User guide

DriveFive brings vehicle records, journeys, running costs and reminders together. It uses Canadian dollars, kilometres, litres, L/100 km and kWh. No account is needed.

Add and choose vehicles

1. Open Garage → Add vehicle. Give each vehicle a recognisable nickname and enter its current dashboard odometer.
2. Choose its powertrain and province or territory. Open More details & receipts for optional specifications, renewal dates, annual readings and notes.
3. Save. Use the vehicle selector on supported screens to view one vehicle or the whole garage. Check the vehicle shown in every entry form before saving.

The tracking strip always names the vehicle actually being tracked, even when you filter reports to another vehicle. An NFC tap selects the tag’s vehicle for its trip.

Use the quick controls

Home puts Add fuel, Manual trip, Log service and Add charge near the top. The tracking card before the vehicle summary offers Start GPS trip when idle and shows your current start method. The live trip card appears while a journey is active. The footer’s Fueling button opens a fill-up; only the selected destination or open Fueling form is highlighted. More contains the remaining tools and Settings.

Whole kilometres

Distances and odometers display as rounded whole kilometres. GPS retains its calculation precision internally so adding many journeys remains accurate. Money, litres and energy keep the decimal places they need. A very short journey may display as 0 km.

Archive and annual readings

Archive a vehicle when you stop using it to preserve its history. A vehicle with records cannot simply be deleted. Optional year-start and year-end odometers help compare logged distance with actual annual use; update them from the dashboard.

Try demo uses separate sample records. Exit demo to return to your own garage. Preview mode cannot record real GPS, program tags or schedule Android backups.

The tracking card says No trip recording when no mode is waiting to start a journey. Choose Start GPS trip while parked to use the existing vehicle/start form, or open the smaller setup link.

NFC tags ready means NFC is enabled, this phone has NFC switched on, and an enabled tag belongs to an active garage vehicle. Tap your vehicle tag to start an NFC trip. Tag readiness does not mean GPS is recording; location and notification requirements are checked when starting. If device NFC is off or the tag needs setup, the card says so.

Watching for driving means Auto Trip monitoring is running. Waiting for Android Auto means connection starts are enabled and monitoring. Both modes together show Waiting for a trip, with each assigned vehicle named. A connection check, weak GPS or stopped monitoring has its own status. NFC readiness can appear alongside automatic monitoring.

For an Ask each time tag, Choose a category to start means the category prompt is waiting; it is not a recording indication. After a valid NFC request is sent, Starting NFC trip appears until the recorder confirms the result. If confirmation is missing, check Trips before tapping again. A recording trip replaces the Home status with its existing distance, time, GPS and trip controls. Paused or interrupted trips keep their controls; the compact status on other screens offers Resume recording. Settings changes and tag readiness do not start a trip by themselves.

Home has 1,000 rewritten messages about DriveFive tasks. Current activity comes first, with variety from your phone's local time, calendar season, selected vehicle's powertrain and body style. No weather, location or quote service is used. Recent messages are avoided.

A greeting appears once at the start of an app visit. A later return after at least five minutes away, or on a new local date, can begin a new visit. Returning from the camera, a file picker or a permission prompt continues the visit. Returning to Home from another DriveFive page refreshes the message without saying hello again or welcome back.

Every task-related message includes its matching shortcut. Shortcuts open existing pages or entry forms for the selected vehicle; they do not save a record or begin recording by themselves. With All vehicles selected, Home uses messages that do not require a particular vehicle. Fuel and charging prompts require the appropriate known powertrain.

An active trip offers View current trip and follows its recording, paused or unconfirmed GPS state. A recent trip awaiting review links to that exact trip. Save messages require a confirmed successful save; simply opening a page does not count. Backup-created messages require a verified backup copy, not just a selected folder.

Context is automatic. There is no parked or preparing selector, and idle app status does not prove that you are parked. Messages stay steady during normal live polling and while a form is open. A changed trip or invalid shortcut can update the message to keep it accurate. Visit timing and recent phrase IDs stay on this device, separate from your garage records and full ZIP backups.

Android Back and compact screens

Back first dismisses the keyboard when Android is using it, then closes a dialog or action menu, then returns through the previous screen. An opened guide topic returns to its topic list before the preceding Settings screen. Changed record forms still offer Keep draft, Discard changes or Continue editing. Only Home with no open dialog hands Back to Android to leave the app. The icon/title remains a direct Home shortcut. Navigation never finishes a trip or switches its vehicle.

The compact ongoing-trip card always shows the vehicle, mode, whole kilometres, elapsed time, Pause / Resume and Finish trip. Below the buttons, a green circle means GPS is active and recording; grey means it is not recording. The circle can stay green while stopped. GPS accuracy and large, whole-number current speed are always visible. Missing, stale or paused speed displays a dash. A running finish timer shows a short countdown such as Trip ends in 20 min; no countdown appears when there is no pending finish. GPS warnings remain visible. No Trip details expansion is needed. Home and Trips avoid a duplicate tracking strip. Other screens retain their compact tracking indicator. Shorter Garage cards keep all actions in their existing More menu. History rows keep identity, date, vehicle and distance/cost visible; use Details or More details & actions for the remaining information and actions.

Tap the DriveFive icon or title to return Home. Android Back returns to the previous screen with its filters, search and scroll position. Changed fuel, service and trip forms still ask whether to keep a draft, discard changes or continue editing. Navigating does not stop a GPS trip.

When All vehicles is selected, a new entry asks you to choose a vehicle. The form names the chosen vehicle above its fields. Existing records and running trips keep their vehicle association.

Settings is grouped into Tracking & NFC, Preferences, Data & backups and Appearance & help. Province, reminders and optional receipt scanning are in Preferences. Theme, demo and this guide are in Appearance & help. Auto Trip must be off to change its configuration.

