Settings

Welcome to your MAE (Making Allergies Easy) settings! This comprehensive guide will help you set up and manage MAE to best protect you from allergen exposure.

Understanding App Settings vs Profiles

MAE has two distinct types of settings:

App Settings

These control how the app works for everyone using it:

  • API configuration
  • Notification preferences
  • Data sharing options
  • App-wide features

Jump to App Settings Guide

Profiles

These are person-specific allergen configurations:

  • Individual allergen lists
  • Personal ingredient preferences
  • Epinephrine device tracking
  • Key medical/emergency contacts
  • Can have multiple profiles (e.g., for different family members)

Jump to Profile Management Guide

Table of Contents

  1. Getting Started
  2. First Time Setup
  3. Profile Management
  1. App Settings
  1. Other Settings
  2. Troubleshooting

Getting Started

To access your settings:

  1. Open your MAE app
  2. Look for the gear icon (⚙️) at the bottom of your screen
  3. Tap it to open your settings

The settings screen is divided into sections:

  • Profile sections (at the top) – One for each person you’re tracking
  • App sections (below profiles) – API, Recalls, Share Settings, etc.

First Time Setup

When you first open MAE, you’ll go through a guided setup process:

1. Profile Setup

Who are we managing allergies for?

  • Enter the name of the person whose allergies you’re tracking
  • Remember: All your personal data is kept on your device. Even when logs are shared, your privacy is protected.

2. Select Allergens

What is [profileName] allergic to?

  • Select from the list of top allergens
  • You can fine-tune everything later in settings
  • Expand each allergen section to see what specific ingredients MAE will monitor

3. Additional Ingredients

Is there anything else [profileName] needs to avoid?

  • Add any ingredients not in the common allergen lists
  • These help MAE provide more personalized alerts

4. Epinephrine Devices

Emergency medication tracking

  • Add details about EpiPens or other emergency medications
  • MAE will remind you when they need to be replaced

5. Learn About Profiles

  • Add more people as needed
  • Long-press a profile name to share it with other MAE users
  • Tap a profile to edit details

6. Understand MAE’s Goals

MAE helps you in three ways:

  1. Analyze ingredients in products
  2. Alert you to recalls and market issues for your allergens
  3. Help you learn more about your allergens

Profile Management

Creating and Managing Profiles

Each profile represents a person whose allergies you’re tracking:

  1. View profiles – Listed at the top of settings
  2. Add profile – Use “+” button next to “Profiles”
  3. Edit profile – Tap the profile name
  4. Share profile – Long-press the profile name
  5. Switch active profile – Tap to make active (affects scanner results)

Managing Your Allergens

In the “Allergens” section, you’ll find three important lists:

My Allergens

Your main allergen list containing common allergens like milk, peanuts, tree nuts, etc.

To set up:

  1. Tap the “Allergens” section to expand it
  2. Tap “My Allergens”
  3. Check the boxes next to any allergens that affect you
  4. Hit OK – you can change these anytime!

Additional Ingredients to Avoid

For ingredients that aren’t in the common allergen lists.

To manage:

  1. Tap “Additional Ingredients to Avoid”
  2. Use the + button to add new items
  3. Tap any item to edit it
  4. Swipe left on an item to delete it (with undo option)

Safe Ingredients

Keep track of foods you’ve confirmed are safe.

To manage:

  1. Tap “Safe Ingredients”
  2. Use the + button to add safe foods
  3. Edit items by tapping them
  4. Remove items by swiping left (with undo option)

Epinephrine Tracking

Track emergency medications for each profile:

  1. Tap on a profile to expand it
  2. Find “Epinephrine Devices” section
  3. Add device details (brand, expiration date)
  4. MAE will notify you before expiration

Key Contacts

Store important medical or emergency contacts for quick access during allergic reactions or emergencies.

⚠️ Important: If this is an emergency, please call 911 first before using other contacts.

What you can store:

  • Emergency contacts (family, friends)
  • Medical professionals (allergist, primary care doctor)
  • Pharmacy phone numbers
  • School nurse or workplace emergency contacts

To manage:

  1. Tap “Key Contacts” in the profile section
  2. Use the + button to add new contacts
  3. Enter the contact’s name and phone number
  4. Tap any contact to edit their information
  5. Swipe left on a contact to delete it (with undo option)

Quick dialing:

  • Long press any contact to immediately dial their number
  • Perfect for emergency situations when you need help fast

App Settings

These settings affect the entire app, not just one profile:

API Settings

Enable advanced ingredient detection with our API feature:

  1. Find the “API” section and tap to expand
  2. If you have an API key, tap “API Key Status” to enter it
  3. Use the switch to turn the feature on or off
  4. Monitor your usage count displayed in this section

Pro Tip: To remove your API key, tap the API card three times quickly!

