Frequently Asked Questions
Quick answers to the questions we get most. If yours is not here, contact us or use Ask a question in the app menu.
Reading the app
What do the colours on the chart mean?
Red is a rapid rise in pressure, blue is a rapid drop, yellow is steady. Orange and light blue are moderate rises and drops. Details in Main Screen.
What are the dots under the days of the week?
They flag days with a big pressure swing. Red dot: rapid rise. Blue dot: rapid drop. A dashed dot (the default style on iPhone) means the day has a change that matches your alert settings. See Week View.
Why does the chart's scale change from day to day?
The vertical axis zooms to fit what is on screen, so a small change on a calm day can look as tall as a big change on a stormy day. Two things help. Use the colours to judge strength, because they come from the real change per hour and do not depend on the zoom. And set Chart Timeframe to 2 or 3 days under Settings: the days shown together share one scale, so you can compare them directly.
We are keeping the automatic scale rather than fixing it to one range, because the range that suits a calm week is too wide to read in a stormy one.
Why does it say "unstable" almost every day?
The last paragraph of the daily summary uses that wording whenever the day has at least one hour rising sharply and at least one hour falling sharply, 0.6 mbar or more per hour on iPhone and 0.8 mbar or more on Android. One hour of each is enough, so in changeable weather most days qualify and the text repeats. It does not mean the day is extreme. The alerts are the better guide because they only fire above the sensitivity you set, and Low sensitivity leaves only the big swings.
Why does the line under the pressure say "steady" while the text below talks about a sharp drop?
They cover different stretches of time. The line under the pressure reading is about the current hour only: it compares this hour with the one next to it. The daily summary under the chart describes the whole day you have selected. If that day has even one hour with a sharp drop, the summary uses the sharp-drop wording, and the lines just above it give the times, for example "Rapid decrease from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM". Those hours are blue on the chart. So a calm hour now and a sharp drop later (or earlier) in the day can both be true.
If you tap another day in the week view, the summary switches to that day while the line under the pressure stays on the current hour. On Android you can also drag along the chart and the reading follows the hour you point at, then returns to now.
Is the time on the chart AM/PM or 24-hour?
Whichever you pick under Settings > Time format. The default is 24-hour.
How often does the data update?
The chart and current conditions refresh every time you open the app. The forecast behind the alerts is refreshed on our servers several times a day.
Why is the pressure different from my other weather app?
Different apps use different weather providers, and some show station pressure while Pressure Pal shows sea-level pressure, which is what forecasts publish. Small differences are normal. What matters for symptoms is the change over time, and that is what the colours and alerts track.
The forecast chart is blank or has stopped updating
Close and reopen the app while your phone is connected to the internet. If the chart is still blank, contact hello@pressurepal.app with your city and country, phone model, operating system version and app version from the bottom of Settings. Include a screenshot and when the problem started. On iPhone, mention whether saved locations also stay on Loading.
Do not buy another plan to try to restore a blank forecast. Today and tomorrow's chart are available without a subscription on both platforms. If you already pay and the app asks you to subscribe again, use Restore Purchases on the plan screen with the store account that made the purchase. See Restoring a purchase.
Keep the app installed while we investigate. Reinstalling is not the first step for this problem, because it can make access to your journal harder to recover.
The temperature or humidity looks wrong
The temperature and humidity come from the same hourly weather forecast as the pressure, not from a live weather station near you. The app picks the hour closest to the time it is showing and displays that hour's figures, so they can differ from a thermometer outside, most of all when the weather is turning quickly.
On iPhone the figures are for the hour closest to now, and they are re-read every time you open the app. If no forecast has loaded, you see two dashes instead of a number. On Android the figures follow the chart: drag along it and the temperature, humidity and pressure change to the hour you are pointing at.
If a saved city showed exactly 22 degrees and 1014 mbar, that was a stand-in the app used before its forecast loaded. It was fixed in version 3.8.7 on iPhone.
Can I see the pressure in hPa?
hPa and mbar are the same number. Choose millibars in Settings > Units.
Is there a widget for my Home Screen?