Trips fetches the newest 50 matching records from the local database, then fetches 50 more when requested. It keeps the loaded position when you return from a trip or another screen. The timeline and odometer checks initially display 50 matching entries. Choose Load 50 more to read older entries. Search, filters, analytics and exports use all matching records, including entries not yet displayed. Live trip updates leave the rest of the screen in place where possible.

1. From your Android home screen, open the launcher’s Widgets picker and find DriveFive.
2. Add its widget and choose an active garage vehicle. You may add separate widgets for different vehicles.
3. Use Fueling to open that vehicle’s fuel form. Use GPS trip to open its start form. Confirm the vehicle and start inside DriveFive.
4. If any trip is already running, GPS trip opens its controls and names the vehicle being tracked. It does not silently finish or switch vehicles.

Tap the widget’s vehicle title to choose another vehicle. Archived or deleted selections need reconfiguration. The widget shows the latest status and its update time; launcher and Android limits can delay refreshes. It does not start GPS collection on its own. You can remove it without changing app records.

Widget text can be visible to anyone viewing your home screen. Check it on your launcher after an app update, reboot or restoring a garage.

Settings includes province or territory, appearance, automatic GPS controls, backups, Saved drafts, this User guide and Privacy & Data. Choose Settings → Appearance & help to see five labelled previews: Carbon (graphite), Ceramic (light), Glacier (blue), Circuit (angular) and Forest (evergreen). Tap a preview to apply and save it immediately. Carbon is the default for a new garage. Your previous Light choice opens as Ceramic; Dark opens as Carbon. Poppins and every theme are bundled for offline use. Themes share the same navigation, records and tracking controls; switching a theme does not finish a trip. Your choice is included in a full backup. Sample-garage theme changes apply only to the sample garage. The app follows Android’s text size setting; larger text may make pages longer.

Information panels stay expanded through status updates until you close them or navigate to another screen. Multiple panels may remain open. Optional form sections also retain their entered values when collapsed.

Location choice

Before GPS use, DriveFive explains precise-location collection, background recording and its purposes. Decline to keep using manual records. Android still controls precise-location and notification permission; changing them can interrupt GPS features.

Automatic tracking, NFC and backup scheduling are independent optional settings. NFC-only use can start a GPS trip even with Auto Trip off. Stop an active trip separately if you no longer want it recorded.

Data controls

Read Privacy & Data for stored information, address lookup, chosen exports, backups and deletion. There is no account, advertising service or built-in developer analytics upload. Your chosen geocoding, maps, file viewer or cloud-folder provider may process information under its own terms.

Use a device screen lock. Delete records or disable tracking when you choose. Clearing Android app data or uninstalling removes the internal garage; exported copies remain wherever you saved or shared them. Remove those separately if needed.

Log a trip without GPS

1. Choose Manual trip on Home or Manual entry in Trips.
2. Check the vehicle and date. Enter the starting and ending dashboard odometers; the ending reading must be at least the starting reading.
3. Choose a category, purpose, starting place and destination. Business requires a meaningful purpose.
4. Confirm you have checked the odometer and trip details, then save. Leave the check off if you still need to review them.

Manual entry works with Auto Trip and NFC switched off and without location permission. Type place names, select saved places, or choose Use current GPS if you want a location lookup.

Review a recorded trip

In Trips, turn on Trips needing review. The count uses the selected date range and vehicle. Open Review trip, check its vehicle, purpose, endpoints and odometers against the actual journey, then confirm the review checkbox and save. GPS gaps and automatic recording can require correction.

Delete a trip and check the odometer

Choose Delete in the completed trip’s actions. Keep current odometer is selected by default. To change it deliberately, choose Correct vehicle odometer and enter the actual whole-kilometre dashboard reading. Check the vehicle and before/after values before confirming. DriveFive never simply subtracts the deleted trip distance.

A retained trip, fuel, charge, service or dashboard reading can prevent a lower correction. Review incorrect retained records first. Finish an active trip for that vehicle before correcting its odometer. A changed garage record requires a fresh preview. Split/merge-linked trips must be handled through Correction history.

The trip deletion and optional correction have the same 30-second Undo. Undo restores the previous odometer only when no newer vehicle activity has occurred; otherwise it restores the trip and keeps newer vehicle information, with a message to reconcile deliberately. The correction remains after the Undo window ends. Historical records and other vehicles are not rewritten. Editing an old description does not undo your confirmed dashboard correction.

Change several categories

1. Select the checkboxes beside the intended trips, or Select visible trips (up to 200 at once).
2. Choose Change category and check the count and vehicles.
3. Select the new category. An optional purpose replaces each selected purpose; leaving it blank preserves existing purposes. Every Business trip still needs a purpose.
4. Apply. The change affects only selected records and keeps all unresolved review flags.

Changing filters clears or reconciles selection. If a selected record changes during an update, it is removed from the selection so you can inspect it again. Editing a trip does not automatically reduce a vehicle’s current odometer.

Start recording

1. Choose Start GPS trip, check the vehicle and starting odometer, and enter a category and purpose.
2. Read the location explanation. Agree only if you want GPS features, then allow precise location and notifications when Android asks.
3. Start and wait for a reliable GPS fix. Keep DriveFive’s ongoing notification available while recording.

A trip that you start with this button continues until you finish it. The NFC stop timer applies only to NFC-started trips. Automatic detection does not create a second recorder during a manual GPS trip.

Pause and finish

Open the recording strip or Trips to reach Pause / Resume and Finish trip. Pausing excludes the paused movement and introduces a route break. Finish saves the trip for review and tries to fill the destination from the ending location. Inspect the saved record and dashboard odometer.

Understand the status strip

• Recording: an active trip is receiving or waiting for location fixes.
• Monitoring: Auto Trip is waiting to detect driving.
• Paused: the active trip has been deliberately paused.
• Off: no trip or automatic monitoring is active.
• Interrupted: a trip or enabled setting needs attention because the recorder is no longer running.

The strip also shows the tracking vehicle, mode and GPS issues. Missing or poor fixes must not be mistaken for distance travelled. Resume an interrupted trip from its controls and review the gap afterwards.

