MayBirthday help: questions and answers

A private family album for your children's photos and videos, kept in order by their age: every birthday, and the everyday moments in between. Only your family's phones can open it.

One family plan: ₱1,190 a year. That's less than ₱100 a month, for your whole family. Families who joined during the beta pay ₱100 less: ₱1,090. Relatives and party guests never pay. Outside the Philippines, the App Store or Google Play shows your price.

MayBirthday is in a private beta with a small group of families. To start a new family album you need the code from the person who invited you. Joining a family you were invited to, or opening a share link, needs no code.

No. When you share photos, Lola just taps the link. No app and no account. Only the parents use the app.

No. You sign in with a 6-digit code we email you. On your phone, the app opens with your PIN, your fingerprint or Face ID.

Check your spam folder, and that your email is spelled right. Wait a minute and try again. After 5 codes, we ask you to wait up to an hour, for your safety.

Install MayBirthday and sign in. The new phone asks to be approved. Approve it from your old phone or the other parent's phone: Family, then Devices waiting.

On any phone or computer, open the lost-phone page, sign in with your email code and tap Lock. If another family phone still has your album (the other parent's, or another of yours), the lost phone is signed out at once and can't open your album, even with its PIN. If it was your family's only phone, the lock waits 24 hours and every parent is emailed, so a stranger with your email can't lock you out; meanwhile the lost phone still needs your PIN. Then change your email password, because your email is how you sign in.

Use your fingerprint or Face ID if it's on. If not, sign in on the phone again and approve it from another family phone. We can't reset your PIN: we never had it. After 5 wrong PINs the phone locks itself, for safety.

Sign in on your new phone and tap Use my Recovery Kit. For safety it takes 3 days, and every family phone is told. Then type the code from your kit.

A 24-letter code you make in the app (Family, then Recovery Kit) and keep on paper, at home, away from your phone. It's your way back in if every family phone is lost. Make it early.

Yes, if you saved one in the app (Family, then Passkey). It's kept in your Google or Apple account. On your new phone, sign in to that same account, sign in to MayBirthday and tap Use my passkey. Your face or fingerprint gets you straight back in, with no waiting, and every family phone is told.

Three people you trust, like Lola, a tita and a ninong. Each gets one piece of a key in a message. One piece alone opens nothing. If you lose every phone and your Recovery Kit, any 2 of them send you their pieces, and after a 3-day safety wait you're back in. Set them up in Family, then Family helpers.

The other parent's phone can still let you in, and so can 2 of your family helpers. If there's no other phone, no kit and no helpers, your album can't be opened, not even by us. That's why the app asks you to set these up early.

So nobody can get into your album with just your email. During those 3 days every family phone is told, and one tap stops it if it wasn't you.

At a size that's sharp on any phone and for prints up to 5R. Videos can be up to 10 minutes and are saved at 720p. To keep the untouched full-size originals as well, a parent can turn on Keep originals (Family, then Full quality). They take about 3 to 4 times the room, videos more. Otherwise, keep your originals on your phone or camera too.

Your plan includes 50 GB. A photo takes roughly 1 MB, and a minute of video roughly 20 MB. The app tells you at 80% and 95%, with how long that lasts at your pace. When it's full, new photos pause, but nothing is ever deleted.

Camera RAW files, the big originals from photographers' cameras, can't be added. Save them as JPEG first, then add them.

Photos from guests wait for a parent's OK first. Home shows how many are waiting. Nothing a guest sends appears until you approve it.

On your phone: Family, then Family plan, then Start the family plan. The App Store or Google Play takes the payment. One parent buying it is enough for the whole family.

Your first 3 months are free, from the day the family plan started in the app. Home reminds you 14 days before they end. After that, as a founding family, your 50 GB plan is always ₱100 a year less than the regular price: ₱1,090 instead of ₱1,190. If you add space, the bigger size is the regular price; move back down to 50 GB and the founding price comes back. Start the plan any time: your paid year starts the day you start it.

The first 1,000 families to start a family album in MayBirthday, beta families included. Your 50 GB plan is always ₱100 a year less than the regular price: ₱1,090 instead of ₱1,190, for as long as your album is with us. If you add space, the bigger size is the regular price; move back down to 50 GB and the founding price comes back. Your plan screen says "Founding family price" if you're one of them. Once all 1,000 places are taken, new families pay the regular price.

No. You buy the plan in the MayBirthday app on your iPhone or Android phone. Once it's on, it works on every family phone and on your computer.

Family, then Family plan. Pick a bigger size under "Room for more memories?". It starts right away, and the store adjusts the price for the time left in your year. Before you add space, try Keep the best: it finds near-identical shots and ones with closed eyes, and nothing goes unless you say so.

Yes, under "Need less room?". It starts when your plan renews. A size smaller than what your album already holds can't be picked.

In your App Store or Google Play settings, at least 24 hours before the plan renews. You keep everything until the end of the year you paid for. iPhone: Settings, your name, then Subscriptions. Android: Play Store, your profile picture, Payments and subscriptions, then Subscriptions.

Change it on the phone where it was started, with the same Apple ID or Google account. That way your family never pays twice.

Yes. The plan belongs to your family, so every family phone and your computer have it, whichever store it came from. To change or cancel it, use the store where it was bought.

It belongs to your family, not the phone. If the plan screen says it isn't on, tap Restore a purchase on a phone signed in to the Apple ID or Google account that bought it.

Your album stays view-only for one month, so you can download everything (Family, then Download everything). After that month it's deleted. We email you when the month starts and 7 days before, and the app shows the date. If a payment fails, nothing is deleted while your store is still trying to take it.

Refunds are handled by the store you bought from. iPhone: reportaproblem.apple.com. Android: your order history in the Play Store.

No. Cancel it in your App Store or Google Play settings too.

Open Family, then Recently deleted. You can restore it for 30 days, one at a time or all at once.

Yes. Three days before anything leaves Recently deleted for good, Home tells you. And if photos are deleted from another phone, by the other parent or from another of your phones, Home tells you too.

Yes. After 30 days in Recently deleted they're removed for good. Our backup copy is removed within about 40 days after that.

No. They're locked on your phone before they upload, and only your family's phones have the key. Anything shared from MayBirthday never says where it was taken: location is removed from the copies. Where a photo was taken can be kept for your family only, locked (Family, Full quality). We never sell your data, show ads, or use your photos to train AI.

Every photo is kept at two companies. The copies your phones show are at Cloudflare, and Amazon keeps a backup of every file, plus an encrypted copy of our records every night. Full-quality originals move to Backblaze after a week. We practise restoring from those copies. During the beta, please also keep your photos on your phone or in Google Photos.

Family, then Download everything. You get zip files in folders by child and year, unlocked on your phone. They're yours to keep, even without us. The app reminds you once a year.

Open a birthday and tap Share. Pick some photos, or share the whole birthday, and send the link on Messenger or Viber. To keep a photo just for your family, open it and switch on Family only.

In the app: Family, then Delete my account. No phone? Use the delete-account page. If it would delete your family's album, we wait 3 days and tell your family's phones first.

In the app, open Help and tap Report a problem. Tell us what happened: we read every one. Never send us your PIN or your Recovery Kit code. We will never ask for them.