Question 1

An ingredient is in the wrong aisle — how do I move it?

Accepted Answer

Tap the small **⋯ (three dots)** on any shopping list row and pick the correct aisle from the **Move to aisle** popover. Recipe Filer will (a) move that item straight away, (b) move any other unchecked rows with the same name too, and (c) *remember your choice forever* — so next time you scan or import a recipe that has, say, *leeks*, it'll land in **Fresh Produce** automatically. Your preferences are saved on your account, so your husband/wife/co-editor can have their own aisle preferences separately.

Question 2

Do my aisle corrections help anyone else?

Accepted Answer

Yes — quietly. When enough Filers move the same ingredient to the same aisle (say, six people all agree *sriracha* belongs in **Spices & Seasoning**), the admin team can promote that correction so every user benefits, existing shopping lists included. It's how we teach the classifier without relying on AI guesses. You never have to opt in — just fix your own list and the signal is anonymous.

Question 3

How does the shopping list work?

Accepted Answer

Open any recipe and tap **Add to shopping list**. You'll see a checklist of every ingredient — untick the ones you already have (or that you've marked as pantry staples) and hit **Add**. The list lives at **/shopping** in the top nav (or under *My Cookbooks*). Items are grouped by supermarket aisle — fresh produce, meat, dairy, baking, pantry — and any ingredient that appears in more than one recipe merges into a single row with a *from Recipe A + Recipe B* chip so you never buy twice.

Question 4

Can I buy shopping list items directly on Amazon?

Accepted Answer

Yes — pantry items (baking supplies, spices, tinned goods, oils, sauces, dry goods) show a **[Buy · Amazon]** button that opens Amazon UK pre-searched for that ingredient. Recipe Filer's affiliate code is included so a small commission supports the site at no cost to you. Fresh items (produce, meat, dairy, bakery) intentionally don't show an Amazon link — you'll buy those in a supermarket.

Question 5

Amazon showed me the wrong product — can I choose a specific one?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Tap the small **Pick** pencil next to any Amazon button and type your preferred search — for example *"Green & Black's Organic Cocoa 125g"*. Tick **Remember for future lists** and every future shopping list you build will use your exact preference for that ingredient. This works per user — your husband/wife/co-editor can save their own preferences separately.

Question 6

How do I mark ingredients I always have (olive oil, salt, etc.)?

Accepted Answer

On the shopping list, tap the **Pantry** pin next to any item and it moves into your *pantry* strip at the bottom of the page. From then on, when you add recipes to your shopping list those pantry items are silently skipped — no need to untick them every time. To move an item out of your pantry, tap it in the strip.

Question 7

Can I export the shopping list for the supermarket?

Accepted Answer

Four ways: **(1) Image** — a JPG optimised for viewing on your phone lock-screen while you shop. **(2) PDF** — an A4 aisle-sorted printable list with tick boxes. **(3) Email** — Recipe Filer emails the list to the address on your account with a full aisle-grouped layout. **(4) Copy** — the whole list goes to your clipboard so you can paste into WhatsApp, iMessage, or Notes. All exports skip items you've already ticked off and skip anything marked as pantry.

Question 8

What is the Meal Planner and where do I find it?

Accepted Answer

The Meal Planner lives at **/planner** (top nav, right after Shopping list when you're signed in). It's a 7-day grid with rows for **breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks** and a column for every day of the week. Drag any of your saved recipes (or a public one from the Directory) into any slot to plan the week — then hit **Send to shopping list** and every ingredient across the whole week merges into your shopping list, aisle-grouped and de-duped.

Question 9

How do I add a recipe to a specific day and meal in the planner?

Accepted Answer

Open **/planner** and tap the ➕ button on any empty slot (day + meal type). A drawer slides in with three sections — **Inbox**, **Your cookbooks**, and **From the community** — search across all of them, pick a recipe, and it drops into the slot. On desktop you can also drag a recipe card from the drawer straight onto a slot. Repeat until the week is planned.

Question 10

Can I plan meals that aren't real recipes — like "pizza night" or "takeaway"?

Accepted Answer

Yes. In the recipe drawer, scroll to the **freeform** input at the top and type anything — "pizza night", "leftover Sunday roast", "lunch out with Sarah", "kids' choice" — then tap Add. It fills the slot with just the title (no ingredients, so nothing is added to the shopping list). Perfect for the meals that don't need a full recipe.

Question 11

How does the Leftovers tag work?

Accepted Answer

When you drop a recipe (or a freeform meal) into a slot, tick **This is leftovers** in the slot editor and add an optional note like "from Sunday's roast". Leftover slots show a little re-heat icon in the grid so you can see at a glance which nights don't need cooking — and, crucially, **their ingredients are skipped when syncing to the shopping list** so you don't buy the ingredients again for the same meal. Handy for planning a Wednesday leftover lunch from Monday's dinner.

