This page is about the iPhone version. Driftlog is also on Google Play for Android, where the permission screens are Android's own. If something is not working on Android, write to me at the address at the bottom of the page.
Almost every case is one of the five things below. Go down the list in order. It takes about two minutes.
Settings › Driftlog › Location › Always
"While Using the App" is not enough. Driftlog does its recording while it is closed, so iOS has to allow it in the background. This is the single most common cause.
Settings › Driftlog › Location › Precise Location
With it off, iOS hands over a rough area instead of a point, and the log will not come out right. It is on the same screen as the setting above.
Driftlog leaves out everywhere within 60 km of home on purpose, so your own city does not fill the log with entries. Nothing appears while you are there, and that is working as intended.
You can change the radius in the app's settings. If you want to see it working, it starts logging once you are outside that circle.
Nothing is recorded while the phone is off, out of battery, or without a signal. A flight in airplane mode, or a stretch of road with no reception, leaves a gap. The photo import below is usually the way to fill those in afterwards.
A missing data connection is a different thing. Since version 1.7.2, with roaming off, Driftlog still notes the country you arrive in, except near borders, and adds the city name once you are back online.
After a few days of background use, iOS shows a card asking whether Driftlog should keep using your location. If "Change to While Using" was tapped there, or if location was declined the first time, recording stops and the app is never asked about it again.
Both are fixed in the same place: Settings › Driftlog › Location › Always
Still nothing after all five? Write to me and say which of the five you checked. That tells me more than a screenshot does.
The import does not look at your pictures. It reads the location tag that is already saved inside them, and turns that into trips. So whether a trip shows up depends on the tags, not on the photos themselves.
Settings › Driftlog › Photos › Full Access
With limited access the import only sees the handful you picked, so most of your history stays invisible to it. The app's own messages call the full setting "All Photos"; it is the same thing.
Photos taken with the camera's location switched off have no location saved in them, and the import cannot see them. Same for screenshots, saved images, and most pictures that arrived through a messaging app.
To check one: open it in Photos and swipe up. If a small map appears, it has a location.
This works, and it is worth the two minutes for an old trip. In the Photos app, select the photos from that trip, tap the ⓘ button, choose Add Location, and pick the place. Then open Driftlog and run the import again. Running it more than once is fine.
A place is counted as a trip when it has 3 or more photos on one day, or photos spanning 2 or more days. Anything thinner than that is treated as a layover and dropped, so a single airport photo does not turn into a country you visited.
If a real trip was missed this way, adding a location to a few more photos from those days is usually enough.
Photos taken near home are skipped, the same as with live recording, but the circle is smaller: for the photo import it is capped at 25 km, so a day trip further out is kept. The radius is in the app's settings if your home area needs to be smaller.
Driftlog has no account and no server behind it. Your travel log lives on your iPhone.
About the price, while you are here. Driftlog is free to download. The world map, the passport stamps, your country count and the timeline are free forever. Your home country is free in full, and so is your first foreign country. From the second foreign country onward the details open with one purchase of $6.99. It is a one-time purchase. There is no subscription and no renewal.
In almost every case Location is not set to Always, Precise Location is off, or you are still inside your home area. Driftlog records while it is closed, so iOS has to allow location in the background. Places within 60 km of home are left out on purpose, and you can change that radius in the app's settings.
The import reads the location saved inside each photo. It misses a trip when the photos carry no location, when Photos access does not cover your whole library, or when the stop had fewer than three photos on one day and did not span two days. Adding a location to a few photos in the Photos app and importing again usually fixes it.
Since version 1.7.2 it records the country you arrive in even with roaming off, except near borders, and adds the city name once you are back online. With the phone off or in airplane mode, nothing is recorded.
Trip records are kept out of device backups by default. Before you back up the old phone, turn on Include in device backup in the app's settings. You can also save the records as a file with Export backup, which is part of Premium, and bring it in with Import backup on the new phone. Premium itself comes back with Restore Purchases.
Deleting the app deletes the records, because they exist only on your device. There is no account to close and no copy on a server.
Yes. Driftlog is on the App Store in EU countries; on 4 October 2026 I checked Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland and nine others. An earlier version of this page said it was not available there. That is no longer true.
Driftlog is made by one person. Email reaches me directly, and I read everything that arrives.
The address really is sutudio, not studio. It has been that way since the account was made.
If something is broken, three lines help a lot: your iPhone model, your iOS version, and what you expected to happen versus what happened. Write in English or in Japanese, whichever is easier for you.
One small ask. If Driftlog has been quietly doing its job for you, a rating on the App Store helps more than it looks like it should. It is the one thing a one-person app cannot make for itself.