Your browser is the database. Treat it like one.
Every tool on this site — the flare diary, photo log, patch tests, prep sheets — saves to your browser first, so everything works instantly with no sign-up. But a browser is a scratchpad, not a safe: it erases local data far more casually than people expect. The fix is a free account, which backs everything up automatically and puts it on every device you sign in to. Here's exactly how both layers work.
Where your data actually lives
When you rate a flare, save a photo, or build a visit-prep sheet, the entry is written into your browser's own storage on your device — the same place a site would keep, say, a shopping cart. By default nothing is uploaded: no account, no server-side copy, and nobody at DermApproved can read a single entry. You can see the complete inventory of what's stored, source by source, in My Library.
The important consequence: without an account, the data belongs to that one browser on that one device. Your phone and your laptop each have their own separate copy; so do Chrome and Safari on the same machine. Nothing syncs on its own — that's what the optional free account (below) adds.
The four ways it gets erased
Safari's seven-day rule most common
On iPhone, iPad, and Mac, Safari automatically deletes everything a website has stored once seven days pass without a visit to that site. It's an anti-tracking feature, and it makes no exception for your photo log. With a free account this rule simply stops mattering — sign back in and everything is restored.
Clearing browsing data
"Clear history", "clear cookies and site data", and phone cleaner or antivirus apps all wipe site storage in one stroke. The dialogs talk about cookies — they rarely mention that logs, drafts, and photos stored by sites go with them.
Private and incognito windows
Anything entered in a private window is discarded the moment the window closes. A diary kept in incognito was never really saved at all — the tools will work, but the log won't survive the session.
Running out of disk space
When a device gets full, browsers are allowed to quietly evict stored site data to free space, oldest-and-least-visited sites first. It's rare, but it's one more deletion you'd never be asked about.
The fix: a free account
Create a free account and everything backs up automatically as you use the site — profile, shelf, wishlist, diaries, symptom scores, tool results, and your progress photos — and appears on any device you sign in on. A browser wipe (including Safari's seven-day deletion) stops mattering: sign back in and it's all restored. There's nothing to remember and nothing to download; the green "backed up to your account" note on each tool is the only visible difference. The honest fine print: your data now also lives on our server, solely so it can sync and survive — it is never sold, shared, or used for advertising, nobody at DermApproved browses it, and you can export or permanently delete all of it from account settings at any time.
Create a free accountPrefer to hold your own copy, or want to stay account-free? My Library can export everything — photos included — as a single file you keep, and restore it on any browser. It's a manual, do-it-yourself path: nothing reminds you to export, so treat it as a power-user option, not the safety net.
How syncing works, in one rule
Signed in, you're managing your account — everything you do syncs. Signed out, you're only touching this device — your account is never affected, and signing back in restores it.
Concretely, while signed out: anything you add or edit waits on this device and uploads to your account the next time you sign in — your content always reaches your account, it's only paused. Anything you delete removes only this device's copy: your account keeps its own and brings it back down when you sign in again, because deleting from the account is something you can only do while signed in. And when you sign out, you choose whether your data stays on the device (your own phone) or is removed from it (a shared computer) — your account keeps everything either way.
What each surface stores
Every tool that remembers something tells you so on its own page — the heavier logs carry a backup reminder, the small calculators a one-line note. This is the complete picture; My Library shows the live counts for your browser and can clear any source individually.
