Connections

Link things you logged to remember what happened together and what you tried.

For example

You logged fatigue and a rest. Connect them to record that you rested for fatigue, then add whether it helped and a note about what you noticed.

Which should I use?

Patterns: explore possible associations identified by Tended.

Connections: record how logged items relate, what you tried and any outcome you noticed. You can also connect a logged item to an episode.

Episodes: follow symptom updates you consider part of the same episode.

These tools complement each other. Neither a calculated pattern nor a recorded relationship proves a cause. Connections and Episodes are optional; use either, both or neither.

Terms used here

Journal entry: everything you save together at a particular date and time.

Logged item: one recorded thing, such as fatigue, medication or rest. It can come from a journal entry or another source, such as an Apple Health daily summary.

Symptom update: one symptom recorded at a particular time, such as fatigue rated 7/10 at 09:00. An episode contains these updates.

Connection: a relationship you record between two logged items, or between a logged item and an episode.

Episode: symptom updates you group together as part of the same period. Grouping updates does not automatically create connections.

Make a connection

1. Tap the Connections heading in Journal, or open a journal entry and tap the link button. 2. Tap Add connection and select two logged items. While adding a connection, tap Browse logged items to find older items. 3. Tap Connect, choose how the items relate, then tap Apply.

If the current entry has no logged items, Choose items to connect offers Add symptom while editing, or Edit entry for a saved entry. Choose earlier items opens your logged history and starts selecting a connection. Connections are optional.

Save your changes

From a saved journal entry, tap the checkmark (Save) in Connections or Episodes to save your changes.

While editing a journal entry, tap the checkmark (Done) to return, then save the entry. Wider layouts may show Save or Done as text. Apply updates your draft; it does not save the journal entry.

Find and select logged items

Choosing items starts in List. You can switch to Map at any time. Search and the Type filter work together. Items are grouped by type within each date; selecting a type leaves date headings only. Each occurrence keeps its own time and value.

While adding a connection, use Browse logged items to find older items. Tap an item once to select it and return to Connections. Load earlier logged items continues through history. Clear filters removes the search and type filter when nothing matches.

Your selected items stay selected when you search, filter or switch between Map and List. Cancel connection clears that selection without changing saved connections.

What a relationship means

Related context records a general association. Suspected contributor and Suspected unwanted effect record a possibility, not a confirmed cause. Used for or Taken for identifies the symptom or episode you intended to address, with an optional reported outcome. Located at identifies a body location. A connection to an episode does not mean every symptom update changed or improved.

Logged times and estimates

Original logged times remain attached to their logged items. Optional estimated event and relief times describe what you remember about the relationship. They do not rewrite the original timestamps or establish onset, duration or cause. Connections can cross entries and dates. Copying an entry or carrying observations forward creates new occurrences; it does not copy their connections or episode membership.

Map and List

Map shows each recorded connection in its own labelled path between two items. List shows the same relationships as compact rows. Tap a connection to edit it, or Add connection to select items. Filter counts refer to connections while browsing, and items while choosing a new connection. Tended starts in List with VoiceOver, Switch Control or accessibility text sizes. Reflection content stays private until you deliberately open its source.

Search connections finds item names, relationship types, reported outcomes and your connection notes. The Type filter can match either connected item. Private reflection text is not searched here.

The Map and List icons sit beside search. The connected-points icon opens Map; the list icon opens List. At accessibility text sizes, the icons move below search to leave room for text. All items includes every item type in the current scope; when opened from an entry, this means connections involving that entry. List gives each connected item its own short date and time caption. Open a connection or its original item to see whether a time is a logged time, recorded event time or recorded dose time.

Review and remove

The Journal list shows one connection preview. Tap +more to expand all its connections and saved details, or Show less to collapse them. Calendar view shows all connections beneath the Connections heading. Tap the Connections heading to open Connections and review or edit the source items. Removing a connection keeps the logged items. If original items are missing, Tended shows retained context or an unavailable source rather than inventing a replacement. Competing versions need deliberate review.

