When you import contacts from Apple Contacts for the first time, or when you create a Public Contact from within Contacts Journal, you might be prompted to grant access to Contacts Journal.
Starting in iOS18, you have 3 options:
- Don't Allow -> the app won't be able to read or write contacts to Apple Contacts. You can still add Private Contacts to the app, which doesn't require access to Apple Contacts data
- Allow Full Access -> for the best experience using Contacts Journal, choose this option. This allows the app to import contacts that you select, to easily sync data that has changed (for e.g. added email or phone number to a contact) and also to keep checking for new contacts added to Apple Contacts, so you can be prompted to import them if you wish.
- Limited Access -> this allows you to select a limited number of contacts, and allows Contacts Journal to access data for only those contacts, and not for your full contacts list. This works as expected in Contacts Journal, though you miss out on continuous detection of new contacts. You can always use the "Import From Contacts" option to select more contacts from your Apple Contacts to import into Contacts Journal.
Switch from Limited Access to Full Access
If you initially choose to allow "Limited Access", you can later switch to using "Full Access" for the best experience with Contacts Journal.
To do this, on your device, open the Settings app -> Privacy & Security -> Contacts -> CJournal -> choose "Full Access".