Newsfeed & Alerts

Control which FDA recall sources to monitor:

  • Edit the Timeframe to set how many days of alerts to fetch
  • Tap the save icon to keep your changes – nothing is stored until you do!

Sharing and Importing Settings

MAE makes it easy to share your allergy setup with family members or keep backups.

Share Settings

Exports everything for the selected person as an XML file:

  • Person name and settings
  • All allergens
  • Additional ingredients to avoid
  • Feature preferences

To share:

  1. Go to Settings
  2. Long-press on the profile name you want to share
  3. Select Share Profile from the menu
  4. Choose an app to send the file (Gmail, Messages, etc.)
  5. The file is named MAE-<person_name>.xml

Import Settings

Two ways to import settings:

Automatic Import:

  1. When you receive a shared settings file, tap it in your email or messaging app
  2. Choose MAE if prompted
  3. The app opens and imports the settings automatically
  4. A toast message confirms the new profile is added

Manual Import:

  1. Open Settings
  2. Tap Import Settings
  3. Select the XML file to import

Complete Data Backup and Restore

Under the Your Data accordion you’ll find comprehensive backup options for all your MAE data:

What Gets Backed Up?

When you create a backup, the following data is saved for ALL profiles:

Profile Information:

  • Profile names
  • Allergen selections
  • Additional ingredients to avoid
  • Safe ingredients
  • Feature visibility settings (Barnivore, NDC Lookup, etc.)

Medical Information:

  • Epinephrine device details (type, lot number, expiration dates)
  • Key emergency contacts
  • Complete reaction diary history

Food Finds:

  • All saved food products
  • Ratings and notes
  • Store locations

How to Create a Backup

  1. Open the app and navigate to Settings (gear icon)
  2. Find the Your Data section
  3. Tap Backup Data
  4. The app will create a backup file containing ALL your profiles
  5. Choose how to save or share the backup:
  • Save to your device storage
  • Send via email
  • Upload to cloud storage (Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.)
  • Share via any app that accepts files

Backup File Details:

  • File name: MAE-backup-all-profiles.zip
  • File type: ZIP archive
  • Size: Varies based on amount of data (typically under 1MB)

How to Restore from Backup

  1. Open the app and navigate to Settings
  2. Find the Your Data section
  3. Tap Import Data
  4. Select your backup file (MAE-backup-all-profiles.zip)
  5. Wait for the import to complete
  6. You’ll see a message confirming success or failure

After Restore:

  • All profiles will be restored with their original names
  • Reaction diaries will be correctly associated with each profile
  • Food finds will be available to all profiles
  • You may need to select your active profile from the profile drawer

Important Notes

Cross-Device Compatibility:

  • Backups created on one device can be restored on any other device
  • The app uses unique identifiers (UUIDs) to ensure data integrity
  • Profile IDs may change, but all relationships are preserved

Data Safety:
Always create a backup before:

  • Switching to a new phone
  • Uninstalling the app
  • Major app updates
  • Factory resetting your device

Storage Recommendations:

  • Save backups to cloud storage for safekeeping
  • Keep multiple backups if you make significant changes
  • Date your backup files for easy identification

Privacy & Security:

  • Backup files contain sensitive medical information
  • Only share backups through secure channels
  • Consider password-protecting ZIP files if sharing
  • Backups are stored locally – no data is sent to servers

Improved Backup System (v0.9.13+)

The backup system has been enhanced to work better with cloud sync:

Benefits:

  • No more duplicates – Restoring the same backup multiple times won’t create duplicate entries
  • Better cloud sync – Data syncs properly across devices without multiplication
  • Automatic updates – If you restore a backup with newer data, it updates existing records
  • Backward compatibility – Old backup files continue to work perfectly

How it works:

  • Each reaction diary entry and food find now has a unique ID
  • When restoring, existing records are updated instead of creating duplicates
  • This is especially helpful if you use cloud sync across multiple devices

Troubleshooting Backup and Restore

Backup Issues:

“Failed to create backup”

  • Check available storage space
  • Ensure the app has necessary permissions
  • Try closing other apps to free memory

Backup file seems too small

  • Empty profiles still create valid backups
  • Check if data exists in the app before backing up

Restore Issues:

“Import failed”

  • Ensure you selected the correct ZIP file
  • Check if the file is corrupted (try opening on computer)
  • Make sure you have enough storage space

Missing data after restore

  • Verify the backup file contains expected data
  • Check if you selected the right backup file
  • Some very old backups may have compatibility issues

Duplicate entries after restore (Fixed in v0.9.13+)

  • Previous versions could create duplicate reaction diary and food find entries
  • New backup system preserves record IDs to prevent duplicates
  • Existing records are updated instead of creating duplicates
  • Older backup files remain compatible and work correctly

Best Practices

Regular Backups:

  • Create backups monthly or after major changes
  • Set reminders to backup before device upgrades
  • Keep at least 2-3 recent backups

Backup Organization:

  • Name backup files with dates: MAE-backup-2025-01-30.zip
  • Store backups in a dedicated folder
  • Document what each backup contains

Testing Backups:

  • Occasionally test restoring from backup
  • Verify all data is present after restore
  • Don’t delete old backups until new ones are verified

Legacy Format Support

The app still supports older single-profile backup formats:

  • File name: MAE-backup.zip or MAE-{ProfileName}.xml
  • Contains only one profile’s data
  • Can still be restored using the same import process

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can I restore individual profiles?
A: Currently, the restore process imports all profiles from the backup. You can delete unwanted profiles after restore.

Q: Will my reaction diary dates be preserved?
A: Yes, all dates and times are preserved exactly as entered.

Q: Can I merge backups?
A: No, each restore replaces data rather than merging. You’ll need to manually combine data if needed.

Q: Are backups encrypted?
A: No, backups are not encrypted by default. Use device encryption or password-protected archives for additional security.

Q: How large can backups be?
A: Backup size depends on data amount, but even extensive reaction diaries rarely exceed a few megabytes.

Q: Can I edit backup files?
A: While technically possible, editing backup files is not recommended as it may cause restore failures.

Q: Do backups work across Android and iOS?
A: Currently, MakingAllergiesEasy is Android-only. iOS compatibility is not applicable.

Other Settings

Appearance

Control how MAE looks and behaves:

Show tips and Mae – Toggle this switch to show or hide:

  • Mae character (the friendly face in the corner)
  • Helpful tips that scroll at the bottom of each screen

Quick tip: You can also long-press Mae on any screen to quickly turn off tips! A dialog will appear asking if you want to hide Mae and tips. You can always turn them back on here in Settings.

When tips are enabled:

  • Mae appears in the bottom right corner
  • Tips automatically scroll every 5 seconds
  • Tap Mae to advance to the next tip
  • Swipe the tips left or right to browse manually

Logs

This accordion only appears when debug mode is enabled. When visible, expanding it shows the most recent accessibility audit results. Toggling debug mode refreshes the page so the Logs section becomes available immediately.

Troubleshooting

Settings Import Issues

  • Make sure the file extension is .xml
  • Verify MAE is installed on the device
  • Only files created by Share Settings are supported

API Key Issues

  • If the API isn’t working, check your key status
  • Try toggling the API switch off and on
  • Triple-tap the API card to remove and re-enter your key

Profile Issues

  • Each person needs their own profile
  • Long-press to share profiles
  • Regular tap to edit

Getting Help

If you encounter issues with settings, backup, or restore:

  1. Check this guide’s troubleshooting sections
  2. Ensure your app is updated to the latest version
  3. Try creating a new backup and restoring it as a test
  4. Contact support with:
  • Your app version
  • Device model and Android version
  • Specific error messages
  • Steps that led to the issue

Summary

MAE’s comprehensive settings system ensures your allergy data is properly configured, safely stored, and easily transferable. The combination of flexible profile management, robust backup capabilities, and secure data handling provides peace of mind for managing life-critical allergy information.

Remember, we’re here to help keep you safe! Take your time setting things up, and don’t hesitate to make changes as needed. All your changes save automatically, so you can adjust things to work best for you. By following this guide and maintaining regular backups, you can safely transfer your data between devices or recover from unexpected data loss while keeping your important allergy data secure and accessible when needed.

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