Settings and personalization

Personalize Ellie across web, desktop, iPhone, and iPad.

Ellie can stay simple or adapt to a more opinionated workflow. General settings control how the app looks, where new work appears, what happens after completion, and how the calendar behaves.

Where to find these settings

• Web, Mac, and Windows: open Settings → General.

• iPhone and iPad: open Settings → App Settings.

Power Features are separate. Use Settings → Power Features on web and desktop or Settings → Toggle power features on iPhone and iPad to turn optional features on or off.

Appearance and layout

Web and desktop

• Match your system theme or choose Light or Dark mode.

• Show one list at a time or show all lists in the sidebar.

• When all lists are visible, use Compact or Full task cards.

iPhone and iPad

• Match the system theme or choose Light or Dark mode.

• Choose which page opens when Ellie starts: no fixed page, Today, Timebox, or Brain dump.

• On iPad, choose whether the sidebar shows all lists or one at a time, then choose Compact or Full cards.

The real Ellie iPhone App Settings screen showing appearance and new-task controls in an authentic iPhone frame.

New tasks and completion behavior

Setting	Web and desktop	iPhone and iPad
Add new tasks to the top or bottom	Yes	Yes
Detect a label in a new task title	Yes	—
Set a default estimated time for new tasks	Yes	—
Move completed tasks and subtasks to the bottom	Yes	Yes
Mark a parent complete when all subtasks are complete	Yes	Yes
Fill missing Actual time from Estimated time on completion	Yes	—

On iPhone and iPad, you can also choose between the floating creation button and the desktop-style Add task card.

The real Ellie iPhone App Settings screen showing task rollover and completion behavior controls.

Task rollover

Task rollover moves incomplete work to the next day at midnight in your local timezone.

On every platform, you can turn rollover on or off and choose whether moved tasks appear at the top or bottom of the next day's list. Web and desktop also include a separate control for rolling over recurring tasks.

Daily Shutdown gives you a guided way to review missed work and choose what moves to tomorrow. See Daily Planning and Daily Shutdown.

Calendar and workload

Available across platforms

• Choose the first day of the week.

• Choose a 12-hour or 24-hour time format.

• Choose whether declined calendar events remain visible.

Additional web and desktop controls

• Show or hide weekends.

• Set the first visible time of day.

• Choose the Timebox snap increment from 5 minutes through 1 hour.

• Set a workday threshold and exclude selected labels from its capacity total.

• In the Mac app, show your agenda in the menu bar when the setting is available for your plan.

For calendar connections and scheduling behavior, see The Timebox.

Timers

Web and desktop General settings include the main timer controls:

• Show the countdown in the Mac menu bar.

• Show a floating timer window in the desktop app.

• Choose the floating timer background.

• Automatically start the next task.

• Turn Pomodoro on and set the focus length, break length, phase sound, and phase notifications.

On iPhone and iPad, turn Pomodoro on in Settings → Toggle power features → Pomodoro Timer and open its Settings button for the available mobile options. See Task timer and Pomodoro for the complete workflow.

Account data

On web and desktop, Settings → Account Data lets you export your Ellie data or delete the account. If you want to clear selected planning data while keeping the account, settings, calendars, and connected accounts, see Fresh Start.

Web and desktop extras

• Desktop window: keep Ellie above other windows.

• Rich links: let Ellie recognize supported external-app links and configure them by app.

• Privacy: allow or disable anonymous usage tracking.

If a setting listed here is not visible, first check that you are on the platform named for it and that any required Power Feature is turned on.