Background and battery

Once you start tracking while DriveFive is open, its Android foreground service can continue with the screen off. GPS uses battery. Phone power-saving controls, denied permissions, force-stop or restarting the phone can interrupt it. After a restart or force-stop, reopen DriveFive and check the status. Recording is not guaranteed while the phone is switched off.

Set up hands-off logging

1. Open Settings → Tracking & NFC → Automatic GPS trip logging. With Auto Trip off, select the vehicle, default category, purpose and stop delay.
2. Choose 1, 5, 10, 20 or 30 minutes. A longer delay joins longer stops into one trip.
3. Turn Auto Trip on and complete the location disclosure and Android permissions.

While Auto Trip is on, its configuration fields are disabled. Turn it off to change them, then turn it on again. The On / Off switch remains available. An NFC vehicle tap can update the selected automatic vehicle.

When trips begin and end

Driving detection begins after sustained movement at driving speed (about 15 km/h). Brief movement alone is insufficient. Once a trip is active, a sustained stop starts its selected wait. Driving again resets the wait. Poor or missing GPS does not count as a confirmed stop.

When the delay is reached, the trip is saved using its detected arrival time and remains available for review. Monitoring continues for the next journey. A long queue, parking stop or stop at home can reach the same delay; the phone cannot know the reason you stopped.

The phone also cannot reliably distinguish driving from being a passenger, cycling quickly or using public transport. Use the review filter and turn monitoring off when it is not wanted.

Turn it off

Turning Auto Trip off saves an active automatically detected trip and stops monitoring. An active manually started GPS trip continues. An NFC-started trip follows its own timer when Auto Trip is off, or can be finished by tap or button. Always check the visible status afterwards.

After rebooting or force-stopping, reopen the app to resume monitoring. Automatic trip logging and automatic backups have separate switches; neither is enabled merely by using manual records.

Choose and program a tag

1. Use an NFC-capable Android phone with NFC enabled. Obtain a blank, writable NTAG215 tag. NFC setup includes an Amazon.ca search link. Check the seller’s specifications; tags mounted on metal need a suitable on-metal design.
2. Open More → NFC vehicle tags and enable this optional feature.
3. Choose the garage vehicle and a tag name. Select Use a fixed category to save a category and default purpose, or Ask each time to choose when starting. Business trips require a purpose. Choose Write tag, then hold the tag against your phone’s NFC antenna until DriveFive confirms the write and verification.
4. Attach it where it is convenient to tap safely while parked. Test the assigned vehicle before relying on the tag.

DriveFive writes its own vehicle link to the tag. You do not need NFC Tools. Rewriting a tag changes its stored contents; keep it writable if you may reassign it later. Read-only, locked, damaged or unsupported tags can fail. An assignment is specific to this garage; another phone needs matching restored assignments and NFC explicitly enabled.

Choose the category when scanning

With Ask each time, a start tap opens a category prompt for the assigned vehicle. Select Business, Personal, Commute, Medical or Charity, add a purpose if needed, then choose Start trip. Nothing starts until confirmation. Cancelling, leaving the app or waiting 60 seconds dismisses the request. Tap again when ready. A switch prompt includes the category choice and Finish & start; cancelling keeps the current trip unchanged. A changed trip or assignment requires a fresh tap.

Finishing the same vehicle’s trip does not ask for a category. Existing tags keep their fixed category until you change their assignment. Edit / reassign can change this option without rewriting the tag. Per-trip choices do not change Auto Trip category or purpose defaults. Backups preserve the option; restoring still leaves NFC off until you enable it.

Tap to start and tap to finish

With the phone unlocked, tap your programmed tag. DriveFive opens or receives the tap, checks the assignment and permissions, and starts one GPS trip for that vehicle after any required category confirmation. Tap the same vehicle’s tag again to finish. Repeated reads within roughly eight seconds are ignored to avoid a tap immediately undoing itself.

If another vehicle is already being tracked, DriveFive asks you to confirm switching vehicles. Review the previous trip’s ending place and odometer if you forgot to finish it. The app uses one recorder; it does not record two simultaneous vehicle trips.

After a trip automatically finishes, a same-vehicle tap shortly afterwards can ask whether you want to start a new trip. This protects against a late finishing tap accidentally beginning a new journey. Check the confirmation and recording strip.

NFC auto-finish with Auto Trip off

In NFC setup choose Off, 1, 5, 10, 20 or 30 minutes. Off means the NFC trip waits for a tap or Finish trip. A selected delay saves it after that much confirmed stationary time. Movement resets the wait; a GPS outage does not count as a stop. A long traffic stop can reach the timer.

With Auto Trip off, GPS shuts down after the NFC trip is saved. The next journey needs another tap or manual start. Finish the current NFC trip before changing this timer.

NFC with Auto Trip on

The Auto Trip stop delay takes priority over the separate NFC timer. There is only one active stop timer. After finishing, automatic monitoring remains available for the next trip. Manual logs remain available regardless of your NFC preference.

If a tag does nothing, check NFC support, the phone’s NFC switch, DriveFive’s NFC setting, screen unlock, assignment and tag placement. Phone cases and metal can reduce readability. Tap while parked and review the vehicle shown before driving.

Choose your car and enable monitoring

1. Open Settings → Tracking & NFC → Android Auto.
2. Select the garage vehicle, category and default business purpose if needed. This vehicle is explicit: a car connection does not identify a particular garage vehicle. Change it before using another car.
3. Optionally select Finish when Android Auto disconnects and choose Immediately, 1, 5, 10, 20 or 30 minutes. One minute is the default delay; automatic finishing starts off.
4. Turn on while DriveFive is open and allow precise location and notifications. If the phone is already connected to Android Auto, recording can start immediately. Look for the actual trip status and selected vehicle.

Choose a vehicle before tapping Turn on. Any missing information or permission problem is shown near that button. Turning on… means Android is still checking permission or starting monitoring. Complete its prompts; your vehicle and timer choices stay in place. After a refusal, correct the issue and tap Turn on again. The screen confirms when monitoring starts.

