Rewind guide: screen history, search and privacy

Rewind saves what's on your screen every few seconds and reads the text in it, right on your iPhone. Later you can scroll back through your day in the Rewind app, or search for any word you saw in any app.

Before you start

• A rootless jailbroken iPhone on iOS 16 or 17, such as Dopamine. Not sure which jailbreak fits your iPhone? Use the jailbreak finder.
• Sileo or Zebra with the CarterWare repo added. See Install CarterWare tweaks. Sileo installs the two packages Rewind needs (ElleKit or Substrate, and PreferenceLoader) for you.
• Free storage. Rewind keeps up to 2 GB of history by default, and you can choose anywhere from 1 GB to 10 GB.
• Rewind costs $2.99 one-time, or it's included with Tweak Pass. See Buying and restoring.

Rewind is a record of your screen, so here is exactly what it keeps.

What Rewind saves

Every few seconds (5 by default), Rewind takes a picture of the whole screen, a little smaller than full resolution on most iPhones, with the app's name and the time. A frame shows exactly what you saw, so a notification banner on screen at that moment is in it too. Rewind then reads the text in the frame with Apple's built-in text recognition, on your iPhone, so you can search it.

When Rewind saves nothing

• While your iPhone is locked, so the Lock Screen and passcode screen are never saved.
• While the screen is off. Rewind doesn't run at all then, so it never wakes your iPhone.
• While a password field is active in any app or web page. Nothing on screen is saved until you leave the field.
• While an excluded app is open. Password managers, Wallet and Health are excluded from the start, and you can add any app. The Rewind app itself is never saved.
• On the Home Screen, unless you turn on Home Screen.
• In Low Power Mode, unless you turn off Pause in Low Power Mode.
• While recording is paused or Enabled is off.
• When the screen hasn't changed since the last frame from that app, and for a moment while you switch apps.

Where your history is stored

Everything stays in one folder on your iPhone, /var/mobile/Library/Rewind: the frames, small thumbnails, and a search index with the text Rewind read. Saved frames and thumbnails are encrypted by iOS whenever your iPhone is locked, so they can't be read until you unlock. The search index is encrypted until you first unlock after a restart.

Nothing leaves your iPhone. Rewind has no account, no cloud and no code that sends anything over the internet, and text recognition runs on the iPhone. A frame only leaves if you share or copy it yourself.

How long history is kept

Frames older than Keep History For (1 week by default) delete themselves. If history grows past Storage Limit first, the oldest frames are deleted to make room. You can also delete any frame, the last 15 minutes, the last hour or everything yourself. Removing Rewind in Sileo deletes all of your history and its settings; updating Rewind keeps them.

Set it up

1. Install Rewind from the CarterWare repo in Sileo, then respring (restart the Home Screen) when Sileo offers it. A Rewind app appears on your Home Screen.
2. Open Settings → Rewind → Excluded Apps and turn on any app you never want saved, such as your banking app or Messages. Password managers, Wallet and Health are already on.
3. Use your iPhone as usual for a minute or two. Read a web page or scroll through an app.
4. Open the Rewind app and unlock it with Face ID or your passcode. The top of the screen says Recording with a red dot, and your recent screens fill the strip along the bottom.
5. Tap the magnifying glass and type a word you just saw. Matching screens appear, newest first.

Using the app

Timeline

The app opens here. A large preview of one frame fills the middle, with the app's icon, name and time above it. The strip along the bottom holds every frame in order, oldest on the left. Drag it to scrub; the red line marks the current frame, and you feel a tap each time you cross into a different app.

• Swipe left or right on the preview to step one frame at a time.
• Tap the preview to open the frame in the viewer.
• The button at the top shows the recording status: Recording, Paused, Paused Until a time, or Off. Tap it to pause or resume (see Common tasks).
• The magnifying glass at the top right opens Search.
• The … button at the top left has Jump to Now, Go to Date…, Delete Last 15 Minutes, Delete Last Hour, Delete Everything… and Rewind Settings.

Search

Type in the box that says Words you saw on screen. Results update as you type, newest first and grouped by day, each with a thumbnail, the app, the time and the matching text in bold.

• Search matches the start of words, so sett finds "Settings". With several words, a frame must contain all of them.
• The filter button at the top right opens Search In: All Apps or any app in your history, with its frame count. The button turns red while a filter is on.

Frame viewer

The viewer shows one frame full size. If you came from Search, your matches are outlined in red.

• Pinch or double-tap to zoom.
• Show Text (the text frame button in the toolbar) outlines every line Rewind read. Tap a line to copy it.
• Copy Text copies all the text. Share shares the image.
• Press and hold a line for Copy Line, Copy All Text and Copy Image. If the line has a web address, email address or phone number, you also get Open, Email or Call.
• The open-app button jumps into the app the frame came from (it's hidden for Home Screen frames).
• The trash button deletes the frame. From Search, the clock button at the top right shows the frame in the timeline.

