Help
How a letter gets from tonight to the day it arrives.
Why can't I read my own letter?
Because that is the whole point. Once you seal a letter it is closed until it has travelled the distance you chose. Your words are still safely stored — they are just not shown to anyone, including you, until the walk is done.
How does a letter move?
Only with your steps. 1,000 steps carry it one mile. There is no timer: if you stop walking, the letter waits for you on the road. It never expires and never disappears.
How exactly are my steps counted?
Through Apple's motion sensor (CoreMotion) — not Health data, and never your location. The conversion is 1:1 and fixed: 1,000 steps become exactly one mile, with no second currency and no per-letter discount. There is one published limit: at most 30,000 steps count in a single day, and it exists only to stop a misreading sensor from teleporting a letter. Both numbers are shown in Settings and they do not change.
I'm walking but nothing moved
Open the app. Steps are read when Milepost comes to the foreground. iOS also keeps only about seven days of step history, so opening the app at least once a week means nothing is lost.
If I stop walking, does my letter disappear?
No. A letter that has stopped is not late and not lost — it is waiting for you on the road, exactly where you left it. Progress never expires, never resets and never goes backwards, and no amount of waiting will move it either. Pick the walk back up months later and it carries on from the same mile.
I didn't allow step access
The app still works completely. The waystations carry your letter 3 miles a day — far slower than walking. You can turn steps on later in Settings, and everything already walked is kept.
What if I never turn step access on?
Then every letter still arrives, just slowly. The waystation rate is a published 3 miles a day, so a 70-mile letter takes about 24 days of calendar time instead of 70,000 steps. Nothing is locked, nothing is nagged, and the moment you switch steps on, the letter carries on from the mile it had already reached.
Where do the writing prompts come from?
They are first lines, nothing more — written for the evenings when you want to write and don't know how to start: the thank-you you never said, a letter for next New Year's Eve. Three are featured free every week and change on their own; the whole library is part of Waystation Pro. You never need one. The blank page is always there, and a prompt is only a line you can write straight over.
What are the postcards?
A waystation hands your letter a postcard at a quarter, a half and three quarters of the way. They collect in the Atlas. Twelve come from the road itself and are free — the last of those belongs only to a letter whose whole road you finished. The Four Seasons pack adds twelve more places and is part of Waystation Pro.
What are the stamps?
Postcards come from the road; stamps come at the end of it. When a letter is delivered, its stamp is pressed into the book beside the postcards. There is nothing to buy there — a stamp is earned by walking a letter home, and only that way. Twelve of them exist.
What is Footprints?
Everything you have carried, added up: the miles walked for your letters, how many you wrote, delivered and opened, your longest journey, and the medals that turn up at the milestones along the way. Once a year you can export it as a poster to keep or print — the poster is part of Waystation Pro. Nothing sealed is ever shown there: Footprints counts roads, never the words on them.
Does anyone write back?
No. Milepost never generates a reply and never imitates the person you wrote to. What comes back is the journey itself — postcards and a waystation stamp.
What costs money?
Writing, sealing, sending and opening letters are free forever, and so are the twelve postcards from the road and every stamp you earn by delivering a letter. There are no ads. Waystation Pro is optional and gives more room rather than more access: several letters on the road at once — the free version carries one — the Pro stationery and wax seals, the whole prompts library, the Four Seasons postcard pack, iCloud backup, the yearly footprints poster, and the PDF letter book. It comes as $1.99 per week, $19.99 per year with a 3-day free trial, or $49.99 once for lifetime access, which is not a subscription and never renews. The full terms are in Settings → Terms of Use.
How do I back up my letters?
Open Settings, find Keep your letters safe and turn the switch on. It comes with Waystation Pro and stays off until you do that yourself. Milepost then writes an encrypted copy of your letters and your collection into your own iCloud Drive — your Apple Account's storage, not ours — and keeps the key in your iCloud Keychain, so nobody else can open the file, us included. Turn the switch back off and the copy is removed.
I have a new phone — do my letters come with me?
Only if backup was on before. Sign in to the same Apple Account, install Milepost and tap Restore from backup: the letters come back with the miles they had already walked, still sealed if they were sealed. Nothing is restored on its own — it waits until you ask. Without a backup there is nothing to bring over, because a letter that was never backed up existed only on the phone you wrote it on.
Can I keep my letters outside the app?
Yes, once they have been opened. The PDF letter book gathers the letters you have already read into one file you can keep, print or pass on; it is part of Waystation Pro. The file is made on the phone and handed to the ordinary iOS share sheet at the moment you ask for it — Milepost never sends it anywhere by itself. Letters that are still sealed are not in it.
How do I cancel a subscription?
Open Settings → your Apple Account → Subscriptions on this device and turn off renewal for Milepost. It stays active until the end of the period you already paid for. Subscriptions are managed by Apple, and refunds are handled by Apple too.
I paid before, on another phone
Sign in with the same Apple Account, open the waystation screen and tap Restore purchases. That brings back what you paid for, not what you wrote: your letters travel with you only if you had turned iCloud backup on — otherwise they exist solely on the phone you wrote them on.
Still stuck? Write to Fuuqiu@gmail.com — one person makes Milepost, and that person reads the mail.