Connection starts and disconnect finishing

Android Auto starts are independent of movement-based Auto Trip. They work with Auto Trip off. Connection reporting supports wired and wireless projection when the phone/head unit exposes the Android connection API; behaviour must be checked with your equipment.

Disconnect finishing applies only to a trip created by Android Auto. Reconnecting during the countdown cancels the pending finish and continues the same trip. Recording continues during the delay unless you pause it, so choose a short delay if you walk away from the car. A paused trip can still finish on disconnection because this timer follows connection state, not stationary GPS fixes. With disconnect finishing off, finish the trip manually.

A manual, NFC or ordinary Auto Trip journey already in progress retains control. No duplicate trip starts and no vehicle switches silently. If you finish an Android Auto trip while still connected, it waits for a new connection before starting another. A connection-owned trip does not also use the Auto Trip or NFC stationary timer.

Check missing distance or an overnight trip

A disconnected status describes the current connection report, not earlier connections. With disconnect finishing off, the delay is inactive and one trip can span several drives or an overnight stop. Elapsed time includes those stops. Finish the existing trip before changing preferences for future trips.

Connection and recording are separate. A paused trip is not adding kilometres. Use Resume recording after checking location and notifications. A pause already stored by an older version remains paused until you resume it. In this version, recorder errors preserve your actual pause choice so permitted recovery can continue an unpaused trip. Recording interruptions can mean service recovery, disabled GPS or long gaps between readings; they are not a count of car disconnects. Check the dashboard odometer for missing kilometres.

Stop monitoring and understand recovery

Turn Android Auto starts off from this screen or its notification. Doing so cancels any pending disconnect finish; an active trip remains available for manual finishing. Auto Trip is a separate switch and can keep its own monitoring on. Configuration fields are locked while Android Auto starts are enabled.

The ongoing foreground notification must remain available. Monitoring uses location and battery. Android permissions, power management, connection-reporting delays and service restrictions affect reliability. Reopen DriveFive after reboot or force-stop; a car connection cannot always launch a fully stopped app. An interrupted active trip remains for recovery and review. The countdown resumes only after a current connection reading.

No additional server, paid API or subscription is used for the connection feature. Optional encrypted address lookup is separate. This is a phone-side trip trigger, not a dashboard app. CarPlay requires an iPhone application and is not included.

Starting place and destination can be filled from GPS. A saved place name is preferred when a reliable location falls within its matching radius. Otherwise the phone’s address lookup may provide an address; coordinates or an unresolved location can remain when an address is unavailable.

Save a named location

1. Open Saved places, or use the save-place action beside a trip endpoint.
2. Give the place a name such as Home, Depot or Customer A.
3. Use current GPS while there, or enter its coordinates. Confirm its address and matching radius.
4. Save. Check future endpoint matches and reports.

A default radius of 75 metres suits many stops; choose a smaller radius for nearby neighbours. The nearest eligible saved place is used when locations overlap. Names are reflected in trip lists and reports through their saved-place references.

You can type or correct an endpoint yourself. Your manual text is not meant to be silently replaced by a later lookup. Keep the right place selected when editing. Poor reception, underground parking or lack of address service can prevent automatic fill; manual entry remains available.

Use current GPS requests location only for the action. Encrypted address lookup is optional and off until you enable it in Settings → Tracking & NFC. With your consent, it sends unnamed endpoint coordinates to Photon by komoot using HTTPS. It is off after upgrade or restore until you agree. If the free service is unavailable or rate limited, saved names, manual entry and coordinates still work. Address data: © OpenStreetMap contributors. Opening a point in Maps sends that point to the map app you choose.

Review one trip after another

In Trips, choose Review next. Inspect the whole-kilometre figures, endpoints, category, purpose and recorded route. Select the verification checkbox and Save & review next. A failed save keeps the form open. Only explicitly saved reviews are marked complete; the queue follows the selected vehicle and filters.

Split a trip

1. Open the completed trip’s details and choose Split trip.
2. Enter the kilometres assigned to the first part. The remaining recorded distance belongs to the second part; no distance is created.
3. If the trip has recorded times, choose a time inside that trip. Retained GPS points are divided by that time. Distance allocation is your correction and is not automatically calculated from the split time.
4. Choose the category and purpose. Preview both results, times, odometers and route coverage. Apply only when correct, then review the resulting trips individually.

Where no GPS point is available at the split boundary, endpoint labels need your review. Original GPS gaps remain gaps. Very short trips may be too short to split with whole-kilometre input.

Merge trips

Select 2–20 completed trips for the same vehicle, then Merge selected trips. Odometer readings must join; overlaps and unlogged odometer gaps are rejected. Choose the category and purpose for the merged result, inspect the preview and apply. The result sums recorded distances and preserves separate route segments across recording gaps.

Recover originals

Correction history is in Trips and Settings → Data & backups. View originals shows retained records and route shapes. Restore originals removes the unchanged corrected results and returns the originals to reports. Save or discard their drafts first. If a result has been edited, deleted, trimmed or corrected again, simple recovery is blocked to avoid destroying later work. Restore the newest correction first in a chain. Original snapshots and routes remain in full backups; ordinary trip exports contain only current trips.

Originals are excluded from mileage and cost calculations and are protected from automatic route cleanup. Corrections do not advance the garage odometer. Keeping original routes uses some extra storage; it makes corrections recoverable.

Record a fill-up quickly

1. Tap the footer’s Fueling button or Add fuel on Home.
2. Check the vehicle, date and whole-kilometre odometer.
3. Enter litres. Total paid is optional: enter an amount to calculate price per litre, or enter pump price to calculate the total. Leave both price fields blank if the cost is unknown.
4. Check the fuel type and whether you filled the tank completely. Add a station, receipt and notes under More details & receipts, then save.