Common tasks

Find something you saw earlier

1. Open Rewind and tap the magnifying glass.
2. Type a word or two you remember, such as a name or a price.
3. If you know which app it was in, tap the filter button and pick that app.
4. Tap a result. Hold a line to copy it, or tap the open-app button to go back there.

Pause recording for a while

1. Open Rewind and tap Recording at the top.
2. Choose Pause for 15 Minutes, Pause for 1 Hour, Pause Until Tomorrow or Pause Until I Resume.
3. The button changes to Paused Until the time, or Paused. Timed pauses end on their own.

To resume early, tap Paused. To stop Rewind without uninstalling, turn off Enabled in Settings → Rewind.

Never save a certain app

1. Open Settings → Rewind → Excluded Apps.
2. Search for the app and turn its switch on. It moves to Never Saved.

Frames already saved from that app stay until they expire or you delete them.

Delete recent history

• One frame: open it in the viewer, tap the trash button, then Delete Frame.
• The last 15 minutes or hour: in the timeline, tap … and choose Delete Last 15 Minutes or Delete Last Hour.
• Everything: tap … → Delete Everything… in the app, or Settings → Rewind → Delete All History. Both ask you to confirm and can't be undone.

Use less storage

Lower Storage Limit or Keep History For in Settings → Rewind. Older frames are removed right away. Choosing 10 Seconds or 15 Seconds for Save Every also saves fewer frames.

Settings explained

Everything lives in Settings → Rewind. Changes apply right away, no respring needed.

Excluded Apps

A searchable list of every app on your iPhone, Apple's included, each with a switch. Apps that are switched on are grouped at the top under Never Saved, and Rewind saves nothing while they're open. Password managers (such as 1Password, Bitwarden, LastPass and Dashlane), authenticator apps, Wallet and Health start switched on; you can turn any of them off.

Using

Shows the space your history takes and how many frames it holds, for example 812 MB · 4,210 frames, or Nothing saved when it's empty.

Troubleshooting

The timeline says Nothing Saved Yet

• Check the button at the top of the timeline. If it says Off or Paused, tap it.
• Low Power Mode pauses Rewind unless you turn off Pause in Low Power Mode.
• The app you used may be excluded, or you stayed on the Home Screen with Home Screen off.
• Give it a moment. New frames appear a few seconds after they're saved.

Using is stuck on Starting…

The part of Rewind that reads text and keeps the history hasn't reported in. Restart your iPhone and re-jailbreak, or reinstall Rewind in Sileo, which restarts it. Your history is kept when you reinstall over the top.

Search can't find a word I know I saw

• Rewind saves every few seconds and only when the screen changed, so something on screen for a moment can be missed.
• Text has to be readable. Tiny, blurry or stylized text, such as some game fonts, can be misread.
• Check the filter button. If it's red, you're searching one app; switch back to All Apps.
• The frame may have expired under Keep History For or Storage Limit.

Rewind asks for Face ID every time I open it

Rewind locks again once it has been in the background for more than 30 seconds. If you don't want the lock, turn off Require Face ID or Passcode. If your iPhone has no passcode, Rewind opens without asking.

History takes more space than my Storage Limit

Old frames are cleaned up every 15 minutes or so, so history can go a little over for a short time. The limit counts frames and thumbnails, not the small search index.

If something else isn't right, use Report a Bug at the bottom of Settings → Rewind, or the bug form. More fixes are in Troubleshooting.

Questions

Does Rewind upload my screen anywhere?

No. Rewind has no account, no cloud and nothing that sends your history over the internet. Frames and their text are saved, read and searched only on your iPhone. A frame leaves only if you share or copy it yourself.

Will Rewind save my passwords?

Rewind saves nothing while a password field is active, in apps and on web pages, and never saves the passcode screen because it doesn't record while your iPhone is locked. Password managers, Wallet and Health are excluded from the start. Anything else you type in a normal text field can be saved, so exclude apps you consider private.

Where is my Rewind history stored?

In /var/mobile/Library/Rewind on your iPhone. Saved frames are encrypted by iOS whenever your iPhone is locked. Removing Rewind in Sileo deletes the folder and everything in it.

How do I delete my Rewind history?

Open Settings → Rewind and tap Delete All History, or in the Rewind app tap … → Delete Everything…. The same menu can delete just the last 15 minutes or the last hour.

Does Rewind drain the battery?

Rewind only saves when the screen actually changed, never while the screen is off or locked, and reads text in the background at low priority. It pauses itself in Low Power Mode.

What languages can Rewind read?

Rewind uses Apple's on-device text recognition, so it reads English and the other languages iOS text recognition supports.

How much does Rewind cost?

$2.99 one-time, or it's included with CarterWare Tweak Pass while your pass is active.