Overview
User Guide
FAQ
Sign In
Get OurGroceries!
Overview
User Guide
FAQ
Sign In
Get OurGroceries!
This is a list of frequently-asked questions about OurGroceries, along with our answers.
If this FAQ and the user guide don’t help, you can contact customer support by email. Please note that we receive a high volume of email, but we will do our best to reply promptly.
Our customer support email address is: support@ourgroceries.com.
OurGroceries lets you keep a single set of grocery lists for your family or household. Everyone can access these lists on their phone or web browser. Whenever anyone updates a list, everyone else sees the changes right away.
For example, you might be at work and remember that you’re out of coffee. You use the OurGroceries app on your phone to add “coffee” to the list. If your partner happens to go to the store later that day, they’ll see the new item on their phone and pick up some coffee. Once they do so, they can cross it off the list and it will be crossed off on your list too—automatically.
OurGroceries is free! We show unobtrusive ads at the top of the screen to help pay for development costs.
Yes, you can get rid of the ads and support development by upgrading to OurGroceries Premium. Learn more about upgrading
No, when you purchase an upgrade then all devices on your OurGroceries account will be also be upgraded.
The app store keeps track of your upgrade and will let you upgrade again free on your new phone, as long as you’re signed in to the same app store account.
Again, these upgrades should be free, but only if you’re signed in to the app store using the same Google or Apple account that you used to upgrade the first time.
OurGroceries is available for the following devices:
Visit our download page to install OurGroceries.
Please see our download page for instructions. You can also access and update Your Lists online.
If your email address has changed and you want to use your new email address in OurGroceries, go to the Settings page on our website and find the section called “Change email address”. You’ll also need to enter your existing OurGroceries password.
If you can’t sign in to the website (because you forgot your password or never set one up), and no longer have access to your old email address to set or reset your password, then contact us and we will perform the process for you.
To change the password of your OurGroceries account, go to the Settings page on our website and find the section called “Change password”. You’ll need to enter your existing OurGroceries password.
If you can’t sign in to the website (because you forgot your password or never set one up), enter your email address in the sign-in screen, and on the next screen click the “Reset Password” button.
To delete your OurGroceries account, sign in to our website, go to the Settings page, then click the red “Delete Account” button.
You can also delete your account using the OurGroceries app on your iPhone or iPad: go to the Settings screen, then to the “Account” screen, and tap the red “Delete Account” button.
No, OurGroceries keeps track of the items you’ve entered before and lets you search through them when adding an item. If there’s an item you want to remove from this list, tap the trashcan to the right of the item name. OurGroceries automatically shows you the best matches as you type an item’s name, so you’ll rarely have to type more than the first letter or two.
The master list (the list of all the items you’ve ever entered; see previous question) is displayed when you add an item to a grocery list. If there’s an item that you want removed from the master list, tap the trashcan to the right of the item name.
You can delete all items in your master list by signing in to our website, visiting the Your Lists page, clicking the “Manage master list” button, scrolling to the bottom, and clicking the “Delete all items" button.
Yes! You can have one list for each store (Safeway, Costco, Home Depot), one list for each type of store (hardware store, drugstore, butcher), and even lists for things not related to shopping (to do, questions for the pediatrician). All lists are shared amongst household members and are updated automatically within seconds.
Yes! You can keep track of recipes that you prepare often, along with their main ingredients. You can use this list to inspire you next time you have to make a dinner decision and can’t remember which dishes you haven’t made in a while. The recipes don’t include minor ingredients (such as water or salt)—just the key ingredients, so that you can quickly check which ones you already have and easily add the rest to your grocery list.
You can also keep track of the recipe instructions in the recipe notes field. That’s also a good place to put a link back to a recipe web page, if you found the recipe online.
On iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch: While on the top-level list of lists, tap the information icon at the right of the list you want to rename or delete.
On Android: While in the shopping list or recipe itself, tap the menu button. The menu contains options to rename or delete the list.
Yes! You can drag items around your shopping lists to change their order (learn how). You can also create categories or aisles and drag items into them to make shopping faster and easier (learn more). OurGroceries will remember the order and categories of items so that next time you create a shopping list the items will already be in the order you like to walk through the store.
Yes! OurGroceries keeps your lists backed up on our servers as part of its ability to share lists between the members of your household. You must first set up an OurGroceries account. Learn more
By default, the crossed-off items are ordered so that the most recently crossed-off items are on top. You can scroll down to the crossed-off section, easily find the item you just crossed off, and tap it to uncross it off.
If this is a frequent problem, you can make it harder to cross items off.
Tap the information icon at the right of the item you want to move. This will show the item details screen, where you can rename the item, change its quantities, delete it, change its category, add a photo, and move it to a different list.
You can “star” individual items in your shopping list or recipe. To star an item, visit its detail page by tapping the “i” in the circle at the right of the item label, then tap the star button. To unstar an item, tap its star button again.
A starred item will show a yellow star in the list. These stars have no other effect—they’re purely visual. You can use them for whatever you want. For example, a star might indicate that you have a coupon for this item, or that this item is urgently needed, or that a particular person is responsible for buying this item.
This number is called a “badge”:
To hide it, launch the iOS Settings app. Its icon looks like this:
Scroll down and tap on “OurGroceries”, then tap “Notifications”, then turn off “Badge App Icon”.
If you own an Amazon Echo, or any Alexa-enabled device, you can ask it to add items to your OurGroceries shopping lists using your voice. See the full instructions in the user guide.
