Turnbook support

Last Updated: November 1, 2026

Turnbook is a walkthrough app for landlords who look after their own rentals. It records a unit's condition at move-in with dated photographs, takes the tenant's acknowledgement signature on your phone, and at move-out sets each item beside its move-in condition. The output is a timestamped PDF you share yourself.

Getting in touch

Email support@terrorapps.com. One person reads that mailbox and a reply usually takes a business day or two.

It helps to include:

• your iPhone model and iOS version
• the Turnbook version, from the Settings tab, under About, Version
• what you were doing and what happened instead

Do not send tenant names, photographs or signed reports unless we ask for something specific; most questions can be answered without them.

Getting started

1. On the Units tab tap Add a unit, give it a nickname such as Elm St Apt 2, and pick a room template if one fits. You can edit rooms and items later.
2. Open the unit and tap Baseline this unit, then choose Move-in.
3. Walk room by room. For each item tap Good, Fair or Damaged, and tap the camera tile to photograph it. A report can be finished with some items left as not recorded.
4. Tap Review, then Get the tenant's signature.
5. Share the PDF.

Taking over a unit that is already occupied? Record it as it stands today, as the baseline.

Setting up several similar units? On a new unit you can copy the rooms from another unit, or start from a template.

Photographs

• Photographs taken inside Turnbook carry the date and time from your iPhone's clock.
• Photographs added from your photo library are marked in the report as coming from your library, and show the date stored in the photo if it has one. Turnbook does not claim a library photo was taken during the walkthrough.
• Turnbook asks for the camera the first time you tap a capture tile. If you decline, or if the camera is unavailable, you can still add photographs from your library and finish the walkthrough. To turn the camera back on: the iOS Settings app, Turnbook, Camera.

The tenant's signature

The tenant reads a short summary and signs with a finger, or taps Type your name instead and types it. They do not install anything and do not make an account. Their copy of the report is the PDF you share.

The move-out signature is optional. If the tenant has already gone, skip it; the report states on its face that they did not sign.

Sharing and exporting a report

Open a report from the Reports tab or from the unit, then tap Share PDF. The system share sheet lets you email it, save it to Files, or send it to any app that accepts a PDF. The PDF is built on your iPhone, so this works with no signal.

Reports you have already finished stay readable, comparable and shareable as PDFs whether or not you have a subscription.

At move-out

Open the unit, tap Start a walkthrough and choose Move-out. Turnbook presents each item with its move-in condition and photograph beside the move-out one. When the report is finished, its detail screen offers Compare with move-in, which opens the item-by-item comparison with both photographs and both dates.

Corrections after a report is finished

A finished report is never edited. Open it and tap Add an amendment: the amendment carries its own date, appears as an amendment in the PDF, and leaves the original exactly as it was.

Periodic checks

On a unit, open the ellipsis menu and choose Check reminder to run a check every 3, 6 or 12 months against the same list. Turning it on asks for notification permission. The reminder is scheduled on your iPhone and fires there; Turnbook never contacts your tenant.

If you refused notifications earlier, the screen offers Open Settings so you can turn them on in iOS.

Subscription

What is free. Your first complete report, including the walkthrough, the tenant's signature and the PDF.

Subscribing. The paywall appears when you start your second report, and from the subscription card in the Settings tab. Annual and monthly are offered; the price, the period and any saving shown come from the App Store for your country.

Restoring a purchase. Open the paywall (Settings tab, subscription card, or by starting a new report) and tap Restore at the top right. Be signed in to the Apple Account that made the purchase.

Cancelling. The iOS Settings app, your name at the top, Subscriptions, Turnbook, Cancel Subscription. Or tap Manage on the subscription card in Turnbook's Settings tab. Deleting the app does not cancel a subscription.

Refunds. Purchases and refunds are handled by Apple. Use reportaproblem.apple.com, or the Report a Problem link in your App Store receipt. We cannot issue refunds.

If a subscription lapses. Nothing you have already made is locked. Every finished report stays readable, comparable, shareable and exportable, and backup keeps working. A subscription is needed only to start a new report.

Backup and restore

Backup is optional and off until you set it up. Everything in the app works without it.

Turning it on. Settings tab, Backup & restore, then Sign in with Apple. Turnbook asks Apple for no name and no email. Your records are encrypted on your iPhone before anything is uploaded, and the key stays in your iCloud Keychain, never with us.

Restoring on a new iPhone. Install Turnbook, open Settings, Backup & restore, sign in with the same Apple Account, then tap Restore on this phone. iCloud Keychain must be on, on both the old and the new iPhone, because the key travels with it. Nothing on the new iPhone changes until the whole backup has downloaded and been checked.

"This backup needs a key this phone does not have yet." The encrypted copy is there but the key is not: turn on iCloud Keychain, confirm you are signed in with the same Apple Account, and check again. Nobody, including us, can open a backup without that key.

Finished reports back up; a walkthrough in progress does not. The Backup & restore screen lists anything still waiting to go up. Being offline is normal and nothing is lost; it goes up later on its own.

Deleting things, and getting them back

• Deleted units, reports, rooms, items and photographs go to Recently deleted (Settings tab) and stay recoverable for 30 days.
• From that screen you can restore an item, or delete it permanently before the 30 days are up. Permanent deletion is a separate, clearly named action.
• Delete my backup, on Backup & restore, erases our encrypted copy and signs you out. Everything on your iPhone stays. The same Apple Account can start a new backup later.
• Deleting Turnbook from your iPhone deletes everything the app stored there, including reports and PDFs you have not shared elsewhere. Share the PDFs you want to keep first.

Working without a signal

Photographs, conditions, the signature and the PDF are all produced on your iPhone, so a basement with no bars is no problem. Only the App Store purchase sheet and the optional backup need a connection, and the backup catches up by itself.

What Turnbook will not do

Turnbook records what you both saw. It does not give legal advice, does not calculate or suggest what to withhold from a deposit, and does not tell you what notice to give a tenant. It has no tenant portal, no messaging, no rent collection and no automatic damage assessment. Those decisions stay yours.

Privacy and terms

• Privacy policy: https://takagoto.github.io/turnbook-privacy/
• Terms of use: https://takagoto.github.io/turnbook-terms/

Turnbook is published by Terror LLC, an Illinois limited liability company. support@terrorapps.com