After you edit Total paid, that amount is authoritative when you adjust litres. Editing Pump price changes back to calculating the total from litres and price. A total you enter is kept as the actual cost; a displayed three-decimal pump price can be rounded. Fill-ups without a cost still count toward litres and fuel consumption. Missing amounts remain blank in exports and are excluded from average fuel price; cost per kilometre is unavailable until missing fuel costs are added.

DriveFive remembers the fuel type from that vehicle’s recent saved entries. Changing the vehicle updates the suggested type; check it before saving. Recent station names are suggested locally. No old pump price is automatically reused.

Full and partial fill-ups

Consumption uses suitable full-to-full intervals and includes partial fills between them. Mark partial fills honestly. If an entry was missed, mark the missed-fill option so an incomplete interval is not presented as a reliable consumption result. The first full fill generally establishes the starting point.

L/100 km needs complete fuel and distance data. Unusual results can come from an incorrect odometer, missing fill or a falsely marked full tank. Inspect the underlying records before correcting them. Cost totals use Canadian dollars, including taxes you actually paid.

Charging

Choose Add charge. Enter the vehicle, date, odometer, energy delivered in kWh and actual total paid. Select charger type and optionally starting / ending battery percentage, duration, network, receipt and notes. Home electricity costs must be entered using your own applicable cost; DriveFive does not fetch utility tariffs.

Other expenses

Open Expenses for parking, insurance, registration, tolls, tires, financing and other running costs. Enter the total actually paid. The optional tax field records tax already included in that total; it is not added a second time.

Receipts and documents

1. Open a fuel, service, charging or expense entry and expand More details & receipts.
2. Choose Attach new receipt, then Take photo or Choose from files.
3. For a new photo, photograph the whole receipt clearly and confirm it in your camera app. DriveFive returns to the entry and selects the receipt while keeping your fields.
4. If receipt scanning is enabled, choose Scan selected receipt and review its suggestions. Attaching a photo does not automatically scan or save the entry. Check your information and save normally.

Documents also offers the same camera or file choice after choosing a vehicle. Cancelling capture keeps the existing entry and receipt selection. If you moved to another entry, the photo remains in the original vehicle’s Documents instead of replacing that entry’s receipt. A compatible camera app is required; choose a file if no camera app is available. JPG, PNG, WebP and PDF files are supported; saved attachments must be 8 MB or smaller after any enabled photo optimisation. PDFs can be attached but are not scanned.

DriveFive keeps a local copy. Open a receipt with a compatible viewer; exporting or sharing gives the selected app access to that file.

Receipt photos can be resized and compressed to reduce storage. Inspect the date, vendor, amounts and tax for legibility. Keep original documents separately if you require their original quality. Files referenced by an unfinished draft or a recoverable deletion are protected from routine cleanup during that period.

Enable only if useful to you

Turn on Optional receipt scanning in Settings → Preferences. This feature uses Google ML Kit’s Latin-script text recognition on your device. Google Play services and a first-use model download are required. The recognition model is not bundled in the APK or requested at app startup. Model download and Google SDK diagnostics can use network data; see Privacy & Data.

Scan and review

1. Open a fuel, service, expense or charging form and choose the correct vehicle.
2. Choose Attach new receipt → Take photo to capture a receipt, Choose from files for an existing image, or select an already attached clear JPG, PNG or WebP receipt in More details & receipts. PDFs can still be attached and viewed but are not scanned.
3. Choose Scan selected receipt. If the model is not ready, stay connected and retry after its download.
4. Compare suggestions with the photo. Suggestions match the selected form: fuel date, station, litres, CAD/L price, fuel type, total and printed odometer; charging network/location, kWh, duration, type and printed battery percentages; service work, category and vendor; or expense description, category and included tax. Canadian English and French labels, cents-per-litre prices and common date formats are recognised where legible. Missing required values are listed separately; existing form defaults are not scanned facts. Conflicting totals, mixed fuel/store purchases and ambiguous dates are flagged for manual review.
5. Uncheck suggestions you do not want. Apply checked suggestions fills the form; it does not save a record. Check everything, then save normally.

If you change a suggested field, vehicle or receipt after scanning, DriveFive asks you to keep the edit or scan again. Late results for a closed form are ignored. OCR may misread faint printing, handwriting, tax lines or curved photos. Photograph the whole receipt sharply and crop unused background. If small print is blurred by photo optimisation, turn that option off in Storage and reattach a clearer original. You remain responsible for confirming the values. Manual entry and attachments work with scanning disabled or without the model.

Turning scanning off prevents new scans but may not cancel one already in progress. Android and Google Play services manage the downloaded model; its storage is additional to the APK. Restoring a backup leaves scanning off until you enable it again.

Log completed work

Choose Log service, confirm the vehicle, date and odometer, select a category and describe the work. Enter the total paid, including zero for work with no charge. Optional details hold the shop, receipt and notes. Saving unfinished work as a draft does not mark the service as completed.

Create reminders

1. Open Service & reminders and Add reminder.
2. Choose the vehicle and a clear reminder name.
3. Set a due odometer, due date or both. Optional repeat intervals use kilometres or months.
4. Allow notifications if you want Android reminders. Check the list even if notifications are disabled.

Complete & log opens a service form. Saving the service records completion and advances a repeating reminder using the completed date and odometer. A reminder without repeat intervals is marked complete. Closing an unfinished draft does not advance it.

Vehicle insurance and registration dates are stored in the vehicle’s optional details. Enter actual renewal dates. Service intervals and target tire pressures are your choices; follow the vehicle manufacturer and placard.

Reminder delivery may be delayed by Android power or notification settings. DriveFive helps organise records; it does not replace inspections or confirm that a vehicle is safe to drive.

One vehicle history

Open Vehicle timeline from Garage or More. Select a vehicle and period, then filter by record type or search. Trips, fuel, charging, services, expenses and documents appear together. View record opens its existing detail and edit actions. Documents open in the chosen viewer. The timeline does not store duplicate copies.

