Getting started with Flipped

3 minutes · works on macOS 14+ & iOS 17+

Flipped hides distracting apps on your iPhone for as long as you want them gone — no jailbreak, no Screen Time gymnastics, no workaround for you to discover later. Setup takes about 2-3 minutes the first time, then flipping is one tap.

Before you start

You'll need a Mac running macOS 14 (Sonoma) or newer.
An iPhone running iOS 17 or newer.
A USB cable that can sync data (the free cable that came with your iPhone is fine; a charge-only cable from the gas station is not).
5 minutes alone with both devices.

The setup

Download Flipped on your Mac, open the .dmg, and drag Flipped.app into your Applications folder. macOS may ask to confirm the app was downloaded from the internet — click Open.
Sign in with the same email you used at checkout — that email IS your account.
We send a 6-digit sign-in code to that email. Type it in and you're in — no password, no license key.
The app walks you through 6 short steps. Two iPhone switches go off for setup — this is a standard Apple requirement (the same two you'd turn off to back up your iPhone to a computer), and both go back on at the end:
1. Go to Settings > Face ID & Passcode and turn off Stolen Device Protection.
2. Go to Settings, tap your name at the top, tap Find My, and turn off Find My iPhone.
Plug in your iPhone with your cable and leave it unlocked.
The app handles the rest. Your iPhone reboots once during setup. When iOS asks "Continue with Partial Setup" or "Erase This iPhone" → tap CONTINUE. Never tap Erase.
One last "Trust" + one last "Enroll This iPhone" tap. You're done.

Important: never tap "Erase This iPhone" during the iOS setup screen. Always tap "Continue with Partial Setup". Erase wipes your data — Continue keeps everything. Flipped's onboarding flags this in two places, but it's worth saying once more.

Your first flip

Out of the box, Flipped's Simple profile blocks Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat, X, Facebook, Reddit, Netflix, and a handful of other social/streaming apps — but keeps everything else (Discord, banking, Spotify, Maps, work apps). Tap ▶ FLIP from Home, and your iPhone clears those apps within ~30 seconds. Tap UNFLIP any time to bring them back.

Going stricter

The Modes tab gives you commitment-style flips:

Focus (30 min - 24 hr): apps stay hidden until the timer expires. One emergency unflip per month if you really need to bail.
Unplug (1 day - 1 year): same, no escape hatch — perfect for vacations or deep deadlines.

The Profiles tab lets you build custom blocklists (or duplicate Simple/Deep Work/Nomad and tweak from there). Custom profiles are local to your Mac.

Tip: organize before you flip

iOS rearranges your home screen each time apps appear/disappear. If that bothers you, put the apps you'll block in a single folder on your iPhone before your first flip. The folder hides as one icon and your home screen layout stays stable.

If something breaks

Full step-by-step recovery for every common stuck state: useflipped.com/help. Bookmark it.
Open Flipped → Settings → Get Help → Copy Diagnostics. Send Pete that text.
If the Mac app is stuck: Settings → Reset Everything Local. Wipes only the Mac side; your iPhone supervision stays. Sign in again with your email + a fresh 6-digit code to drop right back in.
If your iPhone is stuck during or after setup: open the Mac app → Settings → Remove from iPhone. This strips Flipped cleanly without a factory reset. The iOS-side "Settings → VPN & Device Management → Remove Management" path doesn't work — Flipped's profile is locked by design.

Removing Flipped completely

iPhone first: open the Mac app → Settings → Remove from iPhone. Plug your iPhone in via USB. Takes ~30 seconds, no factory reset needed.
Mac second: drag /Applications/Flipped.app to Trash.
Account/data last: Mac app → Settings → Danger → Delete Account (before you uninstall). Erases everything we have about you on our servers.

Privacy in two sentences

Flipped sees: your email, the iPhone's UDID + serial, which apps you've classified as block/allow, when sessions started + ended. Flipped never sees: your messages, photos, location, browsing history, or anything inside any app. Full privacy policy →

Questions or stuck somewhere? Email support@useflipped.com — Pete reads every one.