Fourteeners Journal Support & FAQ
Fourteeners Journal is designed to be simple to use in the field and useful years later. This page covers the questions most likely to come up.
Getting Started
What is Fourteeners Journal?
Fourteeners Journal is a private field journal for Colorado’s 14ers.
You can use it to:
- record summits and attempts
- add old climbs from years ago
- preserve notes, stories, and photographs
- attach compatible Apple Health workout data
- track progress across all 58 peaks
- mark mountains you want to climb
- explore peaks on a statewide map
There is no social feed, follower system, public leaderboard, or required account.
Can I add climbs from before I installed the app?
Yes.
Fourteeners Journal is designed to work as a historical journal as well as a current one. You can add climbs from any date and reconstruct your climbing history over time.
What is the difference between Summit and Attempt?
Use Summit when you reached the summit.
Use Attempt when the outing was part of your climbing history but did not result in a summit.
Attempts remain part of your Journal without increasing your unique-summit count.
Journal Entries
Can I climb the same peak more than once?
Yes.
Each climb can have its own Journal entry, date, notes, photographs, and attached workout information.
Your Progress view can distinguish between total summit entries and unique peaks summited.
Can I edit an old Journal entry?
Yes.
You can edit existing entries to update notes, photographs, dates, or other Journal information.
What happens when I delete an entry?
Deleting an entry removes it from your active Journal.
Recovery information may remain in local app storage to protect against accidental data loss or interrupted storage operations.
For more detail, see the Fourteeners Journal Privacy Policy.
Photos
Does FJ depend on the original photo staying in Apple Photos?
No.
When you add a photograph to a Journal entry, Fourteeners Journal stores its own copy inside the app.
That means the FJ copy can remain available even if the original photograph is later removed from your Photos library.
Are my photographs uploaded to Oberon Works?
No.
Your Journal photographs are stored locally by Fourteeners Journal unless you intentionally share or export them.
Can photo metadata be preserved?
Yes.
The original stored image may contain metadata such as capture date, camera information, or location information.
That metadata may also be preserved in a Fourteeners Journal backup.
Peaks
How many peaks are included?
Fourteeners Journal includes Colorado’s 58 commonly recognized 14ers used by the app’s current peak list.
What information does each peak page include?
Peak pages can include:
- elevation
- mountain range
- difficulty information
- custom peak artwork
- concise background information
- a link to additional peak information on 14ers.com
- map access where applicable
What does “Want to Climb” do?
It lets you mark peaks you are interested in climbing in the future.
Those selections can also appear in other parts of the app, including the statewide map and Progress views.
Progress
How does FJ count progress?
Fourteeners Journal can show progress in several ways, including:
- total summits
- unique peaks summited
- seasonal activity
- progress by mountain range
Repeat climbs remain part of your Journal without being mistaken for additional unique peaks.
Why doesn’t an Attempt increase my summit total?
Attempts are preserved as Journal history, but summit statistics count completed summits.
Statewide Map
What do the map markers mean?
The statewide map helps show your relationship to the full 14er list geographically.
Markers can reflect statuses such as:
- summited
- Want to Climb
A summit takes precedence over Want to Climb if both apply.
Does FJ track my live location?
No.
The statewide peak map does not require FJ to continuously track your live location.
Apple Health
Can I attach workout data to a Journal entry?
Yes, when compatible workout data is available through Apple Health and you have granted the necessary permissions.
Depending on the workout, FJ may be able to show:
- duration
- distance
- active energy
- heart-rate information
- effort information
- route maps
Why does one workout show a map and another only show metrics?
Workout metrics and workout routes are separate in HealthKit.
A source app can write a workout to Apple Health without providing an accessible GPS route.
If no compatible route is available, FJ can show the metrics it can read but cannot reconstruct the missing GPS track.
Does FJ connect directly to Strava or AllTrails?
No.
