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In your own iCloud Drive, in a folder called Stashbird, as plain files with readable names. You can see them in the Files app on your iPhone (iCloud Drive, then Stashbird), and in Finder on a Mac signed in to the same Apple account. Stashbird is a way to look after them. The files themselves live only there. To search and read them, Stashbird keeps the words from your pages and small pictures of first pages on your iPhone. A file you share from another app waits on your iPhone until you next open Stashbird, then moves into your Inbox.

No. Stashbird reads your documents on your iPhone, with Apple's own tools that run on the phone. There is no Stashbird server, and nothing is sent to us. The only company that holds your documents is Apple, in your own iCloud Drive, like any other file you keep there.

An iPhone with iCloud Drive turned on, and an Apple account to sign in with. Stashbird keeps your documents only in its own folder in your iCloud Drive. If iCloud Drive is off, it tells you so and waits. A file you add with no internet connection stays on your iPhone, marked Not in iCloud yet, until your iPhone uploads it.

Tap Share on a PDF, a scan, a photo or an office file (Word, Pages, Excel, Numbers, PowerPoint or Keynote) in Mail, Photos, Files or another app, and pick Stashbird. For any other kind of file, open Stashbird and bring it in from the Files app. Either way the new file lands in your Inbox first. Stashbird reads PDFs, scans and photos. Other kinds of file, such as Word documents, are kept too, but Stashbird cannot read them yet, so they wait in your Inbox for you to file yourself.

It reads the document on your iPhone (a PDF, a scan or a photo of a letter) and suggests a name and one of your folders. With Apple Intelligence, it also works out what the document is, who it is from and its date when the page shows one. Without it, Stashbird recognises common paperwork, such as payslips, bank statements and invoices, from the words on the page, and names anything else from its file name. It also looks at what you already keep: once you have put a file in a folder yourself, the next one like it is offered the same place. Nothing moves until you tap to file it.

Only if you ask it to. Out of the box it only suggests folders you already have. Turn on Make folders in Settings, under Filing, and it may also suggest a new folder for a document that fits none of yours. Even then the folder is made only when you tap to file it.

When Stashbird answers from one of your pages, it checks the answer against that page's own words. When an answer does not pass those checks, it says it is not sure and shows you where your words appear. When no page answers the question, it says so, and shows you the closest match when some pages use your words. Questions about a whole folder, or for a list such as the schools you went to, are answered from your folder names and what Stashbird read each document as. A question that uses the words your document uses usually does best.

This almost always means your iPhone's language and Siri's language are different (for example English (UK) and English (US)). Make them the same in Settings and Stashbird can use Apple Intelligence. Without it, Stashbird still reads and searches your documents.

It is waiting in Removed. In Stashbird, open Settings, then Removed, press and hold the file, and choose Recover. Removed files wait there for at least 90 days. After that Stashbird deletes them for good, but only while you are using the app, so it can take a day or more longer.

A blue cloud with a tick means iCloud has the latest version of that file safe. A file can also be kept in iCloud only, to save space on your iPhone: it is still yours and still there, and it comes back down when you open it.

Your files stay in iCloud Drive, in the Stashbird folder. What Stashbird learned from reading them is kept on the iPhone and goes with the app. If you install it again, it reads your documents again. iOS keeps your sign-in, so you are signed straight back in; to remove that too, use Delete account before you delete the app.

In Stashbird, open Settings and choose Delete account. This signs you out and erases what Stashbird keeps on your iPhone: your sign-in, what it read in your documents, its notes, the small pictures of your pages and your settings. Only its list of files deleted for good stays (each one's name and when), so a missing file can always be explained; deleting the app removes that too. Your files stay in iCloud Drive, because they are yours; you can delete them in the Files app. Files waiting in Removed stay there too, and if you sign in again and recover one, it goes to your Inbox. To also disconnect Sign in with Apple, open the iPhone's Settings, tap your name, then Sign in with Apple, then Stashbird, and tap Delete.