Need a hand?

There are several ways to add records to VinylCrate:

1. Barcode Scanning (Recommended)
   • Tap the search icon and select “Scan Barcode”
   • Point your camera at the barcode on your record
   • VinylCrate will find the release on Discogs
   • Tap “Add to Collection” to save it
2. Search Discogs
   • Use the search tab to search by artist, album, or catalog number
   • Browse results and select the correct pressing
   • Add to your collection
3. Sync from Discogs
   • Connect your Discogs account in Settings
   • Tap “Sync Collection” to import your existing collection

You connect with a personal access token that you generate yourself:

1. Open Discogs in your browser
2. Go to Settings → Developers
3. Click Generate new token
4. Copy the token
5. In VinylCrate, tap Connect Discogs, paste the token, and confirm

The token field has a paste button, so you don’t have to fight with the keyboard.

Note: your Discogs password is never entered into VinylCrate. The token is stored securely on your device, and you can revoke it from Discogs at any time.

1. Go to the Crates tab
2. Tap the “+” button
3. Enter a name for your crate
4. Choose a color and icon
5. Tap “Create”

To add records to a crate, view any album and tap “Add to Crate.”

English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese and Simplified Chinese — across the app, the Home Screen widget, CarPlay and Siri Shortcuts. VinylCrate follows your iPhone’s language setting.

The dead wax is the blank run-out groove between the last track and the label. The cutting engineer scratches a matrix code into it by hand.

That code is the difference between a first press and a reissue — which is most of what a record is worth. A barcode tells you the album; the dead wax tells you the pressing.

Point the camera at the run-out and slowly rotate the record. VinylCrate reads the etchings live across frames and shows them as chips as they accumulate, so a line that is only legible for a moment isn’t lost.

Dashed guide rings frame the shot. Only the band between them is read, so label text and background never contaminate the result — line the run-out up inside the rings.

Yes. Enter Manually sits right on the opening screen, and typed sides go through the same review, summary and Identify Pressing flow.

You can mix the two — scan Side A and type Side B.

It matches what it read against every Discogs version of the release — up to 500 versions, stopping early on a clear match — and ranks them by confidence.

Close calls are flagged as co-leaders rather than presented as a false-certain single answer. You confirm the match yourself.

A confirmed match shows as a verified-pressing badge, and you can relink your collection entry to that exact version.

Play history, crates, notes, conditions, favourite flag, collection date and your photographs all move with it. Relinking does not leave you owning the record twice.

When a verified pressing differs from the version your copy was filed under, the album page shows a live price comparison between the two.

The verified pressing is usually worth notably more — that is rather the point of reading the dead wax.

Discogs is a community-driven database, and some records may not be listed yet. Try:

• Searching by artist name only
• Searching by catalog number (found on the record label)
• Using the barcode if available
• Checking for alternate spellings

If you’re having trouble syncing with Discogs:

1. Check your internet connection
2. Try disconnecting and reconnecting your Discogs account
3. If you have a large collection (1000+ records), sync can take 15–20+ minutes due to Discogs rate limiting
4. Ensure VinylCrate has permission to access Discogs in your account settings

Currently, VinylCrate is read-only for your Discogs collection. Adding or removing records in VinylCrate does not affect your Discogs account.

VinylCrate estimates collection value based on:

• Median sale prices from Discogs
• Recent completed sales data
• Condition grades (when available)

Important: This is an estimate only. Actual market values may vary.

A record may show no value if:

• There’s insufficient sales data
• The specific pressing hasn’t been sold recently
• The release isn’t fully cataloged on Discogs

1. Go to Settings
2. Tap “Connect Apple Music”
3. Grant permission when prompted

Apple Music may not have the exact release that matches your vinyl. VinylCrate searches by artist and album title, but:

• Regional releases may differ
• Some albums aren’t on Apple Music
• Compilation albums may not match

1. Open any album in your collection
2. Tap the play button or “Open in Record Player”
3. The Record Player shows your album artwork spinning on a turntable
4. Use the playback controls to play, pause, skip tracks, or adjust volume

VinylCrate includes authentic vinyl sound effects:

• Vinyl crackle: Subtle surface noise that plays with the music
• Tonearm sounds: Needle drop and lift sounds when starting/stopping
• Surface noise: Ambient vinyl texture

Toggle sound effects on/off in the Record Player settings (gear icon).

1. While music is playing, tap the AirPlay icon in the Record Player
2. Select your AirPlay device (HomePod, Apple TV, AirPlay speakers)
3. Music streams to your selected device

The Mini Player appears at the bottom of the screen when music is playing, allowing you to:

• See what’s currently playing
• Play/pause without opening the full Record Player
• Tap to expand to the full Record Player view

Apple Intelligence features require:

• A device running iOS 26 or later
• Apple Intelligence enabled in Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri

• Sleeve Scan: Read artist, title, label and catalog number from a record jacket
• Dead Wax Scan: Read the matrix codes etched into a record’s run-out groove
• Collection Summaries: Generate insights about your entire collection
• Crate Descriptions: Automatically describe what makes each crate unique
• Album Insights: Discover interesting facts about individual albums

Check the following:

1. Ensure your device is running iOS 26 or later with Apple Intelligence supported
2. Enable Apple Intelligence in Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri
3. Wait for Apple Intelligence to be fully set up on your device
4. Some features may require an internet connection initially

Scanning never leaves your iPhone. Sleeve Scan and Dead Wax Scan run entirely on device, and no photograph of your records is sent anywhere — regardless of any setting.

Text insights follow the AI Insights Model setting:

• Automatic may use Apple’s Private Cloud Compute for text where it is available
• On-Device Only keeps everything on your iPhone

In either mode only text prompts are sent — never your images. VinylCrate does not send your collection to our own servers; we don’t operate any that hold it.

