Questions, bug reports, and feature requests are all welcome.
Email: shuffman@gmail.com
Garage Buddy is made by one person, so replies are personal — but they may take a couple of days. When reporting a problem, it helps enormously to include your iPhone model, your iOS version, and what you were doing when it happened.
For a tour of everything the app does, see Features.
No. When you first open Garage Buddy you choose where your data lives. Pick “On this device” and the app works entirely offline with no account, no sign-up, and nothing to configure. Google Drive is an optional alternative, not a requirement.
On this device keeps everything on your iPhone, included in your normal device backup. Google Drive keeps your records in an ordinary spreadsheet in your own Drive, which you can open and edit yourself. You can switch between them at any time in Settings → Data, and your data moves with you in either direction.
No. The app requests only the drive.file permission, which grants
access solely to the files it creates itself. The rest of your Drive is
invisible to it. See the privacy policy for details.
No. The default scanner uses Apple’s on-device text recognition — it is free, works with no signal, and never sends your photo anywhere. AI scanning is an optional extra for difficult photos, and it uses an API key you supply from a provider you choose. There is no subscription and no in-app purchase.
Economy is calculated between fill-ups, so a car needs at least two gas entries with gallons recorded (or two charging entries with kWh) before a figure appears. If fuel went in that you didn't log, turn on “Missed a fill-up before this” on the next entry so that gap isn't counted as one very efficient tank. Entries saved without an odometer reading are treated as “no reading” and are skipped by the mileage and economy calculations, which is why an entry can appear in your history without affecting the charts.
Open the Reports tab to make a PDF of a single car or the whole garage. Every report is saved, and can be shared again later from its menu. In Google Drive mode your data is also always available as a normal spreadsheet you can download, and Drive keeps its own version history.
Yes. Use Google Drive mode and sign in with the same Google account on each device, and they all show the same garage. While the app is open it checks for changes every 30 seconds. On-device mode keeps data on the one device that holds it.
Yes, at web.garage-buddy.app. It uses the same Google Drive spreadsheet as the app, so it needs Google Drive mode; sign in with the same Google account. Photo scanning, notifications and the AI features stay in the app. The features page lists exactly what the web version does.
Yes, in Settings → Units. Distance, volume and fuel economy (MPG, km/L, L/100 km or gal/100 mi) are set separately. Units only change what is displayed; your stored data doesn't change.
AI is optional. With your own API key from Anthropic, Google or an OpenAI-compatible provider, it reads harder odometer photos, fills in receipts, pulls the VIN and renewal dates off documents, suggests service intervals, estimates what your cars are worth, and writes report summaries. You pay the provider directly; the app shows a rough cost per scan for each model, usually a cent or two or less. Settings → AI → Test Models compares models on your own photo. The features page has the details.
In Google Drive mode, no: your spreadsheet and folder remain in your Drive and are picked up again when you reinstall and sign in. In on-device mode, deleting the app deletes its data, so export a PDF or move your data to Google first if you want to keep it.
Please include what you expected to happen, what actually happened, and whether it repeats. Screenshots are ideal. If it involves a scan, the original photo helps more than anything else.