Question 12

How does the "Send to shopping list" sync work?

Accepted Answer

From the planner tap **Send to shopping list**. Every ingredient from every recipe you've planned that week is added to your shopping list — duplicates are merged (two recipes needing 100g butter become one 200g row), pantry items are silently skipped, and leftover slots are excluded (see the Leftovers FAQ). If you later swap a recipe on the planner, the old ingredients are silently swept off the shopping list and replaced with the new ones — no manual clean-up needed.

Question 13

Can I share the meal plan with my partner or family?

Accepted Answer

Yes — tap **Partner Plan Link** on the planner. We generate a read-only public URL (`/planner/shared/…`) that shows the current week's plan + the shopping list. Send it to your partner, kids or housemate via WhatsApp/text — they don't need a Recipe Filer account to view it. Revoke the link any time and it stops working immediately.

Question 14

Can I copy this week's plan to next week?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Tap **Copy week →** on the planner and every slot on the current week is cloned onto the following week. Handy for busy weeks when Monday-Friday is a repeat of the previous week's dinners, or when you want a starting point you can tweak rather than a blank grid. **Clear week** wipes every slot on the current week in one tap.

Question 15

What are the Community Filters in the Meal Planner drawer?

Accepted Answer

The **From the community** section of the recipe drawer shows public recipes from every Filer's public cookbooks — so you can pull in inspiration without saving the recipe to your own library first. The **community filters** at the top let you narrow by tag (e.g. *vegan*, *quick*, *baking*) and by max cook time (e.g. "under 30 min"), so it's a fast way to answer "what can I cook tonight with 20 minutes free?" without leaving the planner.

Question 16

Can I reorder ingredients or steps when editing a recipe?

Accepted Answer

Yes. In any recipe's **Edit** screen (and in the Sandbox review screen after scanning/importing) every ingredient row and every instruction step has a small **⠿ grip** on the left. Drag a row up or down to move it — step numbers renumber automatically. Handy when your AI-scanned recipe has ingredients in the wrong order, or when you want to slot a new step in the middle of the method rather than tacking it onto the end. On mobile, long-press the grip for a beat before you start dragging so a normal page-scroll isn't hijacked.

Question 17

How do I scan a recipe with my smartphone?

Accepted Answer

On your **My Cookbooks** page tap one of the 'Add recipe' cards or go to /scan directly. Choose 'Camera', point your phone at the recipe and capture — our AI transcribes it instantly into editable fields. Prefer not to scan? You can also upload a PDF or image, paste a URL, paste raw recipe text, type by hand, or share directly from Instagram/TikTok/Safari — six ways in total.

Question 18

What image quality works best for OCR?

Accepted Answer

Bright, even lighting and a flat angle yield the best results. Aim for 1000px+ on the shortest side. JPEG or PNG are both fine.

Question 19

Can I scan handwritten recipes?

Accepted Answer

Yes! We use a GPT-4o vision pipeline tuned for messy handwriting and tea-stained recipe cards.

Question 20

How many free recipes can I upload?

Accepted Answer

Free accounts can upload up to 10 recipes. After that, upgrade to keep building.

Question 21

How much does the subscription cost?

Accepted Answer

Pick what suits you: £5 for 1 month, £10 for 3 months, £15 for 6 months, or £25 for the full year (just £2.08/month). You can also redeem a gift code.

Question 22

How do I share my cookbook privately?

Accepted Answer

Two ways. (1) For view-only access, click 'QR / Share' on the cookbook — you can copy the link, scan the QR, or share via the 10-digit View-only code. Anyone with that code can read the cookbook but cannot edit it. (2) For co-editor access, click 'Invite a friend' and send a unique single-use email invite — each invite is bound to one email address and expires after 30 days.

Question 23

What are 'Secret Recipes'?

Accepted Answer

Mark any recipe as Secret. It will be hidden from public viewers and from invitees in 'Selective (Minus Secrets)' mode.

Question 24

Can I print my cookbook?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Click 'Print Cookbook' on any book to generate a high-resolution PDF or order a real hardback through our Lulu print-on-demand partner.

Question 25

Is my data backed up?

Accepted Answer

Yes. You can also export everything yourself via 'Download My Recipe Filer Archive'.

Question 26

How does Kitchen View Mode work?

Accepted Answer

It strips the UI down to giant text on dark background, one step per screen. Swipe or use voice ('Next Step') to advance.

Question 27

Can I scale a recipe up or down?

Accepted Answer

Yes. On the recipe page, change the 'Serves' field and all amounts recalculate instantly.

Question 28

Do you support metric and imperial units?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Every quantity auto-converts between Metric, Imperial, and US.

