Own Orbit is an offline-first planner for iPhone and iPad. It keeps your tasks in lists with dates, repeats and reminders, shows them next to the events from your device’s calendars, tracks your habits and streaks, and keeps a Shelf of the movies, TV series and books you’re into. Your records are stored on your device by default.
Own Orbit starts almost empty: an Inbox list for your tasks and three built-in Shelf types (Movies, TV series and Books). There is no sign-up and no sample data.
The five tabs are:
On iPad, and on wide windows, each tab splits into two panes: pick something on the left and its details open on the right.
Own Orbit asks for calendar access the first time you open a calendar view, and for notifications the first time you set a reminder — never at launch.
Under the date, up to four cards: Events, Tasks, Habits and Shelf. Tap a card’s chevron to fold it. Cards with nothing in them start folded and open by themselves when something arrives. Everything updates as the day goes on, after midnight, and when you change time zone.
Tap the floating + to add a task due today.
Open Calendar and choose List from the view menu. You’ll see a search field, your device and subscribed calendars, All tasks, the Inbox, then your folders and lists with their counts of open tasks.
Date & Time has shortcuts (Today, Tomorrow, Next week, No date), a calendar, and Starts, Ends, an All-day switch and Time zone. A timed task keeps the time zone it was set in, so a 9:00 London task shows at the matching time when you’re in Tokyo. A task is overdue once its end has passed.
Tap Repeat (a task needs a date first): Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly or Custom — every few days, chosen weekdays, chosen days of the month, or “the last Friday”, ending never, on a date, or after a number of times. Completing or skipping a repeating task affects only that date, and the next one appears straight away. If you fall behind, only the latest missed occurrence stays overdue; earlier ones are skipped automatically and kept in the history. Changing the rule applies from today and never rewrites the past.
A task can have several reminders: at the due time, a few minutes, an hour or a day before, or a custom time. All-day tasks remind you at the Default reminder time (Settings > General, 09:00 at first). Tap a reminder to open its task. If notifications are off, the reminder list shows a notice with a button to open iOS Settings.
The App icon badge (Settings > General) can count today’s tasks, today’s plus overdue tasks, or nothing.
Tap the search field at the top of the List view, or Search in a list’s or calendar view’s ⋯ menu. Search finds tasks by title, notes and tags, and events by title, location and notes, ignoring case and accents. Narrow it with the All / Tasks / Events chips and the Priority, Status and Tags pills. Start with # to search by tag. Recent searches are kept on this device; swipe one away or tap Clear.
Choose a view from the menu at the top left (on iPad, the segmented control): Day, 3 Days, Week, Month, Year or List. Swipe sideways to move, tap the title to jump to any date, and tap Today to come back.
Settings > Calendars shows your calendar access, lets you switch individual calendars on and off for this device, and sets the Default view, whether completed tasks show on the calendar, and Events in Today.
Add a calendar published on the web — a sports season, a school term, a team schedule — under Settings > Calendars > Add: paste its address (webcal or https), give it a name and pick a colour. Own Orbit checks the address before saving. Its events show read-only alongside your others and refresh when the app opens (at most every 30 minutes), in the background, and when you tap Refresh in its editor. The last good copy stays available offline. After three failed refreshes in a row, a warning appears next to its name.
Open the Habit tab and tap +. Give the habit a name, an emoji and a colour, then choose How often (every day, chosen weekdays, or a number of times a week), the Part of the day, and an optional Reminder.
Settings > Habits sets the default times for Morning, Afternoon and Evening and whether completed habits stay in place, move to the bottom, or are hidden.
Open the Shelf tab and tap + to add a movie, a TV series or a book.
Settings > Shelf lets you change each type’s emoji, unit and colour, hide a type (its items are kept), add your own types (Pro), and choose whether new items start as Want to or In progress.
Add Own Orbit widgets from the iOS widget gallery.
Widgets show your data on your Home Screen and Lock Screen, so anyone who can see your screen can see them.
Own Orbit is free to use. Without Pro you can have five lists (the Inbox counts as one), three active habits and three Shelf items per type, plus the Today widget. Nothing is ever deleted or locked because of these limits.
Own Orbit Pro is a one-time, non-consumable purchase — not a subscription — that removes those limits and unlocks your own Shelf types, subscribed calendars, iCloud Sync and every widget. You’ll see it when you try to go past a free limit or tap a Pro feature.
Restore Pro: if you purchased Pro before with the same Apple ID, open the Own Orbit Pro screen (for example, Settings > iCloud Sync, then tap the locked Enable Sync row) and tap Restore Purchases. Purchases and refunds are handled by Apple.
Don’t need habits or the Shelf? Switch them off under Settings > General > Features. Their tab, their Today card, their reminders and their widget go away; nothing is deleted, and everything returns exactly as it was when you switch them back on.
iCloud Sync is an optional Pro feature that syncs your Own Orbit data across your own devices through your private iCloud database. It is off by default. Calendar events and the downloaded copies of subscribed calendars are never synced.
Go to Settings > iCloud Sync and turn on Enable Sync. When prompted:
Own Orbit then asks to close, and applies the change when you reopen it. After a restore you may see Waiting for iCloud data while your records arrive; if nothing arrives, a Use Defaults Instead button appears.
The Status card shows your iCloud account, the sync status (Waiting for restart, Waiting for iCloud, Syncing…, Idle, or Error), and the last sync time. Keep Own Orbit open while an important sync is in progress, and allow other devices some time to receive changes. Avoid editing the same item on two devices at once. If a sync leaves duplicates behind, Own Orbit tidies them up and tells you once with Sync adjusted N items.
To turn sync off, flip the toggle; it applies after the next restart. If a sync is still finishing, Own Orbit asks you to try again in a moment so no change is left behind. Your data stays on the device and in iCloud. If your Pro purchase is no longer active while sync is on, you’ll see Sync is paused — your data is safe on the device, but changes no longer reach your other devices.
Delete individual tasks, lists, folders, habits, Shelf items and subscribed calendars from their own screens. Own Orbit asks before deleting. Deleting a list moves its tasks to the Inbox, and deleting a folder keeps its lists. A custom Shelf type can be deleted only when it is empty.
Own Orbit has no “delete everything” button. To remove your Own Orbit data from iCloud without touching your device, turn sync off, then use Delete iCloud Data in Settings > iCloud Sync (it needs Pro). This can’t be undone, and other devices will lose access to the iCloud copy.
Deleting the app removes its data from that device. It does not remove data already stored in your iCloud account.
For help, bug reports, or suggestions, visit Own Orbit Support or email shuyizhao.support@gmail.com.
Please do not email private calendar addresses, personal notes, or other sensitive information.