On iPhone, yes, and both widgets are free. Touch and hold an empty spot on the Home Screen, tap Edit, then Add Widget, and search for Pressure Pal.
- Pressure shows whether the pressure is rising, falling or steady, the current pressure in your unit, and the temperature and humidity.
- Symptoms has three dots, from mild on the left to severe on the right. Tap one to log your symptoms for the current hour without opening the app. The entry shows up in your journal the next time you open Pressure Pal.
The Pressure widget moves forward hour by hour through the forecast the app last downloaded. The app downloads a new one whenever you open it, and in the background about twice a day when iOS allows it. If the widget looks out of date, open the app once.
There is no Lock Screen widget. You can add the Log Symptoms and Log Journal buttons to Control Center or to the Lock Screen instead. The Android app has no widget.
What are the tips on the main screen?
On iPhone, the card under the daily summary is a Community Tip: advice shared by another user, picked to match the day's pressure and the symptoms you log. We review every tip before it is shown, but they are personal experience and not medical advice. Tap Community Tips in the menu at the bottom of the main screen to browse them or add your own. See Community Tips.
Can I filter Community Tips by rising or falling pressure?
On iPhone, Community Tips has New, Top 10 and My Tips, but no pressure filter. The tip on the main screen uses the selected day's pressure trend when choosing what to show. Rising and falling describe the direction of a change, not whether the pressure reading is high or low. The Android app does not have Community Tips. See Community Tips.
Can I hide the community tip or get the old advice back?
The daily advice is still there. It is the paragraph directly above the tip card. The tip card itself cannot be switched off at the moment. If a particular tip is not useful to you, report it and it disappears from your screen.
Alerts
I am not getting notifications
Check the phone permission, then Settings > Notifications inside the app, then your quiet hours. If alerts stopped after working for a while, open the app once: a phone that has not opened Pressure Pal for about 30 days stops getting alerts until it does. Full checklist in Notifications.
Can I get alerts only for falling pressure, or only for rising?
Yes. Settings > Notifications > Pressure Alerts > Direction: Rising, Falling, or Rising and Falling. A new install starts on Rising and Falling, so drops are already covered until you narrow it down.
I get the same notification several times
Each device with the app installed gets its own copy, and an old registration can linger after a reinstall. Update the app; if it continues, email us. See Notifications.
Can I see past notifications in the app?
Not yet. It is on the roadmap.
Logging
How do I log a migraine or a flare-up?
Tap the red lightning button for the current hour, or the white journal button for time, intensity, symptoms and notes. See Symptom Journaling.
How do I edit or delete an entry?
Tap the entry in the list under the chart, then edit or delete it.
Can I add my own symptoms?
On iPhone, yes: Add Symptom in the symptoms step of the journal. On Android, not yet.
Where do I track medication?
Use the notes field for now. A dedicated medication field is on the roadmap.
Where are my previous entries?
Today's entries are under the chart. Earlier days and the All Recorded Data list need a paid plan.
Can I print my entries or send them to my doctor?
Yes, with a paid plan. Scroll to the bottom of the main screen and choose Export Report for a PDF or a CSV of any date range. See Reports.
Does the report show the pressure with each attack?
Yes. Every entry in the PDF carries the pressure reading at the hour it happened and a small chart of that day, and the CSV has a Pressure column. See Reports.
Locations
Can I check the pressure for another city?
On iPhone, with a paid plan: tap the city name at the top and add locations. On Android the app follows your phone's location only for now. See Locations.
Will the app update when I travel?
Yes. It follows your phone's location unless you set another city as primary on iPhone.
Subscription and billing
What is free and what is paid?
Free: today and tomorrow on the chart, current conditions, logging, alerts and the daily summary. Paid: the full week ahead, past days, reports, other locations and the Apple Watch chart. See Subscription and Billing.
How much does it cost?
There is a weekly plan, a monthly plan, a yearly plan that starts with a 7-day free trial the first time, and a one-time lifetime purchase that has no renewal. On iPhone, lifetime only shows on the plan screen that opens by itself the second time you use the app, so if you missed it, write to hello@pressurepal.app. Prices are set per country, so the amount that applies to you is shown on the plan screen in the app, and again by the App Store or Google Play before anything is confirmed. The free version costs nothing and stays available. See Plans.
