2.5× close-up.
Photos left without a scene go into a "Recovered photos" scene instead of staying hidden. This can happen when one device deletes a scene while another is still adding to it. Since 0.5.1, photos that sync in before their scene stay in that scene.

Changed

Updating moves your library to a sync-ready storage format, with trims, left-out photos and each scene's lens, zoom and orientation lock intact.
Thumbnails show the date each photo was taken, instead of a time or day number. The year appears only when it isn't this year. Landscape scenes get landscape-shaped tiles in the photo grid and on the Scenes screen, instead of portrait crops.
The video screen's title and main button follow the style you pick, such as Create slideshow.

Fixed

Your phone no longer auto-locks while a video builds, which used to stop the export with an unclear error. If the app leaves the screen long enough to stop the build, it says why and offers Try again.
In the viewer, a trimmed moment plays only the part used in the video, then rewinds so the next tap replays it. The caption under the trim handles shows how many seconds are used in the video.
Touch and hold a photo in a landscape scene, and the preview now matches the photo's shape. It used to sit in a portrait frame.

Testing the beta

Plumb Daily isn't on the App Store yet. Join the Plumb Daily waitlist and you'll get one email when it is.

0.2.0: moments, trimming and leaving photos out

2026-08-08T00:00:00+10:00

I uploaded 0.2.0 to TestFlight later the same day, 8 August 2026, and it ran to 7 builds. Some days on a house build need more than a photo, like the crane lowering a roof truss. This version added moments for those – short videos that play at real speed inside your time-lapse.

New

Moments

A scene can now hold moments, which play in date order among your photos. In a scene with a key photo, tap the video button left of the shutter, then tap the red shutter to record. Like a photo, the moment saves to your Photos library.
While you record, the overlay stays on as a guide but never appears in the footage. Recording uses your photos' 4:3 shape and zoom where the camera allows, so the cut from photos to footage barely shows. Moments you record are video only – the app doesn't record sound.
Add from library now takes videos, which join the timeline as moments on the date they were filmed. They keep their sound in the export, and a clip of a different shape plays with black bars.
On the timeline, moments show a play badge with their length, and they open in the viewer ready to play. A moment can't be the key photo. The video length shown before export counts moments too, for example "10 photos + 1 moment → 6.0 s".
Trim a moment by dragging the yellow handles on the filmstrip under it in the viewer. Only that section plays in the video, and the original clip stays untouched. The trim saves when you let go, and the badge and video length show the trimmed length. Since 0.3.0, the viewer also plays only the trimmed part.

Your timeline and saved videos

Exclude from time-lapse leaves a photo or moment out of the video without deleting it. It's in the long-press menu and the viewer's menu, and was renamed Leave out of video in 0.5.1. Left-out items stay in the timeline, dimmed with a crossed-out eye badge, and the video length updates.
The viewer now swipes through every photo and moment in the scene, in date order. Its menu acts on the one you're looking at: set it as the key photo, exclude it or delete it.
Finished time-lapses now stay with their scene. After an export, Watch time-lapse plays the new video full screen.
Saved time-lapses, in the scene's menu, lists each video by date with its length and speed. It was renamed Saved videos in 0.5.1. Tap one to play it, or swipe to share or delete it. These saved videos aren't included in iPhone backups.

Changed

The stencil detail slider now lives only in the camera, where you can watch the stencil redraw. Slide up for more lines.
The spirit level now sits centred above the overlay buttons and shutter, instead of beside the shutter.

Fixed

A landscape scene's camera opens with the right framing. Before, the overlay looked squashed until you turned the phone. If you hold the phone the wrong way for the scene, the overlay keeps its proportions instead of stretching.
Closing a thumbnail's long-press menu no longer makes the preview flick to the wrong spot. A tester spotted this with Reduce Motion on.
Daily reminders survive restoring to a new iPhone, because the app sets them up again each time it opens.

Testing the beta

Plumb Daily isn't on the App Store yet. Join the Plumb Daily waitlist and you'll get one email when it is.

0.1.0: the first iPhone beta

2026-08-08T00:00:00+10:00

I uploaded 0.1.0, the first Plumb Daily beta, to TestFlight on 8 August 2026. I built the app to record my own new home build from the same spot. This version ran on iPhone only, and a few things below have changed since – I've noted where.

New

Scenes and the key photo

Make a scene for each project, such as a house build, a garden or a mural. The scene list shows each scene's latest photo and photo count.
Swipe to delete a scene. Its reminder stops, and photos already in your Photos library stay there.
Pick the lens while you frame a scene's key photo. Taking it locks the lens, zoom and orientation for later photos.
The shutter stays greyed out, with a rotate hint, until the phone matches the key photo's orientation. Since 0.5.1, a landscape scene takes the phone held either way round.

Guides in the camera

The camera overlays a see-through key photo so you can line up each new shot. A slider sets how strongly it shows.
Switch between Photo, Stencil, Diff and Off modes. Stencil traces the key photo's outlines, and Diff, a difference view, makes anything that has moved glow.
In Stencil mode, a detail slider on the camera's left edge sets how many lines the stencil draws. Fewer lines usually line up better. In 0.1.0 the detail slider was also in scene settings. Since 0.2.0 it's in the camera only.
The camera shows a rule-of-thirds grid, which a top-bar button hides. A level line turns green when the phone is level.

Your photos

Each scene's timeline shows its photos in capture order, with a star on the key photo.
Thumbnails show the time for projects of 48 hours or less, and day numbers for longer ones. Since 0.3.0, thumbnails show the date each photo was taken instead.
Open a photo full size, or long-press its thumbnail, to set it as the key photo or delete it. You can't delete the key photo while the scene has other photos.
Every photo also saves to your Photos library, and the app asks only for permission to add photos. A badge marks any that haven't saved yet, and Save missing to Photos retries them.
In scene settings, Save to a scene album puts the scene's photos in an album named after the scene. Earlier photos go in too, and only the album needs full Photos access.
Add from library brings back a photo from your Photos library, such as one you deleted from the scene by mistake. It took photos only. Videos followed in 0.2.0.
A photo you add returns to its place by the date taken. It doesn't save to Photos twice and never becomes the key photo.

Time-lapse video

Create time-lapse turns 2 or more photos into a 2880 × 2160 video. It's portrait or landscape to match the key photo.
Pick 2, 5, 10, 15 or 30 photos per second, and see the video's length first. The video saves to Photos.

Reminders and scene settings

In scene settings, Remind me each day sets a daily reminder at a time you choose. The scene list shows each reminder's time.
Tapping a reminder opens that scene's camera, even when the app is closed.
Scene settings also let you rename a scene, and its reminder follows the new name.
Reset framing clears the lens, zoom and orientation lock, so your next photo becomes the new key photo.
The app appears on the Home Screen as Plumb Daily, with a brass plumb bob icon.

Testing the beta

Plumb Daily isn't on the App Store yet. Join the Plumb Daily waitlist and you'll get one email when it is.