Using Files
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. Swipe through them a page at a time. If there are more than fit on the first page, tap Show all (N more) to expand every folder right there, and Show less to collapse them again.
- In the spotlight (Premium). Files that matter right now. See below.
- Latest uploads. Files that were recently shared, emailed, imported or attached to calendar events, including ones you've since moved into a folder.
- 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.
- Scan document (in the iPhone, iPad and Android apps). Scan one or more pages with your camera; they're cropped for you and saved together as a single PDF. On iPhone and iPad, Plannie asks for camera access first.
- 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.
At the bottom of the menu you'll find your family's Plannie email address (Premium). Any attachment you email to it lands in Latest uploads. On Free, you'll see an Upgrade link there 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.
In the browser you can also drag files from your computer straight onto Files. Dropped on the Files home they go to Latest uploads; dropped on a folder's page, or onto a folder, they go into that 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 Move to folder. Files in folders stay until you delete them. A file you've moved still shows in Latest uploads for 30 days after it came in, so it's easy to find again.
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 they stay in Latest uploads for that whole time. An attachment on a calendar that's shown as busy only is hidden from anyone who can't see that event's details, including a shared wall display.
Working with a file
Tap a file to open it. Long-press a file (right-click in the browser), or tap … while viewing it, and a small menu opens right where you pressed. From it you can:
- Rename it or change its color
- Move to folder to put it in a folder (folders can be two levels deep)
- Star or unstar it. The star changes as soon as you tap it.
- Share it to another app (in the iPhone, iPad and Android apps), or Download it (in the browser)
- Delete it
In the browser you can also drag a file onto a folder, in the sidebar or on the page, to move it there.
Photos open with pinch-to-zoom, in a viewer sized to the photo. PDFs open right inside Plannie on iPhone, iPad and Android, and in the browser. On iPhone and iPad, Office documents and text files open in Plannie too; on Android they open in another app, and in the browser they download. If a PDF can't be shown on Android, Plannie offers Open in another app instead.
Working with a folder
Tap a folder to open it. Long-press a folder (right-click in the browser) to open the same small menu, where you can:
- Rename it or change its color
- Move to folder to put it into another folder, or to the Top level. Folders can be two levels deep, so a folder that has subfolders can only move to the top level.
- Make private or Make family
- Add a New subfolder
- Delete it
You only see the options you're allowed to use (see Who can do what below).
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 go to Magic Import, and shared 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 (a kiosk) can open family files but not change anything, so long-pressing a file or folder there doesn't open a menu.
- On Premium + MCP, a connected AI agent can find, upload, move, rename, star and delete family files, and create family folders. Everything it adds or changes carries a sparkle badge, so you can always tell what an agent did. Agents never see private files or folders.