We’re not currently planning to make a German version of our Alexa skill. It has been surprisingly difficult to make an English version of a voice interface. It would take a lot more than a simple translation to make a German version, and we’d rather spend that time on features that all OurGroceries users can benefit from.
If you own a Google Home or other Google Assistant device, you can ask it to add items to your OurGroceries shopping lists using your voice. See the full instructions in the user guide.
Yes, see the User Guide sections on importing data and exporting data.
Yes! Note that our product database is rather U.S.-centric. Learn more about barcode scanning
We’ve had many requests for price tracking, and it’s on our list of features to add in a future update.
We’ve had several requests for keeping some lists private, and it’s on our list of features to add in a future update.
IFTTT charges $3000 per year for integration, and we do not currently think that we would make that back in additional revenue.
We do not currently plan to support Fitbit devices or Samsung Gear watches.
You must both sign in to the same OurGroceries account. Learn more about accounts
A common mistake is for each person to create their own account with their own email address. This creates two unrelated and unconnected accounts. Pick one email address (either) for the account and sign in to it from all devices.
Another common problem is that the OurGroceries app may not have permission to contact our server. To check this, launch OurGroceries, go to the Settings screen, then to the “About” screen. This screen will tell you when it last contacted our server, which should always be less than 20 seconds ago. If it’s more than that, then the phone may be blocking OurGroceries. Launch the phone’s Settings app, find OurGroceries there, and see if it’s missing the permission to use the network.
You must associate OurGroceries on your phone with your web account:
Remember to use the same email address for all your mobile devices and for the web interface. It’s what ties them all together and lets them synchronize with one another.
These types of automated emails often get mis-classified as spam. We’ve seen problems with both Yahoo and Hotmail. Check your spam folder for the confirmation email.
Also, double-check the spelling of the email address you entered in OurGroceries. It’s easy to get one letter wrong, such as “gmail.con” instead of “gmail.com”.
Sometimes the Yahoo bulk-email folder is configured to delete spam immediately. If your spam folder is empty, do the following: Click “Options” in the upper-right, then “Mail Options” in the drop-down menu, then “Spam” in the left-hand pane. Look at the “Empty Spam folder” option. Make sure it’s set to anything other than “immediately”, then click “Save Changes” at the top. You’ll need to ask OurGroceries to send you the confirmation email again (see next paragraph).
To send the confirmation email again, launch OurGroceries, go to the Settings screen, and tap the Send button.
The partner who does not own the master email address (the address used for the OurGroceries account) should create a new OurGroceries account. You will both keep a copy of all shopping lists and recipes, but the lists will no longer be synchronized. Learn more about creating accounts
If you’re not in a position to ask your former partner to change their OurGroceries settings, then visit the Settings page on our website. From there you can see the list of devices in your account and remove the ones you no longer want to synchronize with.
First, be sure that your old phone (the one with OurGroceries installed and your lists on it) is signed in to your OurGroceries account. Do this by launching OurGroceries, going to the Settings screen, and then to the “Sign In” or “Account” screen. This screen will tell you whether you are signed in. If not, follow the on-screen instructions, or learn more here.
Then, on your new phone, repeat the above procedure with the same email address.
As a bonus, now that your email address is associated with your lists, you can use our website’s Your Lists section to view and modify your lists!
You can make it harder to cross items off.
OurGroceries supports adding items using Google Home or Google Assistant. (See instructions.) Sometimes the process of linking the two accounts does not work. After entering your OurGroceries email address and password, the page will hang or display an error.
It’s not clear why Home or Assistant hangs this way, but here are a few things you can try:
Go to this page, sign in using your Google account if necessary, scroll to the bottom, and click “Reset”.
If it seems like Alexa does not even understand your request, then check a few things:
If Alexa acknowledges your request but the item does not show up on your phone’s list in OurGroceries, then there are two possibilities: One is that Alexa is adding items to her own list; the other is that she’s adding it to OurGroceries, but to a different account than the one that’s on your phone.
If, when you say, “Alexa, ask OurGroceries to add milk to (list name)” she replies with, “Added milk to (list name)”, then she’s adding it to OurGroceries. If instead she replies with, “I’ve added milk to your shopping list”, then she’s adding it to her own list. Be sure to install the OurGroceries skill and to phrase the request properly. See here for instructions.
To double-check that both Alexa’s OurGroceries skill and your phone are on the same OurGroceries account, follow these steps:
In addition, after adding an item using Alexa, you can use the Alexa app on your phone to double-check what she thinks you said.
Normally, when you choose the “Send list” or “Send recipe” option from the shopping list or recipe menu, Android asks you which app you want to use to send the list. If you tap the “Just once” button, Android will ask you again next time. If you instead tap the “Always” button, then Android will remember your choice and you will no longer be asked which app to use to send your list or recipe.
If you accidentally tapped “Always” and would like to go back to being asked each time, then do the following:
When you first launch the OurGroceries app on your Apple Watch, it will ask you to launch the OurGroceries app on your iPhone. This should immediately “pair” the two, but sometimes this doesn’t work. It seems that in some cases, Apple Watch doesn’t recognize that the watch app and the phone app are both part of the same app and should be linked.
We recommend trying the following, in order, until one of them works:
Unfortunately there’s no way to get a shopping list back, but it’s fairly easy to re-create it, along with the photos that were with each item: