Ask Aurelius

Support

A calm, source-grounded companion for Stoic reflection.

Every reply in Ask Aurelius is anchored to Marcus Aurelius' Meditations and cited by book and section. No invented quotes, no scholarly noise, no hype. The questions below cover most of what comes up in day-to-day use.

Need a person? Email mattalvaro82@gmail.com. We typically reply within 1–2 business days.

Account & subscription

How do I cancel my subscription?

Subscriptions are managed by Apple, not from within Ask Aurelius. On your iPhone: open Settings → tap your name at the top → Subscriptions → Ask Aurelius → Cancel Subscription. Your access continues until the end of the current billing period; you won't be charged again.

How do I restore a purchase after reinstalling?

Open the paywall (Settings → Unlock Aurelius Premium or the prompt above the message composer) and tap Restore in the top right. Your subscription should reactivate within a few seconds as long as you're signed in to the same Apple Account that made the purchase.

How do I delete my account?

Open Ask Aurelius → Settings → Privacy → Delete Account. This permanently removes all your conversations, journal entries, and account data from our servers. The action cannot be undone.

How do I sign out without deleting my data?

Settings → Forget on this device. This clears your session locally but leaves your account and data intact — you can sign back in later with the same Apple ID.

Your journal & privacy

Where is my journal stored?

Journal entries are encrypted on your device with a key stored in your iCloud Keychain. Only ciphertext is sent to our servers. We cannot read your journal under any circumstance.

How do I export my journal?

Premium subscribers can export the entire journal as Markdown from Settings → Export Journal. The file is offered through the iOS share sheet so you can save it to Files, iCloud Drive, AirDrop to a Mac, or email it to yourself.

What about my chat messages?

Conversations are stored on our server (not end-to-end encrypted) because the app needs to read them to retrieve grounded responses. You can delete any conversation individually with a long-press, or wipe everything by deleting your account.

How the app works

Why does Aurelius sometimes say "I can't find that in the Meditations"?

The app is grounded in the actual text. Every reply is checked against real passages and cited by book and section. When a question genuinely can't be answered from the Meditations, Aurelius says so rather than inventing a quote. This is intentional and is the central design promise of the app.

Which translation does the app use?

George Long's 1862 public-domain translation. The translator and license are surfaced on every citation.

What's the daily message limit on the free tier?

Free users can send 5 chat messages per day (resets at midnight UTC). The daily passage, journal, saved passages, and history view stay free always — only chat sends are capped. Premium removes the cap.

Why does the app ask for permissions I can decline?

Ask Aurelius doesn't request microphone, camera, contacts, location, or push notification permissions in this version. If iOS shows you a permission prompt, it's coming from a system service (e.g., Sign in with Apple, Keychain), not from us.

Troubleshooting

I'm having trouble signing in.

Sign in with Apple requires iOS 17 or later and an Apple Account configured on your device. If the sign-in sheet doesn't appear, check Settings → your name to confirm you're signed in to your Apple Account, then try again.

My subscription doesn't show as active after purchase.

Tap Restore on the paywall, or quit and relaunch the app. If it still doesn't show as active after a minute, email us with the Apple Account address used for purchase and the approximate time of the transaction, and we'll reconcile it manually.

The app crashed or behaves unexpectedly.

Email us a brief description of what you were doing and your iPhone model + iOS version. If you have Share with App Developers enabled in iOS analytics settings, Apple may have already forwarded us the crash log.

System requirements

Still stuck?

Email mattalvaro82@gmail.com. Include your iPhone model, iOS version, and a brief description of what happened. We read every message.