Never get caught short keeps what you are tracking on your phone, not on anybody else’s computer. This page explains exactly what that means, including the one part that does leave your phone and what is done to make it unreadable.
This app is made and run by James Lockhart. If you want anything explained, changed or deleted, write to james@nevergetcaughtshort.com and you will be dealing with me directly.
Whatever you type into it. That usually means the names and details of the items you track, how much you have left, when you expect to collect more, the services and suppliers you deal with, appointments, notes, and anything you put on the emergency card, which may include things to avoid and an emergency contact.
Some of what you enter may count as health information about you, which the law treats as deserving extra care, so all of it is handled that way. It is kept in your browser’s own storage on your device. It is not uploaded, and I cannot see it.
The app also asks your browser to hold on to that storage rather than clear it to free up space. It does not survive the app being deleted, which is what backups are for.
You can keep a separate space for anyone whose things you look after, such as a parent or a child. Each space holds their items, appointments, notes and contacts, and nothing crosses between spaces.
It is all held the same way as your own: on your device, not uploaded, and not visible to me. If you turn on online backup it covers every space in the same encrypted copy.
Two things worth saying plainly. What you put in about another person is personal information about them and may be sensitive, so only put in what you need and what they would be comfortable with. And if you are keeping records for an adult who can decide for themselves, they should know you are doing it.
Holiday mode works out what to pack from the items and dates already on your device. The dates of your trip stay on the device with everything else. Nothing about where you are going is sent anywhere, and the app does not know or ask for your location at any point.
Online backup is off unless you switch it on. When you do, this is what happens.
The practical result is that I hold a block of characters I have no way of reading, and nor would anyone who broke into the server. That is deliberate, and it has a cost you should know about: if you lose your recovery code, I cannot recover your backup for you. There is no reset, because a reset would mean I could read your data.
Your encrypted copy is kept until you delete it. You can do that at any time from Settings, by turning off online backup and choosing to delete the copy. You can also write to me and I will remove it, though you will need to tell me the reference, since I have no other way to tell one backup from another.
The legal basis for storing it is your explicit consent, given when you switch the feature on. You can withdraw that consent whenever you like by turning it off.
The app is hosted on web space provided by IONOS. Like every website, that server keeps a technical record of requests made to it, which includes the internet address your connection is coming from. That is a normal part of running a website and is used to keep it working and secure. I do not use those records for anything else, I do not try to connect them to anything in the app, and I could not do so even if I wanted to, because the app sends no name or account with its requests.
The app has the official UK bank holidays built into it, so it works offline. If you tap Check for updates on the bank holidays screen, and only then, it asks gov.uk for the current list. That request tells gov.uk your internet address, as visiting any website would. Nothing about you or what you track is sent with it.
It contains no advertising. It loads no typeface from anyone. Nothing you type into it, not an item, not a note, not an appointment, not the recovery code, is ever sent to Google or to anyone else. Your information is never sold, rented, shared or used to build a profile, and it never will be. If that ever changes, this page changes first and the app tells you.
The website uses Google Analytics to count how many people open it and how often. Adding the website to your home screen still runs the website, so opening it that way is counted too. The app from Google Play is built separately and does not contain it at all.
Google Analytics sets cookies in your browser. It tells Google your internet address, the sort of device you are using and that a page was opened. It never receives your items, your notes, your appointments, your recovery code or anything else you have entered.
The address of the screen you are on is cut back to the website itself before it is sent, so the part that can name a single item never reaches Google. A tracker blocker or a private browsing window stops the counting, and the Google Play app never starts it.
Under UK data protection law you have the right to see the personal data held about you, to correct it, to have it deleted, to take a copy elsewhere, and to object to how it is used. With this app most of that is already in your hands rather than mine.
If you are unhappy with how your data has been handled, tell me first and I will try to put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk.
This app is meant for adults keeping track of their own things, or helping someone close to them. If you use it to keep track of a child’s items, that information sits on your phone under your control, exactly like your own.
If what the app does with your data changes, this page is updated before the change ships, and the date below changes with it.
Last updated 27 August 2026.
This app only keeps track of what you tell it. It does not give advice, and never suggests what to do. Every number in it came from you. If you are ever in doubt, speak to whoever you would normally ask. In an emergency call 999.