Check your actual odometer

Add an end-of-day dashboard reading under Odometer checks. The first reading establishes a baseline. A later reading compares dashboard movement against all current trips after the previous reading date through the new date. Missing trips, late entries and incorrect readings can explain differences. The app does not automatically change historical trips or the vehicle’s stored odometer. Edit incorrect records deliberately.

Use one whole-kilometre reading per vehicle per date. Later readings cannot be lower than earlier readings. The optional Home reminder can be postponed for 30 days; it is hidden during a trip. Annual vehicle readings remain available separately.

Estimated service timing

Service & care supplements kilometre reminders with estimated dates based on up to 60 days of logged driving. It needs driving on at least five dates over a period of at least two weeks, including recent driving. Missing trips and unreviewed mileage affect estimates. Already overdue work is labelled due now. Your saved date and odometer requirements remain authoritative; forecasts never reschedule reminders or invent manufacturer intervals.

Open Garage → More → Vehicle history beside a vehicle, or Reports & exports → Create vehicle history. Choose one vehicle, including an archived vehicle. The report includes all its saved service records across all dates, regardless of the current screen filters or list pagination. Drafts and deleted records are excluded.

Select the vehicle fields and optional shop, cost and service-note details. VIN can be omitted, shown in full or limited to its last six characters. Plate, nickname, notes, costs, provider and seller information start off. If including a current odometer, check the dashboard value and reading date, then confirm them. This report-only value does not change your garage.

Documents start unselected. Open each document for review, then select the ones to include. Check for personal details: selected originals are copied in full without redaction. PDF attachments include every page, flattened into the report; image orientation is preserved. The report labels linked receipts with matching appendix numbers. Unlinked inspection documents can also be included. A receipt label means an attachment is present, not that anyone independently verified the record.

Tap Preview PDF to view the actual generated document. Use Previous, Next, the page number and Zoom in to inspect every page. Share opens Android’s sharing chooser, Save PDF opens the file picker, and Print opens Android printing with page selection. Returning to the builder keeps the current choices so you can adjust and generate a new PDF.

The report uses white printable pages, chronological services, missing-value labels, coverage and generation dates, and page numbers. It is an owner-maintained history, not an inspection or certification. Empty histories and earlier cleanup are identified. Trip routes, saved places and unrelated records are not included.

Generation and preview work offline. There is no hosted public link. Up to 20 selected documents, 100 pages per PDF attachment and 500 report pages are supported; oversized or unreadable selections fail with a message rather than silently dropping pages. Temporary reports are available to the sharing provider for 24 hours. Saved or shared copies remain wherever you place them.

Choose a scope

Use the vehicle and date filters before reading totals. A custom range includes the dates you choose. Analytics combines logged distance, business use, fuel, charging, service and other expenses for that scope. Missing entries produce incomplete totals.

Fuel consumption needs usable full-to-full intervals; energy efficiency and cost per kilometre depend on sufficient matching records. These are record summaries, not a live vehicle diagnostic or a promise of tax deductibility.

Download a report

In More → Reports & backups, choose the vehicle and dates. Every report card offers CSV and PDF: Mileage log, Fuel records, Charging records, Service history, Expense records and Summary report. Both formats include all matching records, including pages you have not loaded. Search and category filters from other screens do not narrow these reports.

1. CSV: choose a folder in Android’s save dialog. The five record reports use one row per record. Summary CSV uses Section, Record, Date, Vehicle, Field and Value columns to include its totals, annual readings, complete trip ledger and notes.
2. PDF: review the report, then tap Save as PDF. Select Save as PDF in Android’s printer list, then tap Save and choose a folder. Letter landscape is the default; you can adjust print settings.

The screen preview shows up to 20 rows per section to keep browsing lighter. The PDF and CSV contain every matching row. The CSV button inside a PDF preview downloads that same snapshot. Close the preview and generate another report after editing records or changing filters. Kilometres remain whole numbers; blank costs remain unknown rather than zero. No matching records produces an empty report.

Other exports

• GPX: retained GPS route points for a trip. Breaks mark recording interruptions. A route removed by retention cannot be exported again from the working garage.
• Full backup: the garage, retained routes, attachments, saved places, assignments, settings and drafts. Use this for recovery, not CSV.

Saved-place names are used for linked endpoints. The offline route view shows a route shape, without downloading a street map. Review business purposes, odometers and gaps before sharing records. Consult current Canadian recordkeeping requirements for your situation; the app does not file tax returns.

Create and share a full backup

1. Open Settings → Data & backups → Backups, or Manage backups in Reports.
2. Finish an active trip. Choose Create and share backup. DriveFive creates and checks a dated ZIP containing the garage, retained GPS routes, receipts, saved places, settings, drafts and trip-correction originals.
3. Review its creation time, size and record counts. Choose Share backup to open Android’s Share menu, or Save a file for the file picker.
4. Choose a compatible installed destination, such as Google Drive, OneDrive or Dropbox, and finish its sign-in, folder and upload steps. Available destinations depend on your phone.
5. Check the saved file in that app. In the backup help panel, I saved a copy elsewhere records your confirmation and restarts the reminder interval.

Backups are unencrypted. Sharing gives the chosen app temporary read access to that file. The temporary copy can remain for up to 24 hours, subject to Android cache cleanup. Up to four temporary copies / 512 MiB are allowed; use an existing prepared copy or ordinary export if the limit is reached. There is no DriveFive cloud account, direct cloud integration or unattended cloud upload.

Creating a ZIP, choosing a destination, returning from another app or cancelling sharing does not prove an upload succeeded. DriveFive labels a chosen destination separately from your own confirmation; it cannot verify the cloud service. Closing the preparation panel does not cancel the copy. It remains available in Backups when ready.

Independent backup reminders

Choose Off, Weekly, Monthly or Every… days (1–365 whole days), then Save reminder. Monthly uses calendar months and the last valid day in a shorter month. Existing weekly and every-30-day preferences migrate without enabling previously disabled reminders. These dates are separate from automatic folder-backup success.

Allow notifications. The page explains when they are blocked. Back up now opens Backups; it never sends files in the background. Remind me later / Remind me tomorrow postpones the reminder by 24 hours. Android may delay checks for battery restrictions, and force-stop prevents background work until reopening. A delivered reminder schedules the next interval; only explicitly confirming a copy elsewhere restarts it based on a saved copy. Off disables further reminders and clears the notification.

Recover on a replacement phone

Download the saved ZIP from your chosen destination to the new phone. In DriveFive, use Restore backup and confirm replacement of its current garage. CSV/PDF reports are not recovery backups. Verify recent records, routes and receipts after restoring. Automatic logging, NFC, folder schedules, sharing reminders and route cleanup remain off until you enable them. Reselect a folder; another phone’s permissions cannot be restored.

Choose a destination

1. Open Reports & backups → Automatic backups, or the Backup schedule shortcut in Settings.
2. Select Use recommended folder. DriveFive proposes Documents / DriveFive / Backups.
3. Android opens its folder picker. Choose Documents or the requested parent and approve access. DriveFive creates missing subfolders inside the area you approve, then checks it can write, read and remove its own files.
4. Check the displayed folder. Choose another folder whenever you prefer a different supported destination.

Android’s approval is required once for persistent access. The app cannot approve it on your behalf. If Documents is unavailable or a provider cannot support background writes, choose another shared folder. An existing destination remains selected until you change it.

Set a schedule

Automatic backups are off by default. Choose Daily, Weekly or Monthly and a preferred local time. Weekly schedules add a weekday; monthly schedules add a day number. If the month lacks that date, its last day is used. Optionally require charging. Save the settings to apply them.

Android controls background execution and can delay the preferred time for battery, storage or other restrictions. This is not an exact alarm. The schedule is reconciled after reopening or reboot. Force-stopping the app can prevent background work until you reopen it. Clock and time-zone changes recalculate the next run.

An active trip takes priority. A scheduled backup waits until it finishes; automatic GPS monitoring can remain enabled between trips. Backups do not finish or disable recording for you. If the phone missed runs, one catch-up copy is attempted rather than a pile of duplicate copies.

Status and retained copies

The panel shows the destination, last successful backup, next preferred run and waiting or failure status. Back up now uses the approved destination. Manual export lets you choose an individual file location.

The saved file is reopened and verified before success is recorded. Choose the latest 3, 7, 14 or 30 scheduled copies to retain; the default is 7. After a successful replacement, only older files tracked as created by this schedule are eligible for cleanup. Manual exports and unrelated files are preserved. A failed copy does not replace the last successful date or delete the last good backup.

Reminders to save a copy elsewhere have their own controls above. A successful local backup does not reset them. Allow notifications for reminders and repeated scheduled-backup failure alerts.

Restore safely

1. Finish active trips and turn Auto Trip and Android Auto starts off. Export a current backup if you need to preserve the garage you are replacing.
2. Choose Restore, select a DriveFive backup and read the confirmation. Restore replaces the current garage; it does not merge two garages.
3. After validation and restore, inspect vehicles, recent trips and receipts. Legacy supported DriveFive backups remain accepted.
4. Reselect a backup folder and explicitly enable any desired schedule. Another phone’s folder permission is not restored. Enable NFC, Auto Trip and Android Auto starts separately when ready.

Where copies live

A shared document-folder backup normally remains after uninstall, whereas DriveFive’s internal data is removed. Reinstalling requires approving folder access again. A copy on the same phone does not protect against losing or damaging the phone; keep another copy somewhere you control.

Local folders work offline. A cloud-backed document provider must support persistent folder access and unattended reads/writes. Its connectivity, sync and retention are controlled by that provider, and completion in DriveFive does not prove a later cloud upload finished. No DriveFive cloud account is provided.

Backups are unencrypted and may contain precise routes, locations, receipts and vehicle identifiers. Protect access to the destination. If access is revoked, storage fills or a provider is unavailable, fix the issue and retry; the app keeps the previous good copies.

Recover unfinished entries

Changed fuel, service and manual-trip forms, including edits to saved records, store local drafts as you work. The status above the form confirms when a draft is saved or reports an error. Merely opening a form creates no draft.

When leaving a changed form, choose Keep draft, Discard changes or Continue editing. Android Back and the close button use the same protection. Find kept drafts in Settings or More → Saved drafts; Home shows a shortcut when drafts exist.

Resume restores the chosen vehicle, fields and receipt reference. Drafts remain separate from mileage, costs and reports until you save successfully. If the original record changed since the draft began, DriveFive keeps the draft and asks you to review the current record instead of overwriting it. Discarding a draft leaves completed records intact.

Up to 30 drafts are kept within a bounded size limit. Save or discard older drafts if you reach the limit. Backups include drafts, but unsaved work can still be lost before a write completes or if app data is removed.

Form errors

Essential fields appear first. Expand More details & receipts for optional information; collapsing it keeps your values. Errors identify or focus the relevant field and open its section. Correct the value and save again.

Undo deletion

Deleting a trip, fill-up or service record still asks for confirmation. An Undo bar then remains available for 30 seconds. Each deletion has its own Undo action. Its record, route and receipt references remain recoverable for that window.

After the window expires, deletion is permanent in the working garage. Undo does not reverse other edits or alter external backups. Restore a suitable backup only if you intend to replace your garage with that snapshot. Vehicle deletion and other unsupported record types do not have this Undo window.

Select and preview

1. Open Settings → Data & backups → Clean up old records.
2. Finish an active trip and turn off Auto Trip and Android Auto starts. Cleanup does not stop recording for you. Wait for a backup/storage operation or a 30-second Undo window to finish.
3. Choose one vehicle or explicitly choose All vehicles. Select trips, fuel, charging, service and/or expenses.
4. Choose Delete records before. The cutoff date itself is kept. Completed GPS trips use their ending date; manual records use their record date. Invalid or missing dates are protected.
5. Preview the counts, affected vehicles, dates, attachments and estimated space. No records are removed by previewing.

