Support
Get in touch
Write to support@flyeta.app. It is read by a person, so plain English is fine - but a mail with the details below gets a useful answer on the first reply instead of the third.
- Your phone and its system version. On iPhone: Settings → General → About → Software Version. On Android: Settings → About phone → Android version.
- The app version, from the footer at the bottom of the setup screen. It reads
FlyETA · v1.2.3 (45) · built …and the build number in brackets is the part that pins it down. - If the problem is about a particular flight, the flight file itself. On iPhone: Files → On My iPhone → FlyETA → flights. On Android: a file manager, in Android/media/app.flyeta/flights. Share the JSON file for that flight. It holds the recording and nothing about you.
Questions people ask
Why does the altitude show --?
Because the phone has no satellite fix at that moment. An aircraft window is a small hole in a metal tube, so a fix can take a while or drop out entirely - hold the phone near the window, screen facing into the cabin, and give it a minute. FlyETA shows -- rather than the last known value or an estimate from the schedule.
On iPhone the altitude is GPS height above the WGS84 ellipsoid, and the readout is markedHAE. That differs from height above mean sea level by the local geoid offset, about 45 m over central Europe and more than 100 m in some places. FlyETA does not use the sea-level altitude iOS offers, because on a phone with a barometer it is mixed with cabin pressure and can read kilometres low in flight.
On Android 14 and newer the phone converts GPS height to height above mean sea level, and the readout is marked MSL. Older Android versions cannot convert it, so the readout shows GPS height marked HAE, as on iPhone.
Why does the satellite count read -- on my iPhone?
Because iOS does not expose raw GNSS data to apps at all - no satellite list, no signal strengths. That is an Apple platform limit, not a fault in the app or your phone, and it is permanent on every iPhone. A blank count does not mean a bad sky: the position, altitude and speed readouts still work normally. Android phones do expose it, so the count appears there.
Does recording keep going with the screen locked?
Yes. FlyETA asks for location While Using the App only. Once you tap the red record button, the recording keeps going when you lock the screen or switch apps. iOS shows the blue location indicator while it does, and Android shows a FlyETA notification. Outside a recording the app does not use location in the background. FlyETA has no server to send a position to, so the track goes only to the file on your phone.
Where are my flight files?
On iPhone, in the Files app: On My iPhone → FlyETA → flights. On Android, in a file manager: Android/media/app.flyeta/flights. One JSON file per recording, readable in any text editor, which you can copy off the phone, mail to yourself or keep in a backup. Nothing is hidden in a private database.
How do I delete a flight, or everything?
Delete a single flight from the past-flights list in the app, or delete its file in the Files app or a file manager - both do the same thing. To remove everything, delete the app: the flight files and your settings go with it. There is no copy anywhere else to ask us to erase.
Do I need cabin wifi?
No. Tracking and recording are entirely offline - satellites keep working in airplane mode, and the map and terrain are already on the phone. The only step that touches the internet is looking a flight number up, which you do at the gate before you board; the route is then saved for the flight. You can skip even that by picking both airports by hand.
Data sources
The maps, place names and sample flights in the app are built from these open datasets.
- Satellite imagery: Blue Marble, NASA Earth Observatory. NASA imagery is not under copyright in the United States; NASA asks to be credited.Image use policy.
- Borders, water, regions, peaks and mountain ranges: Made withNatural Earth. Public domain.
- Cities: GeoNames, licensed underCC BY 4.0. FlyETA uses the GeoNames list of cities over 15,000 people, reduced to name, position, country and population.
- Airports: OurAirports. Public domain.
- ADS-B sample flights: built from data © adsb.lolcontributors, available under theOpen Database License (ODbL) 1.0. The flown routes the app fetches from adsb.lol after a flight-number lookup come from the same database.
The sample globe on the home page uses the same Natural Earth borders and adsb.lol data.