SolGlow Support

Need help? Most questions are answered below. If you can't find what you need, email us at support@twisteddatastudios.com and we'll get back to you.

Last updated: 04/28/2026

Contents

1. What SolGlow does
2. Permissions
3. Apple Health & Time in Daylight
4. Location
5. Burn warnings
6. Daily supplement and diet inputs
7. Weekday clothing schedule
8. Home Screen widget
9. Privacy and data
10. Troubleshooting
11. Medical disclaimer
12. Contact

What SolGlow does

SolGlow estimates your daily vitamin D production from sunlight using:

• Your Time in Daylight from Apple Health,
• Your location (to compute the sun's angle and the local UV factor),
• Your skin type, age, weight/height, and typical outdoor outfit,
• Plus any supplement and dietary vitamin D you log.

It also offers an optional burn-risk warning when forecasted UV combined with your time outside approaches your skin type's threshold.

SolGlow is an estimation tool, not a medical device. See the medical disclaimer.

Permissions

SolGlow asks for two permissions. The app works without either one, but estimates become much less accurate.

You can change either at any time in iOS Settings:

• Settings → Privacy & Security → Health → SolGlow
• Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services → SolGlow

Apple Health & Time in Daylight

Time in Daylight is the input SolGlow relies on most. A few things to know:

• It requires Apple Watch. Time in Daylight is collected by Apple Watch using its ambient-light sensor. If you don't wear one, Apple Health typically has no Time in Daylight data, and SolGlow will fall back to whatever data is available (often zero).
• watchOS 9 or later is required for Time in Daylight.
• The samples are read-only for SolGlow — we do not modify or delete them.
• SolGlow writes its estimated vitamin D as Dietary Vitamin D samples in Apple Health. You'll see them in the Health app under Browse → Nutrition → Vitamin D.

If "Connected" doesn't appear after granting access, open Apple Health → tap your profile picture → Apps and Services → SolGlow and confirm both Read and Write categories are enabled.

Location

SolGlow supports two location modes:

• While Using the App — sufficient for solar/UV calculations whenever you open SolGlow.
• Always (recommended for travel) — uses iOS significant-change monitoring, not continuous GPS. Battery cost is minimal. iOS only delivers a fix when you've meaningfully moved (typically more than ~500 m).

When always-allow is enabled, SolGlow records location fixes:

• Throttled to roughly one per two hours,
• Pruned automatically after 60 days,
• Stored only on your device.

This lets us correctly attribute your sun exposure to where you actually were — for example, a morning in one city and an afternoon in another.

To switch modes: Profile → Background Location → Enable / Stop, or directly in iOS Settings.

Burn warnings

SolGlow can warn you when forecasted UV combined with your typical time outside approaches the burn threshold for your skin type. Burn estimates use the Fitzpatrick scale and conservative assumptions.

You can suppress burn warnings if you prefer. Suppression is gated behind a legal acknowledgement screen because over-exposure can cause real harm. Acknowledging confirms that:

• You understand the App is not medical advice,
• You take full responsibility for managing your UV exposure,
• We record the date and version of the disclosure you accepted.

To re-enable warnings later: Profile → Burn Warnings → toggle on. No acknowledgement is required to turn them back on.

Daily supplement and diet inputs

In Profile → Supplements & Diet you can enter:

• Daily supplement (IU) — your typical multivitamin or D3 dose.
• Daily diet (avg) — the average vitamin D from food. The typical US diet provides roughly 150–250 IU per day.

These values are folded into the serum-level estimate alongside sun-derived IU. Leave them at zero if you don't supplement or don't want to model dietary intake.

Tip: if the keyboard won't dismiss after typing, tap Done in the keyboard accessory bar, or swipe down anywhere on the form.

Weekday clothing schedule

By default SolGlow uses your selected outfit (e.g., "Shorts and T-shirt") every day. If your real life is more like covered up Mon–Fri at the office, exposed on weekends, enable Profile → Weekday Schedule and set each day individually. Days set to Use default inherit the default outfit.

Skin-exposure percent affects how much of your sunlight contributes to vitamin D synthesis, so a realistic schedule materially improves accuracy.

Home Screen widget

SolGlow includes a Home Screen widget that summarizes today's estimate. Add it like any other widget:

1. Long-press the Home Screen.
2. Tap the + in the top-left.
3. Search SolGlow and choose a size.

The widget reads a small snapshot SolGlow writes whenever the dashboard updates. It does not send data anywhere and works offline.

Privacy and data

• All your inputs (profile, food log, supplement, diet) and your location history are stored only on your device.
• No accounts, no sign-in, no analytics, no advertising, no third-party tracking.
• The only network request SolGlow makes is for the UV forecast, sent to Open-Meteo over HTTPS. Only your latitude and longitude are sent — no name, account, or device identifier.
• Apple Health data is processed on-device and is governed by Apple's privacy policy and your Health-app settings.

To remove all of SolGlow's local data, simply delete the app. Vitamin D samples already written to Apple Health remain under your control in the Health app.

Full details: see our Privacy Policy.

Troubleshooting

My estimates are zero, or much lower than I expected

• Confirm your Apple Watch has been worn outside today and synced with the iPhone.
• Confirm SolGlow has Read access to Time in Daylight: Apple Health → profile picture → Apps and Services → SolGlow.
• Check that Location is enabled in iOS Settings.
• Verify your skin type, age, weight, and outfit in Profile — extreme values dampen the estimate.

"Location: Denied" or "Not yet asked"

• Open Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services → SolGlow and pick While Using the App or Always.
• Make sure the master Location Services switch (top of that screen) is on.

UV forecast not loading

• Check your internet connection.
• Open-Meteo is occasionally rate-limited; SolGlow caches forecasts and will retry automatically.
• Pull-to-refresh on the Forecast tab to force a refetch.

Apple Health shows no Time in Daylight at all

• Time in Daylight requires Apple Watch on watchOS 9 or later, worn while you're outside.
• Without a Watch, SolGlow will have very little to work with. You can still use the App's manual inputs and food log.

The keyboard won't dismiss on Profile fields

• Tap Done in the toolbar above the keyboard, or swipe down anywhere on the form.

I want to reset everything

• Delete the app from your Home Screen — this clears all of SolGlow's local data, including profile, food log, location history, and the widget snapshot.
• Note: vitamin D samples already written to Apple Health remain in Apple Health (you can delete them from the Health app under Browse → Nutrition → Vitamin D).

How do I check the app version?

• Open SolGlow → Profile → scroll to the About section. Version and build appear there.

Medical disclaimer

SolGlow is an information and estimation tool, not a medical device. It does not diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any condition. Vitamin D, serum, and burn estimates are model-based and may be inaccurate. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making decisions about sun exposure, supplements, or your health.

Contact

Twisted Data Studios

Email: support@twisteddatastudios.com

When emailing, please include:

• Your iOS version (Settings → General → About → iOS Version),
• Your iPhone model,
• Whether you wear an Apple Watch (and watchOS version, if known),
• The SolGlow version (Profile → About),
• A short description of what happened and what you expected.

We do our best to respond within a few business days.