Using Files

Upload, organize, view and share your family’s documents and photos, and what each plan includes.

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Written By Kai YtterbergLast updated 38 minutes ago

Files is your family's document library: school forms, permission slips, receipts, insurance cards, and anything else you don't want to lose in a text thread or an inbox.

Finding Files

On your phone, open More → Files. On a tablet or computer, Files is in the sidebar.

The Files home shows, from top to bottom:

  • Folders. Your family's folders, plus a Calendar attachments tile for files attached to calendar events.
  • In the spotlight (Premium). Files that matter right now. See below.
  • Latest uploads. Files that were shared, emailed or imported and haven't been put in a folder yet.
  • Starred. Files you've starred to keep close at hand. Stars are shared with the whole family.
  • The storage meter. How much of your plan's storage you've used. Tap it for details.

Adding files

Tap + at the top of Files to open Add to Files. You can:

  • Upload file from your device. You can pick several at once.
  • Take photo (in the iPhone, iPad and Android apps), or Choose photo from your library, several at once.
  • New folder. Give it a name and a color. Folders you create are family folders that everyone in your household can see; kids' new folders are always private. To make a folder private later, open it and choose Make private from its menu.
  • Forward by email (Premium). Copy or share your family's Plannie email address. Any attachment you email to it lands in Latest uploads. On Free, this option shows what Premium adds instead.

New files go to Latest uploads when you add them from the Files home, or to the folder you're in. The sheet shows where they're going (Uploading to …), and you can tap Change to pick another folder.

Uploads run in the background, so you can keep using Plannie. Every upload is checked for malware: you'll see its progress, then briefly Checking… before the file is ready. If an upload fails, tap Retry.

In the spotlight

On Premium, Files home has an In the spotlight section: up to six files Plannie picks out because something about them is timely, each with a label saying why, such as "Due Friday", "Party on Saturday", "New from school", "Expires in 12 days" or "For your trip". Plannie picks them using the file's due date, expiry date, category and any calendar event it's attached to. No AI is involved.

Private files only show up in your own spotlight, and a shared wall display only sees family files. If a file doesn't belong there, long-press it and choose Not now. It won't show up in your spotlight again. The section is hidden when there's nothing to show.

On Free, this section is a locked preview. Tap it to see what Premium adds.

Latest uploads

Files that land in Latest uploads are kept for 7 days on Free and 30 days on Premium, then removed automatically. To keep a file, move it into a folder: long-press it and choose Keep in folder. Files in folders stay until you delete them.

Files attached to calendar events follow the event's rules instead. They're kept for 30 days on Free and 2 years on Premium, and you'll find them under Calendar attachments.

Working with a file

Tap a file to open it. Long-press a file, or tap … while viewing it, to:

  • Open it
  • Rename it or change its color
  • Move it to another folder (folders can be two levels deep), or Keep in folder for a file in Latest uploads
  • Star or unstar it
  • Share it to another app, or Download it in the browser
  • Delete it

Photos open with pinch-to-zoom. PDFs, Office documents and text files open in Plannie where your device supports it, or in your device's own viewer. In the browser, PDFs open in a new tab and other documents download.

Private folders

A private folder and everything in it is visible only to you. It isn't shown to other family members, to a shared wall display, or to connected apps and AI agents. Files you add straight into a private folder are private too.

Recently deleted

Deleted files and folders go to Recently deleted for 30 days, and you can restore them from there. After 30 days they're deleted for good. Files in Recently deleted still count toward your storage until they're gone.

Storage

Plan

Storage

Largest file

Latest uploads kept for

Free

50 MB

10 MB

7 days

Plannie Premium

5 GB

50 MB

30 days

Premium + MCP

10 GB

50 MB

30 days

Free can also hold up to 50 files (100 MB) in Latest uploads at once. If you reach a limit, Plannie tells you which one. You can free up space by deleting files or keeping files in folders, or upgrade. If a Premium subscription ends, nothing you've kept is deleted: you can still open, download and delete your files, but you can't add more until you're under the Free limit.

Sharing into Plannie

When you share a photo or file into Plannie from another app:

  • On Free, it's saved straight to Latest uploads, and you'll see a Saved to Files message with an Open shortcut.
  • On Premium, Magic Import reads it and offers to add events, meals or list items. The file itself is also saved to Latest uploads.

Shared links and text work as before: links go to Magic Import, and text opens Plannie Assistant.

Who can do what

  • Adults can manage any file or folder they can see.
  • Kids can view family files, upload, star and share, and manage files they added themselves. They can create private folders, but not family ones.
  • A shared wall display can open family files but not change anything.

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