| Data | Lives on | What’s saved | What it powers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Skin profile | My Skin | Skin type, up to three concerns, sensitivity, pregnancy status, fragrance preference, and your personal avoid list | Personalizes match badges, grades, and prefills on nearly every page |
| My Shelf | My Shelf | The products you own or use | Feeds the visit-prep sheet, shelf-life tracker, and routine tools |
| Wishlist & compare tray | Wishlist / Compare | Products you’ve saved or queued side-by-side | Your saved lists, on any page of this browser |
| Photo log | Photo Tracker | Progress photos with dates, labels, and notes (browser database, not cookies) | Before/after comparison, flare diary and patch-test attachments |
| Flare diary | Flare Diary | Daily severity, triggers, and products during flares | Timeline charts and the derm-visit prep sheet |
| Patch tests | Patch Test Log | Each test with its verdict and linked photos | Failed tests join your profile’s avoid list — products get flagged site-wide |
| Symptom scores | Eczema Severity / Itch Scale / Hives UAS7 | Dated score entries | Trend lines and visit-prep summaries |
| Derm visit prep sheet | Derm Visit Prep | Your timeline, product list, questions, and attachments draft | The printable sheet you take to an appointment |
| Quiz & calculator results | Skin Type Quiz, Sun Safety, FTU Calculator… | Your last result or settings for each small tool | Restored when you return; some prefill other tools |
| Tool selections | Conflict Checker, Routine Order, Dupe Finder… | Your last checked routine, lineup, or search | Picks up where you left off on that tool |
What personalization does with your profile
Once you set up a My Skin profile — skin type, up to three concerns, sensitivity, pregnancy status — the site starts reading it on almost every page. Product cards grow personal grade badges (“A− for your acne”), product pages show a match verdict with its reasoning, condition pages re-frame their lists around your concerns, and tools like the Routine Finder, Sunscreen Finder, and Pregnancy checker prefill from it. Fail a patch test and that product joins your avoid list, flagged wherever it appears.
The mechanics matter for privacy: all of this is computed in your browser. The page fetches the same public product index every visitor gets; your device does the matching against the locally-stored profile. Nothing about your skin is transmitted, logged, or profiled server-side — which is also why the personalization vanishes on another device until you move your library there.
You stay in charge of it: edit the profile any time on My Skin, or clear it — alone or with everything else — from My Library. With no profile saved, every personalized surface simply falls back to its neutral version.
Common questions
Why did the data I entered in a DermApproved tool disappear?
Almost always because the browser deleted it, not because anything went wrong on the site. The most common cause on iPhone, iPad, and Mac is Safari itself: it automatically erases a website’s stored data after seven days without a visit. Clearing browsing history or “cookies and site data”, using a private window, phone “cleaner” apps, and switching browsers or devices all have the same effect. The fix is a free DermApproved account: your data backs up automatically and restores the moment you sign back in.
Does Safari really delete website data after seven days?
Yes. Since 2020, Safari’s Intelligent Tracking Prevention removes everything a website has stored in the browser — including logs and photos kept locally — once seven days pass without you interacting with that site. It was designed to stop trackers, but it can’t tell a tracker from your flare diary. If you use DermApproved tools in Safari, create a free account — it makes the seven-day rule irrelevant, because your data restores the moment you sign in.
Is my DermApproved data synced between my phone and my computer?
Only if you create a free account. Without one, data you enter on your phone exists only in that phone’s browser — even two browsers on the same device (say Chrome and Safari) don’t share anything. With an account, everything syncs automatically to any device you sign in on: your profile, shelf, diaries, tool results, and progress photos.
How do I back up or move my tool data?
Create a free account — that’s the whole answer for most people. Everything backs up automatically as you use the site, and moving to a new phone or browser is just signing in there. If you’d rather stay account-free, My Library can export everything (photos included) as a single file and restore it on any browser — but that path is manual: nothing reminds you to export, and a file you made in March won’t contain your April diary.
Can DermApproved recover my data if it’s gone?
If you have a free account: yes — sign back in on any device and your profile, shelf, diaries, scores, and backed-up photos come straight back from your account. Without an account, no: entries never left your device, nothing was uploaded, and nobody at DermApproved can restore what a browser erased. Once the local copy is gone and there’s no backup file, that data is unrecoverable by anyone.
Does DermApproved see my skin profile when pages are personalized for me?
Personalization runs entirely inside your browser: the page downloads the same public product data everyone gets, and your device compares it against the profile stored locally. Match badges, “for your skin” grades, and tool prefills are computed on your machine. If you create an account, your data is additionally stored — encrypted in transit — on our server purely so it can sync and survive browser wipes; it is never used for advertising, and you can export or permanently delete all of it from account settings at any time.