Original entry shows the Selected logged item alongside the Current original entry. Retained context can differ if the source has changed. Symptom severity is shown on its recorded scale; Energy is a separate entry rating out of 5. Day rating is an optional overall assessment for the whole date, across all entries. Not rated means no daily rating is set; Needs review means the daily ratings cannot yet be resolved. Waiting for sync means rating history is incomplete on this device. Tap Edit entry to edit the original. A saved workspace saves its pending Connections and Episodes changes first. If you are editing another entry, choose whether to save, discard or keep editing before switching.

Insights, reports and sharing

User-recorded relationships remain separate from patterns Tended identifies in Insights. Doctor Mode and report previews label your suspicions and reported outcomes accordingly. Choose what to include in each output; notes and photos have separate choices. Connected apps and each carer have their own sharing permissions. No new detail is shared just because Connections exists.

Hide the tools

More > Tracking has one Connections switch: Show connection tools and summaries on this device. Turning it off hides those controls and summaries. It does not delete your records or stop existing authorised sharing and report schedules. You can reduce sharing in its existing destination while the tools are hidden.

Browse records in Journal

In Journal, tap the link button in the toolbar to open Connections and episodes across all dates. Select Connections or Episodes, then search or filter within the workspace. Entry headings still open records for that entry. Tap Save to keep workspace edits. Log new update opens a new journal entry; save that entry to add the selected symptom updates. Browsing your records remains free. Hiding Connections in Tracking settings hides these controls without deleting your records.

Connections and episode insights

In Insights, Connections and episodes appears below Patterns and comparisons and Trends over time, before Reports and records. Connection cards appear when you have saved connections; the episode card appears when you have saved episodes. If none match the current period or condition, the cards remain available so you can explore another selection. The cards and the pages they open use the same names: Reported outcomes, Episode overview and Recorded relationships. The date range below the heading shows the rolling month covered by the card summaries. All conditions means no condition filter is applied; selecting a condition narrows the summaries to matching entries. Tap the corresponding View action to open a summary.

In Insights, Reported outcomes counts what you reported after using relief methods or taking medication for a logged item or episode. Helped, No change, Felt worse, Not sure and Not recorded remain separate. Each card shows the counts for outcomes present in that group. Tap View outcomes for the complete breakdown, with the total number of recorded connections above it. Categories with zero connections remain visible without navigation arrows. Tap a category with a count above zero to review those connections, or View all connections to include every category. The toolbar info button explains the counts and missing outcomes. Not recorded means no outcome was entered; it is different from Not sure. An episode-level report is not copied to every symptom. Recorded relationships groups connections by the meaning you chose; repeated connections do not prove a cause. Its full-width card previews the number of matching connections and relationships recorded more than once. Tap View recorded relationships to see the grouped records.

