Help center · Painted Day · Last updated: October 4, 2026
Welcome to the Painted Day support center. Here you'll find how-to guides, answers to the most common questions, and a direct way to reach the developer.
Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @chrisifm
We reply within 48 business hours, Monday through Friday (Mexico City time). You can write in English, Spanish or Portuguese.
The share of the painting that is done is the share of your day that has passed. With the default day of 8 AM to 10 PM, the canvas is blank at 8 AM, about half painted at 3 PM and complete at 10 PM. Before your day starts you'll see "The canvas is waiting"; after it ends, "Today's painting is finished". If you open the App in the middle of the day, the painting catches up in a few seconds and then keeps painting live, one stroke at a time.
Painted Day runs full screen so the painting fills your iPhone. When you touch the screen, the controls appear — Moments, Export and Settings — along with the Today, Gallery and About tabs. They hide again on their own after a few seconds.
Changes apply from the next painting, so today's painting keeps the hours it started with. A day lasts at least 4 hours.
Open Moments to see today's moments with their times. To remove one, use Delete moment.
At the end of your day the painting is complete and signed with its style, number and date — for example, "Watercolor No. 214 — Friday, October 3, 2026" — and hangs in your Gallery. If you turned on the end-of-day notice, your iPhone lets you know.
The Gallery tab shows your finished paintings in a calendar. Today's painting appears as "Today, in progress" until your day closes. Tap a painting to see it with its style, date and the moments of that day, and to export it. Your first painting arrives in the Gallery when your first day closes.
Painted Day paints in six styles: Watercolor (landscapes in translucent washes on paper), Ink (ink lines that follow invisible currents), Pointillism (a scene made of dots of color, like Seurat), Loom (a geometric weave that grows row by row), Cross-stitch (a motif embroidered stitch by stitch on fabric) and Color fields (abstract oil in wide fields, with a palette knife). Each day's palette follows the season.
Without the Complete Atelier, Watercolor and Ink take turns each day. With it, open Settings → Style of the day to choose any of the six, or keep Alternate each day. A new style applies from the next painting.
The timelapse is a vertical video of the painting painting itself. The 4K image and timelapses without the "Made with Painted Day" mark are part of the Complete Atelier. If you see "The file couldn't be created", start the export again.
The first time you tap Save to Photos, iOS asks whether Painted Day may add to your photo library. The App can only add the files you export; it cannot see your photos. If you see "No access to Photos", you can still tap Share, or allow it in the iOS Settings → Apps → Painted Day → Photos and choose Add Photos Only.
The App can send one local notification when today's painting is finished: "Today's painting is finished". It asks at the end of the welcome screens, and you can turn it on or off at any time in Settings → End-of-day notice. If the App says "Notifications are turned off in system Settings", allow them in the iOS Settings → Notifications → Painted Day. The App works the same without the notice.
The widget shows today's painting as it is now and refreshes about every 30 minutes, as iOS allows. The small widget also works in StandBy: put your iPhone on its side while it charges and locked.
In landscape, the painting hangs framed on a gallery wall, next to its museum label with the title, date, style, how much is painted and the moments of the day.
While the painting is open in front, the screen stays awake so you can see it from your desk; as soon as you leave the App, your iPhone goes back to its usual Auto-Lock. For long sessions, keep your iPhone charging. Turn on Night dimming in Settings to soften the painting at night. The App keeps the painting moving and shifts it slightly over time to be gentle on the screen.
Open the About tab and use the Language selector to choose Español, English or Português (Brazilian Portuguese). The change applies across the whole App, including the titles of your paintings and their museum labels.
The App is a free download that paints every day with Watercolor and Ink, and includes moments, the Gallery, the widget, image export at 1080 px and the timelapse with a discreet mark. The Complete Atelier is an optional, one-time In-App Purchase of $4.99 USD (prices vary by country) that adds Pointillism, Loom, Cross-stitch and Color fields, lets you choose the style of each day, and unlocks 4K export and timelapses without the mark. No subscriptions, no ads.
