Does Alfie work offline?

Alfie's core budgeting loop needs no internet connection. You can create a budget, give every dollar a job, log spending, and read insights with the device offline.

This is not a degraded offline mode that syncs up later and hopes for the best. Your budget lives on your device. Working offline is the normal case, not the fallback.

What Alfie does use a connection for

The network-dependent paths are platform-specific:

• Apple edition. The Apple edition uses private iCloudacross Apple devices. Core local work remains available while offline; synchronization needs a connection.
• Android edition (coming soon). Local-only use remains available. Optional Google Drive app-data sync stays on Android and isbest effort, not real time.
• Product barcode lookup. Entirely optional, and gated behind its own separate consent. When you use it, only the confirmed barcode is sent — nothing about you, your budget, or what you paid.

Receipt capture is on-device too

On iPhone and iPad, the Apple edition can use live-camera receipt capture and on-device recognition. On Mac, use photo import or manual entry;live-camera scanning is not available. The coming-soon Android edition performs receipt capture on device. Android receipt images stay local and are not synchronized, although confirmed extracted fields and their ledger records may use optional Android Drive sync.

Related

• Does Alfie connect to my bank?
• Where is my budget data stored?
• Best offline budgeting apps for iOS

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