Episode overview counts episodes first recorded in the selected period and labels the status rows as the current status of those episodes. Earlier ongoing episodes are not included in that summary. First recorded is the earliest known linked symptom update, not illness onset; the toolbar info button explains this. The chart shows whole-number episode counts by recorded date across the full selected period. Each populated date has an equally sized dot and a thin vertical stem from zero. The dot’s height shows the daily count; dates keep their chronological spacing. Dots are not connected. Tap the chart to inspect the nearest recorded date, or touch and hold then drag between dates. A highlighted dot and vertical guide show the selected date; the readout shows its date and episode count. Inspection does not change the scale, filters or episode list. Changing the period, condition or local status/symptom filters clears the selection. Vertical swipes still scroll the page. All Time runs from the earliest included episode through today. The date range and count scale use all episodes in the selected period and condition, before local status or symptom filters. These filters change daily counts without changing the axes, dot size or stem width. Search and grouping change only the list. If no first-recorded episodes match, the chart retains its axes and explains the empty result. The Episodes in this period list can also include earlier episodes with matching updates or estimated date ranges overlapping the period, so it can contain more episodes than the summary. Episode symptoms groups the episode title and status, with the saved Episode note available to expand. Each symptom keeps its own recorded scale and shows its recorded-update dates, rated and unrated counts, highest recorded rating and latest usable rating. A newer unrated update does not replace Latest rated. Missing ratings break chart lines. Use the toolbar info button for chart and context explanations. Supporting symptom updates and connections appear as counted navigation rows. Estimated episode duration uses valid estimated start and end dates for settled episodes first recorded in the period, never the gap between logged updates. Estimated episode duration shows its sample size with the median, shortest and longest estimates. The info button explains the median and separates included episodes from ongoing episodes, unspecified status and settled episodes without valid estimates. Tap View episode symptoms on an included episode to review its symptom updates. The duration and recurrence rows show how many eligible records are available and remain available when empty. Compare recurrences shows each linked pair as Previous episode and Recurrence, with saved titles and First recorded dates so even matching titles remain distinguishable. View comparison opens matching symptom rating scales; the card names the symptoms available to compare. A previous episode first recorded outside the selected period is labelled as context. When no ratings match, Review episode updates remains available. The toolbar info button explains explicit recurrence links, comparable scales and alignment by first recorded updates, not illness onset.

The period and condition filters apply to these summaries. Supporting records retain the selection, with complete connected-episode context labelled when it falls outside the period or condition. Unavailable or unresolved sources are excluded from measurements; missing ratings and outcomes are never zero or no change. Tap the info button in the toolbar for inclusion rules and coverage details. A day rating is not required. Period buttons show 1 Month, 3 Months, 6 Months, 1 Year and All Time when they fit. Narrower layouts use 1m, 3m, 6m, 1y and All, with full names for screen readers. Tap a button to change the range. If the compact labels also cannot fit, such as at larger text sizes, the selector becomes a menu with the same options. The last month is available free; Tended+ enables longer periods.

Search, Filters and View options are available on Reported outcomes, Episode overview and Recorded relationships. Filters use Apply to update the view; Cancel discards the filter choices you have not applied. Search and filters work within the selected period and condition. On Reported outcomes, search matches method, medication or target names; outcome filters find groups containing that report and retain the complete breakdown, including missing and uncertain outcomes. Group by relief method or medication brings related comparisons together. On Episode overview, status and included-symptom filters update figures and the episode list. Search matches episode titles and symptoms but narrows only the list. Group episodes by current status or first recorded month, or keep an ungrouped list. On Recorded relationships, search matches either item and filters can select relationship meaning or item type. Group by meaning or first connected item; each relationship group appears once. First connected item uses the source for directional relationships and the alphabetically first item for Related context. Sorting and grouping never merge or edit records. Choices remain when you return from details. Clear search and filters resets local choices without changing the period or condition. Supporting pages show the applied local scope and keep the full group or episode context. Source-availability counts use the period and condition, including unresolved records that local filters cannot classify.

Make a connection

Keep a relationship you noticed between two logged items.

Choose a saved journal entry containing something you want to connect. You can browse earlier items while adding the connection.

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Make a connection: steps

1. Choose the entry Choose the saved entry this connection involves. In Connections, tap Add connection. If you are already editing an entry, use its link button.
2. Choose two logged items Tap each item once to select it. Use Earlier logged items to find another occurrence. Check the names, times and values; tap a selected item again to remove it.
3. Describe the relationship Tap Connect, choose the relationship and review its direction. An outcome or note is optional. A suspected contributor records a possibility, not a confirmed cause.
4. Apply, then save Tap Apply to return to the workspace. Tap Save to keep the connection. When opened from an entry editor, tap Done to return, then save the journal entry. Apply alone does not save it.

Make a connection: troubleshooting

You need two different available items. Cancel connection clears the selection without deleting saved items. If saving fails, keep the workspace open and try again. An unchanged existing connection does not finish this guide.