The App asks Apple for your purchase and unlocks the Complete Atelier again at no cost. If no purchase is found, the App tells you "No previous purchase found on this Apple Account". If someone in your family group must approve purchases (Ask to Buy), the Complete Atelier unlocks on its own as soon as the purchase is approved.
Refunds are decided and processed by Apple, not by the developer. If a refund is granted, the Complete Atelier features are no longer available, and the App goes back to alternating Watercolor and Ink.
Your payment method belongs to your Apple Account. Update it in Settings → [your name] → Payment & Shipping or at account.apple.com. Apple's guide: support.apple.com/en-us/118429.
The Complete Atelier supports Family Sharing. Members of your family group can restore it on their own iPhone without paying again. Set it up in Settings → [your name] → Family Sharing; Apple's guide: support.apple.com/en-us/108380.
No. The Complete Atelier is a one-time purchase, not a subscription. Nothing renews and you will never be charged again for it.
No. Every painting is drawn by the App's own algorithms, on your iPhone, from that day's date and a random value created on your iPhone. No artificial intelligence and no cloud service are involved, and the App needs no internet connection to paint.
No. Each painting remembers the version of the painting engine it was made with, and the App keeps every version, so a painting in your Gallery looks exactly the same after any update.
No. The painting follows the clock, not the time the App is open. Close it whenever you like: when you come back, it catches up in a few seconds, and the widget keeps showing today's progress in the meantime.
No. Painted Day works completely without registration. No email, no password, no sign-in. Open the App and today's painting has already begun.
Your paintings, no. Your paintings, your moments, their notes and your settings are stored only on your iPhone, and the App has no iCloud sync. To help us improve the App, it sends anonymous usage and diagnostics data to our own first-party analytics service. That data is never linked to your identity — there is no account and no user profile — and it never includes your notes or your paintings. Purchases are processed by Apple; we never see your payment details. See our Privacy Policy.
Which screens and actions are used (for example, which style a day's painting uses, when a moment is kept and how much of the painting was done, when a day is signed and with how many moments, which export was made and whether it worked, and whether the Complete Atelier screen was opened or a purchase went through), App and iOS versions, approximate country and city, and crash and performance reports. It runs on our own server, it is never sold or shared, it is never used for advertising, and it is kept for up to 13 months. It never includes your name, email, location coordinates, payment details, the notes on your moments, or your paintings and exports. To ask for deletion, email [email protected].
Yes. Painting, moments, the Gallery, exports, the widget and the end-of-day notice all work without an internet connection. Buying or restoring the Complete Atelier needs a connection to reach the App Store.
Your Gallery lives on your iPhone and there is no sync between devices. It is part of your iPhone's own backup, so setting up a new iPhone from an iCloud or computer backup brings it along. You can also export any painting as an image or a timelapse at any time and keep it in Photos.
Check that End-of-day notice is on in the App's Settings, that notifications for Painted Day are allowed in the iOS Settings → Notifications, and that no Focus is silencing them. The notice is scheduled on your iPhone for the end of your day, so if you changed your day's hours, it follows the new hours from the next painting.
If you see "We couldn't open the painting", tap Try again. If it keeps happening, restart your iPhone and open Painted Day again, and please let us know so we can fix it. Reinstalling the App also works, but it removes the paintings and moments saved on the iPhone; your Complete Atelier purchase can be restored afterwards.
Any iPhone running iOS 26 or later. The App is iPhone-only and works in portrait and landscape; iPad is not supported at this time.
Email [email protected] and include:
Of course. Email [email protected] and tell us what would make your days more beautiful. Every idea is read, and the most requested ones shape the next updates.
Use Delete moment to remove any moment and its note, or uninstall the App to remove everything it stored on your device — your paintings, moments, settings, the widget's data and the random installation identifier. There is no account to close. Your Complete Atelier purchase stays on your Apple Account and can be restored later. Anonymous analytics data is deleted automatically after 13 months, or sooner if you ask us by email.
Estimated response time: 48 business hours (Monday through Friday, Mexico City time).