The path is:
Strava or AllTrails → Apple Health → Fourteeners Journal
For detailed behavior and troubleshooting, see:
Apple Health, Strava & AllTrails
Strava
Does Strava work with FJ?
In our controlled testing, Strava workouts recorded from both Apple Watch and iPhone provided workout metrics and route data that FJ could display.
Results can still vary depending on how the activity was originally recorded and what Strava writes into Apple Health.
Apple Fitness does not show a route. Does that mean FJ cannot show one?
Not necessarily.
In our testing, some Strava workouts provided valid HealthKit route data to FJ even though Apple Fitness did not display a map for those workouts.
AllTrails
Why do my AllTrails workouts show metrics but no map?
In our controlled testing, AllTrails provided workout metrics to Apple Health but did not expose associated HealthKit workout-route objects to FJ.
In that situation, FJ can display the available metrics but has no route data from which to draw a map.
Backup & Restore
How do I make a backup?
In Fourteeners Journal:
About → Journal Backup → Export
This creates a .fjbackup file.
For full instructions, see:
What does a backup include?
A backup can preserve:
- Journal entries
- notes and stories
- dates and outcomes
- photographs
- photo order and associations
- Want to Climb selections
- references to attached Apple Health workouts
Does a backup contain my actual Health data?
No.
It preserves the reference to an attached workout, but not the workout’s underlying HealthKit metrics or route coordinates.
Can I import a backup into an existing Journal?
Not currently.
Backup import is designed as a full restore into an empty Journal, not as a merge between two populated Journals.
Are FJ backup files encrypted?
No.
A .fjbackup file can contain private Journal text, photographs, and photo metadata.
Store backups only in locations you trust.
Moving to a New iPhone
What should I do before replacing my iPhone?
We recommend:
- complete your normal Apple device backup or transfer
- create a fresh Fourteeners Journal .fjbackup
- store that backup somewhere you trust
- make sure your Apple Health data is included in your Apple migration or backup strategy if you want attached workout data to remain available
What happens if I install FJ fresh on another iPhone?
A fresh installation starts with an empty Journal.
You can restore your Journal manually by importing a valid .fjbackup file.
Privacy
Does Fourteeners Journal require an account?
No.
Does Oberon Works receive my Journal?
No.
Fourteeners Journal does not operate a backend that receives your Journal entries, photographs, or Apple Health workout data.
Does FJ use advertising or tracking?
No third-party advertising or cross-app advertising tracking is built into the app.
For full details, see:
Fourteeners Journal Privacy Policy
Troubleshooting
I attached a workout but some data is missing
This usually means that particular information was not made available to FJ through Apple Health.
The Journal entry itself remains valid even when some Health data is unavailable.
My workout is not appearing
Check:
- that the workout exists in Apple Health
- that Fourteeners Journal has Health permission
- that the source app is configured to write workouts into Apple Health
- that enough time has passed for the workout to sync
My route is missing
A workout route must be made available separately through HealthKit.
If the source app provides only metrics, FJ cannot generate the route afterward.
My backup will not import
Confirm:
- the destination Journal is empty
- you selected a genuine .fjbackup file created by Fourteeners Journal
- the file has not been damaged or altered
- there is sufficient free storage on the device
FJ validates a backup before activating it and will reject an invalid archive rather than partially restoring it.
Safety
Fourteeners Journal is a journal and planning companion.
It is not a substitute for:
- current weather information
- route research
- navigation tools
- avalanche or lightning awareness
- proper equipment
- mountain judgment and experience
Always use current authoritative sources when planning a climb.
Contact Support
Need help with something not covered here?
Oberon Works
support@oberonworks.studio
For technical questions, it can help to include:
- iPhone model
- iOS version
- Fourteeners Journal version
- what you were trying to do
- what happened instead
For Health-related issues, it may also help to include the recording app and whether the activity was recorded from Apple Watch or iPhone.
Please avoid sending private Journal content, Health details, or backup files unless they are necessary for the support request.