Back up and confirm

Create backup first is selected by default. DriveFive creates a full recovery ZIP and opens Android’s file picker. Choose a destination and save. DriveFive reads the saved copy to verify it before offering the final deletion confirmation. Cancellation or verification failure leaves the records unchanged. For a cloud-backed destination, check the provider’s upload status separately.

If you uncheck backup, you must explicitly choose Continue without backup and then confirm the deletion. The last confirmation always shows the selected scope. If records change after previewing, cleanup is rejected and you must preview again. Deletion runs as one database transaction. There is no bulk Undo; restoring a full backup replaces the current garage.

What is kept and what changes

Vehicle profiles and current odometers, maintenance reminder schedules, dashboard readings, saved places, NFC associations, settings and unfinished drafts are kept. Records being edited in saved drafts are protected. Linked trip corrections are removed only as a complete eligible group; a group that spans the cutoff stays protected.

Routes and receipts belonging only to deleted records are removed. Shared attachments and standalone documents remain. A compact last-service reference by category can remain on the vehicle to preserve a baseline; it is not a full service history. Reports use retained history and display a cleanup notice. Fuel calculations do not connect across deleted fill-ups.

After deletion, DriveFive attempts to reclaim unused database pages. It can report that reclamation must be retried from Storage if free space is insufficient; that does not undo successful deletion. The preview is an estimate. Existing backup archives, exports and files shared outside the app are not deleted. Restoring an older backup can bring purged records back. Record cleanup is optional and never runs on a schedule.

Open Storage & performance to inspect records, route data, receipts and temporary space. The APK is only part of total app storage: your photos and accumulated journeys determine later growth.

Routine efficiency

DriveFive stores route data compactly and can optimise receipt photos. Maintenance is deferred around recording where needed. Database space can be reclaimed after deletions, but the figures may not fall immediately while temporary recovery or other work is active.

Optional route retention

Choose how long to retain detailed routes only if you are comfortable losing older route shapes. The default keeps them. Cleanup protects trips still needing review. It preserves trip totals, dates, categories and endpoint names while removing eligible detailed points.

GPX and route viewing are unavailable for a trip whose detail has been removed. A later backup contains only detail still present at the time it is made. Export a backup with routes before enabling cleanup if you may need them later.

Receipt quality and copies

Optimise photos when appropriate, then check that receipts remain readable. Avoid importing the same document repeatedly. Choose a practical scheduled-backup count and occasionally review manually exported copies, which DriveFive does not automatically remove.

Temporary transfer files are cleaned up. Drafts and Undo recovery are bounded. Do not use Android Clear storage as a cleanup shortcut: it removes your working garage. Make and verify a backup before uninstalling or clearing app data.

Live speed

While a recording trip card is visible on Home or Trips, DriveFive requests GPS readings and refreshes the speed display about once per second. The phone and reception determine when a real reading arrives. Speed stays in whole km/h; paused, unavailable or stale speed shows a dash.

Leaving the card, opening a form, switching apps or locking the phone returns active GPS recording to its normal two-second interval. Waiting for a trip uses five seconds. Extra visible speed readings do not automatically add extra saved route points. Auto Trip, NFC and Android Auto timers retain their existing rules.

Browse older records

Fuel, charging, service, expense and document histories, plus Vehicle timeline, load 50 records at a time. Tap Load 50 more to go further. Search examines the complete matching history, including records you have not loaded. Going back keeps your filters and loaded position.

Totals, Insights, CSV/PDF reports and full backups include the complete vehicle and date range. Full-to-full fuel consumption still uses earlier fills needed to establish an interval; blank amounts remain unknown rather than free fuel. Searching a list does not narrow the period totals or CSV exports.

Find a receipt

Entry forms initially offer up to 50 recent receipts for their vehicle. Use Find an older receipt or Load 50 more receipts. An already linked receipt remains selected even when older than the first page. Changing vehicles shows only that vehicle’s receipts.

Receipt quality and memory

Camera and file attachments are processed from a temporary private file, and image rotation and resizing share one output image. Smaller new photos still use the same 2,400-pixel JPEG quality setting; turn this option off in Storage to keep original bytes within the 8 MB attachment limit. PDFs stay unchanged. Scanning remains optional and you review suggestions before saving.

These changes reduce unnecessary work. Actual RAM, battery and GPS behaviour depend on the phone, WebView and receipt sizes. A full report or backup still processes the selected history.

APK will not open or install

This release supports Android 8.0 and later. Download the actual .apk file fully, open it from Android’s Files or Downloads app, and allow that trusted app to install unknown apps if Android asks. A ZIP of source code is not the installer. Device policies or security controls may prohibit installation.

An update must use the same application identity and signing certificate as the installed copy. Do not uninstall first simply to work around an error: that removes internal data. Save a full backup before considering reinstalling. Keep the exact Android error message if installation still fails.

GPS does not start or misses distance

Check precise location, phone Location services and the app’s recording status. Move to an area with a clearer sky view, reopen DriveFive, and use Resume if interrupted. Check Android battery restrictions. Review the trip against the dashboard; GPS gaps cannot be reliably reconstructed.

NFC does not respond

Check the phone and app NFC switches, unlock the phone, locate its antenna and test the tag away from metal. Wait past the repeated-tap cooldown. Reopen NFC setup to inspect the assignment. Finish or cancel any tag-writing session before normal use.

Backup has not run

Check that its schedule is enabled, the preferred time is due, the phone meets any charging requirement and no trip is active. Reopen the app after a force-stop, verify folder access and available space, then try Back up now. Android may delay background jobs. A failure does not mean an older good backup is lost.

Missing or unexpected records

Check demo mode, the vehicle selector, date range, category and review-only filter. Look in Saved drafts for unfinished entries. Undo is available for 30 seconds after supported deletion. Restore replaces the garage, so read its confirmation carefully.

This guide is included with DriveFive 1.16.1 and is available offline.