Question 29

How do I add audio memories?

Accepted Answer

Open a recipe, click 'Audio Memories', then record or upload a clip up to 60 seconds.

Question 30

What is the Version Timeline?

Accepted Answer

When a family member updates a recipe, both versions are preserved so you can see how the recipe evolved.

Question 31

Can I copy a recipe between cookbooks?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Open the recipe, click 'Copy to Another Book', and pick a target cookbook.

Question 32

How do QR codes work?

Accepted Answer

Each recipe and cookbook has its own brand-coloured QR. Print it on a jar, card, or gift.

Question 33

Is the Voice Assist hands-free?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Say 'Next Step' or 'Go Back' while in Kitchen View.

Question 34

How are timers triggered?

Accepted Answer

Phrases like 'simmer 10 minutes' become clickable buttons that launch in-app countdown overlays.

Question 35

Can I run multiple timers?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Each labelled timer (e.g. 'Pasta Timer', 'Sauce Timer') runs independently.

Question 36

How do I report copyright infringement?

Accepted Answer

Use the 'DMCA Takedown' link in the footer.

Question 37

Can I make my cookbook public?

Accepted Answer

Yes — toggle 'Public' on the cookbook. It will appear in the Recipe Filer Directory.

Question 38

Will my public cookbook be indexed by Google?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Public pages use semantic HTML for full crawlability.

Question 39

Are private books indexed?

Accepted Answer

No. Private and dashboard pages are noindex.

Question 40

How do I invite a co-editor?

Accepted Answer

Open the cookbook, click 'Invite a friend', enter their email, choose 'Co-editor' as the access level, add an optional note, and send. They'll receive a unique email link tied to their address — one click and they're in. Co-editors can add and edit recipes inside the cookbook, but they cannot publish anything publicly. The invite expires in 30 days and can only be used once.

Question 41

Can I customise the cookbook cover?

Accepted Answer

Yes — upload a custom cover image, choose fonts and colour palette.

Question 42

How many recipes can one book hold?

Accepted Answer

Up to 250.

Question 43

How many photos per recipe?

Accepted Answer

Up to 6 high-resolution images.

Question 44

How long can recipe videos be?

Accepted Answer

Up to 10 minutes total.

Question 45

Can I delete a recipe permanently?

Accepted Answer

Yes, from the recipe edit page. The action cannot be undone.

Question 46

How do I export my data?

Accepted Answer

Profile → Download My Recipe Filer Archive. You receive a ZIP with PDFs, JSON and CSV.

Question 47

Can I use Recipe Filer offline?

Accepted Answer

Recipes you have viewed will cache for quick access; new uploads require a connection.

Question 48

Which payment methods are accepted?

Accepted Answer

Stripe (cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay).

Question 49

Where do I enter a promo code?

Accepted Answer

On the checkout page.

Question 50

How do I redeem a gift code?

Accepted Answer

Profile → Redeem Gift Code, paste the 10-character code.

Question 51

Can I gift a subscription?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Buy a gift code on the Pricing page.

Question 52

What if I forget my password?

Accepted Answer

Click 'Forgot Password' on the login page.

Question 53

Can I log in with Google?

Accepted Answer

Yes — click 'Continue with Google'.

Question 54

How do I change my email?

Accepted Answer

Profile → Account Settings.

Question 55

Is my payment data stored?

Accepted Answer

No. All payments are handled by Stripe — we never see card numbers.

Question 56

Can I cancel any time?

Accepted Answer

Yes. You keep access until the end of your billing period.

Question 57

What happens to my cookbooks if I cancel?

Accepted Answer

The cookbooks stay visible for 1 year and then are archived for 1 year.

Question 58

How do I delete my account?

Accepted Answer

Profile → Danger Zone → Delete Account.

Question 59

How is my data protected?

Accepted Answer

Encrypted at rest and in transit. GDPR compliant.

Question 60

Can I share a single recipe?

Accepted Answer

Yes — every recipe page has a 'Share' button that opens a dialog with: a copy-link option, your device's native share sheet, and direct post buttons for Facebook, X (Twitter), WhatsApp, Telegram, Reddit and Email. Instagram and TikTok don't allow direct web posts, so tapping those copies the link so you can paste it into your caption, Story or bio.

Question 61

How do I rate a public recipe?

Accepted Answer

Tap the 5-star widget on any public recipe page.

Question 62

Can I leave comments?

Accepted Answer

Use the 'Shared Notes' section if you have access; public comments are coming soon.

Question 63

What is the Experiment Slider?

Accepted Answer

A visual indicator of how playful or structured the recipe is — useful when cooking with kids.

Question 64

Are dietary tags supported?

Accepted Answer

Yes — Vegan, Vegetarian, Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Nut-Free.

Questions, answered.