How do I cancel?
iPhone: Settings app > your name > Subscriptions > Pressure Pal > Cancel. Android: Google Play > Subscriptions. Deleting the app does not cancel. Steps in Cancelling.
I was charged after the free trial
The store charges automatically when a trial is not cancelled in time. Request a refund from Apple or Google, and cancel the subscription so it does not renew. If the store refuses, email us.
I pay but the app asks me to subscribe again
Close and reopen the app, then use Restore Purchases on the plan screen. Full steps in Subscription and Billing.
I reinstalled the app. How do I restore my subscription?
Sign in to the App Store or Google Play with the account that paid, open any locked feature and tap Restore Purchases.
Can I switch from monthly to yearly, or to lifetime?
Monthly and yearly switch at the end of the current period. Lifetime is a separate purchase, so cancel the subscription first, then write to hello@pressurepal.app, because the plan screens you can open yourself do not show it. See Switching plans.
Can I share my plan with my family?
Yes on iPhone. The yearly plan, the monthly plan and the lifetime purchase all work with Apple's Family Sharing, so one purchase covers your family group once Purchase Sharing is on. See Family Sharing.
Is there a discount or a promo code?
We sometimes send offer codes. On iPhone, the Enter Offer Code button is at the bottom of the Settings screen, just above the version number. See Offer codes.
Data and account
Do I need an account?
No. The app works without one. Sign in with Apple (iPhone) or Google (Android) in Settings if you want your entries to survive a new phone.
I deleted and reinstalled the app. Do my entries come back?
If you were signed in with Apple (iPhone) or Google (Android), yes. Sign in again with the same account and every day you logged comes back, not just the recent ones. Only days you actually recorded something on are stored, so a gap in the list means there was no entry that day.
If you were never signed in, open the app and look before assuming the worst. Your entries were still being saved, just to an anonymous account rather than a named one. Sometimes the phone finds that same account again after a reinstall and everything is there. Sometimes it starts a fresh one instead, and then the old entries still exist on our side but under an account nobody can sign into, so we have no way to hand them back. Signing in is what makes this predictable, so do it before you change phones.
One limit either way: the app shows days from September 2024 onwards, so anything logged before that will not appear.
I used the app on an older phone. Can I get those entries?
If the old phone was signed in with the same account you use now, you already have them. The entries you see on the new phone are the same ones.
If it was never signed in, its entries stayed with an anonymous account that only that phone could reach, and there is no way to attach it to your current one afterwards. If you still have the phone, leave the app on it and email us before you sign in on it.
I switched between Android and iPhone. Where did my entries go?
They are still on the platform you logged them on. The Android app and the iPhone app keep their entries separately at the moment, so moving from one to the other starts a new record rather than carrying your history across. Connecting the two is something we plan to do, but we cannot give a date for it.
How do I delete my account and data?
Sign in, then Settings > Delete Account. Email hello@pressurepal.app if you want us to erase server-side data as well.
Where does the weather data come from?
Apple WeatherKit, on both iPhone and Android.
Health
How do I know if I am affected by pressure changes?
Pressure Pal helps you keep a record to discuss with your healthcare provider. It cannot tell you whether pressure changes cause your symptoms.
On iPhone and Android, use the white Journal button to record when symptoms started and how you felt. Compare the times of your entries with the pressure chart. Orange and red show rising pressure, light blue and blue show falling pressure, and yellow shows steady pressure. Looking back at earlier days needs a paid plan. See Symptom Journaling.
Bring the record to your appointment. Entries lining up with pressure changes do not establish that pressure caused them, and entries during steady pressure do not rule it out.
Is a rise or a drop worse for migraines?
We cannot tell you which pressure changes affect your health. You can compare the times of your logged symptoms with rising and falling sections of the chart, then discuss the record with your healthcare provider.
Can you tell me whether my symptoms are caused by the weather, or what to take?
We are not doctors and cannot give medical advice. The app helps you collect a record to discuss with your healthcare provider.