It controls where text insights are generated.

• Automatic uses Apple’s Private Cloud Compute where available, which can produce richer writing
• On-Device Only restricts everything to your iPhone

Sleeve Scan and Dead Wax Scan always run on device either way — the setting does not affect them.

Text Scanning lets you use your camera to scan text from:

• Record labels
• Album spines
• Catalog numbers
• Sleeve text

The scanned text is used to search Discogs, making it easy to find records without barcodes.

1. Tap the search icon and select “Scan Text”
2. Point your camera at the text you want to scan
3. VinylCrate highlights recognized text
4. Tap the text to search Discogs

• Barcode Scanning: Best for records with a barcode (most modern releases)
• Text Scanning: Best for older records, imports, or records without barcodes

Point the camera at a record jacket instead of hunting for a barcode. On-device AI reads the artist, title, label and catalog number, hands you an editable review card, then runs a Discogs search prefilled with what it found.

It works on every Apple Intelligence device. On iOS 27 the model sees the photograph directly and calls into OCR when it needs a catalog number character-exact.

• Barcode Scanning — fastest, for any record that carries a barcode (most post-1980s pressings)
• Sleeve Scan — point it at the jacket and let it read the artist, title, label and catalog number
• Text Scanning — for a specific catalog number off a label, spine or sleeve
• Dead Wax Scan — not for finding the record, but for identifying which pressing you own

Add them as you would any record. Pressings of the same album group into a single collection card with a copy-count badge, and album detail gains a switcher spanning every copy you own and every sibling pressing.

Its own condition, purchase price, notes, label, dead-wax scan and photographs. Two copies of one pressing document their own condition independently.

Yes, in both directions. Total Invested sums every copy, and CSV export emits one row per copy.

Settings → Your Data has a clean-up for duplicate copies created by an earlier version of the app.

Front and back cover, the gatefold inside, inserts, and each disc’s A and B sides.

The empty state works the suggestions out from the release’s own disc count and gatefold status. A 3-LP box set proposes Disc 1–3 Side A/B, and tapping one captures pre-tagged so you don’t have to label anything afterwards.

No. Discogs artwork is untouched everywhere else — the hero image, the collection grid, CarPlay and the widget all still use it. Your photographs sit alongside it, on the copy they belong to.

They carry across. Photographs belong to a specific copy, not to the release, so a relink takes them with it.

Settings → Your Data → Export Photos writes your copy photos and dead-wax scans into a single archive, foldered by release and artist, with a manifest. Discogs artwork is not included — this is only your own photography.

Your collection, crates, listening history, dead-wax scans and your own record photographs — plus your preferences: price display, view mode and sort, featured-card mode, rarity source, AI model policy and the sound-effects group.

Nobody but you. Sync goes to your private iCloud database, scoped to your Apple Account — which is separate from your Discogs login. Records travel between your own devices and are shared with no one.

VinylCrate has no access to the contents of your private database.

This is the main reason sync exists. Photographs you took yourself previously existed nowhere but the device, and deleting the app destroyed them. With sync on, they restore onto a new device.

If you are deleting the app deliberately and want the iCloud copy gone too, remove the iCloud data from Settings first.

No. A preference already set on a device is never overwritten by an incoming one, so restoring onto a phone you had already tuned will not undo your choices.

No — they are unrelated. iCloud sync moves your library between your own Apple devices. Discogs sync exchanges collection data with your Discogs account. You can use either, both, or neither.

When syncing large Discogs collections:

1. The sync runs in the background while you use other features
2. Progress is shown in the Discogs settings
3. You can close the app—sync resumes when you return
4. No lost progress, even if interrupted

VinylCrate automatically saves your sync progress. When you return:

1. Go to Settings > Discogs
2. Tap “Resume Sync” if prompted
3. The sync continues from where it left off

Sync time depends on collection size. Discogs rate-limits API requests to approximately one record per second, so expect:

• Small collections (under 100 records): Under 2 minutes
• Medium collections (100-500 records): 2–8 minutes
• Large collections (1000+ records): 15–20+ minutes

Sync happens in the background, so you can continue browsing while it completes. You can also close the app and resume later — VinylCrate picks up exactly where it left off.

Try these steps:

1. Close and reopen VinylCrate
2. Restart your device
3. Ensure you have sufficient storage space
4. Check for app updates

1. Ensure camera permissions are granted in Settings
2. Clean your camera lens
3. Ensure adequate lighting
4. Hold the phone steady and close to the barcode

VinylCrate stores data locally on your device. If data appears missing:

1. Check if you’re signed into the correct iCloud account
2. Ensure iCloud sync is enabled (if used)
3. Don’t delete and reinstall the app without backing up first

Your collection is stored on your device. If you turn on iCloud sync it also lives in your own private iCloud database — scoped to your Apple Account, between your own devices, shared with no one. It is never stored on VinylCrate’s servers.

Two exports, both in Settings → Your Data:

• CSV export of your collection. If you own several copies of a record, each copy is its own row.
• Export Photos writes your copy photographs and dead-wax scans into a single archive, foldered by release and artist, with a manifest.

Discogs artwork is not included in the photo export — that archive is only your own photography.

To delete all VinylCrate data:

1. Go to Settings
2. Scroll to “Delete All Data”
3. Confirm deletion

Warning: This action cannot be undone.

They are never sent to us or to any third party. Sleeve scans, dead-wax scans and the photos you take of your own copies are processed entirely on device.

If you turn on iCloud sync they are mirrored to your own private iCloud database so they survive losing or replacing your phone. That is between your devices and Apple’s iCloud — we never receive them.