Fonn is a tune library for players of traditional music: the notation, the sound of it, the recordings and links that go with a tune, and a way of putting tunes together into sets — on your iPhone, your iPad and your Mac, and off the internet.
Email 88_intake.troupes@icloud.com. Say which device you are on and what you were doing, and include a screenshot if there is anything to see.
Is Fonn free? What is the 20-tune limit? Fonn is free to download. You can add up to 20 tunes of your own, free, for as long as you like. Everything you have added stays fully usable: you can play, practise, edit, build sets and export. After 20 additions you cannot add more until you unlock the full version with a single one-off in-app purchase. There is no subscription. The limit counts tunes you have added, not tunes you currently have, so deleting tunes does not free up places. The six starter tunes on iPhone do not count, and a new setting of a tune you already have joins it as a version rather than counting as another tune.
How do I unlock the full version, and how do I restore it? Tap Unlock Fonn on the screen that opens when you reach the limit, or go to Settings > Full version. One purchase covers Fonn on your iPhone, iPad and Mac, and can be shared with your family through Family Sharing. On a new device, or after a reinstall, go to Settings > Full version and tap Restore Purchase, signed in to the same Apple Account. Payment is handled by Apple; refunds are through Apple at reportaproblem.apple.com.
Where are my tunes kept? On your device, in the app’s own storage — and, if you switch iCloud on, in your own iCloud account so your devices share one library. There is no Fonn account and no Fonn server, and nobody but you can see any of it. See the privacy policy.
How do I get tunes in? The + button. It takes one thing you choose — a file, a folder, pasted notation, a photograph of printed music — and works out what it is. You are shown what it proposes to add before anything is written, and you can change any row or leave it out.
You can also search thesession.org from inside the app and take the setting you want.
Nothing is written to my library without asking? No. Every import goes through a review screen first. A tune whose name matches one you already have is offered as another setting of it rather than a duplicate — which is usually what it is, in this music.
How do I get the same library on my phone, my iPad and my Mac? Switch on iCloud in Settings, on each device, signed in to the same Apple Account. Your library then keeps itself in step: add a tune on the phone and it appears on the Mac, rate one on the iPad and the rating is there on both.
It syncs through your own iCloud account, not through any server of mine — see the privacy policy.
If you would rather it did not, turn the switch off and that device keeps its own library to itself.
Can I still move a library about by hand?
Yes. Export a .ceol.json from Settings and open it on the other device. Tunes,
sets, collections, version groups and set membership all travel. It is also
worth doing occasionally as your own backup, independent of iCloud.
How do I change the key? Open a tune and use the ♭/♯ buttons above the stave. That changes what you see and hear. If you want to keep it, save it as a new version — the transposed notes are written out properly, so it reads correctly on its own rather than only while a display setting happens to be applied.
A note is wrong in a tune I imported. Open it and use Edit Notes. Click a note and move it up or down the stave. When you save you can either correct the tune in place, or keep both as versions. If the tune is in any sets, the dialog tells you how many now play the edit.
How do I build a set? On the Mac there is a circle-of-fifths builder: pick a key, pick a tune, and the keys that follow well from it light up. It plays the set straight through as you build it, so you can hear the join. You can also switch the circle off and just add tunes in the order you play them.
Can I slow a tune down to learn it? Yes — the speed control under the music, and you can loop a range of bars to work on the hard part.
Can I record myself, or tune my instrument? Both. Recording attaches to the tune; the tuner listens and shows you the pitch. The first time, iOS will ask for the microphone.
A YouTube link says the video cannot be played. Some videos are set by whoever uploaded them to refuse being played inside other apps. Nothing can be done about that from this end — the card offers to open it in YouTube instead.
The app opened with nothing in it. That is expected on a new install: Fonn ships empty rather than with somebody else’s tune book in it. Import a file, or search thesession.org, and you are away.
No accounts, no subscription, no advertising, no analytics. One optional one-off purchase unlocks unlimited tunes. It works in flight mode, which is the point — the places people play are often the places with no signal.