Cookie User Guide

Section 1

What is Cookie?

Cookie is a recipe manager and meal-planning app from SuppoNexus Technologies. It runs as:

• Cookie for Windows — a full desktop app for browsing, editing, importing and printing recipes, plus household/network features.
• Cookie Mobile — a companion app for iOS and Android, for browsing recipes, cooking along, scanning recipes with your camera, and keeping your shopping list and meal plan with you.

Both apps work from the same recipe library. You don't have to use both — but if you do, this guide explains how they share data.

Section 2

Getting Started

2.1 Windows desktop

1. Install Cookie (see download link on the product page).
2. On first launch, Cookie creates a local database in your user profile.
3. If this is the only computer you'll use Cookie on, you're done — start adding recipes.
4. If you want to share your library with other household PCs or with the mobile app, see Section 6 — Sharing & Cloud Sync.

2.2 Mobile (iOS / Android)

1. Install Cookie from the App Store / Google Play.
2. On first launch, the Welcome screen asks how this device should get its recipe library:
   • Sign in with Dropbox — connects to a Dropbox account that already has (or will start) a Cookie folder. This is the only cloud sync option on mobile — see Section 6 for why.
   • Use iCloud Drive (iPhone/iPad only) — connects to the app's own iCloud container, for keeping your own iPhone and iPad in sync with each other (not a sharing mechanism between different people — see Section 6).
   • Keep Local, I won't use the cloud — start a brand-new library on this device only (no sync). You can connect to Dropbox later from Settings.

Section 3

Your Recipe Library

The My Recipes screen (desktop) / Recipe Library (mobile) shows all your recipes as cards with a photo, title, cuisine/category tags, prep time/servings, calories (if entered) and how many times you've made it.

• Search — find recipes by title, ingredient, tag, cuisine, etc.
• Flavorites — tap the heart icon to mark a recipe as a favourite (shown with a 🍪 "Flavorite" indicator).
• Filters/categories — narrow the list by cuisine or category.

3.1 Recipe Detail page

Tap/click a recipe card to open it. From here you can:

• Back — return to the library (a Back button sits above the photo on both desktop and mobile so it's always reachable).
• Adjust servings — use the +/− controls to scale ingredient quantities up or down. Tap 📌 Save for shopping list to remember this serving size so the shopping list uses the scaled amounts.
• Rate the recipe — tap the cookie icons to leave your own 1–5 rating.
• Mark "Made it!" — tap the Made it! button each time you cook the recipe. Cookie keeps a running count and the date you last made it.
• Calories — if a per-serving calorie value was entered, it's shown next to prep/cook/total time.
• Notes — add personal notes/tweaks in the Notes section.
• Comments — leave dated comments (useful for "doubled the garlic, great result" type notes over time).
• Nutrition facts — expandable panel with any nutrition data imported or entered for the recipe.
• Share — see Section 6.4.
• Print (desktop only) — print a clean recipe card.
• Edit / Delete — open the edit page, or remove the recipe.

Section 4

Adding Recipes

There are several ways to add a recipe — availability differs slightly by platform (see the comparison table).

When importing, always review the extracted ingredients/instructions before saving — automatic extraction is usually accurate but occasionally needs a small edit.

4.1 Editing a recipe

Open a recipe and tap the pencil/Edit icon. You can change every field, crop/replace the photo, edit ingredients and instructions (one per line), add tags, and fill in nutrition facts in the table at the bottom.

Section 5

Meal Planner & Shopping List

5.1 Meal Planner

Plan meals across the week by assigning recipes to days. Available on both desktop and mobile, and syncs along with the rest of your library (see Section 6).

5.2 Shopping List

Cookie builds a shopping list from the ingredients of recipes you've added to your meal plan (or marked for shopping). If you've adjusted a recipe's servings and saved that for the shopping list (Section 3.1), the quantities on the list reflect the scaled amounts.

Section 6

Sharing & Cloud Sync

This is the part that lets your desktop and mobile apps — and other people's devices — all see the same recipes. There are three independent sharing mechanisms in Cookie. Pick the one(s) that fit how you use the app:

6.1 How the cloud sync folder works

Cookie can keep a copy of your recipe database (cookie.db) and your recipe photos (Images/) inside a Cookie folder that lives inside a cloud drive folder that's already syncing on your computer (Dropbox, Google Drive, or OneDrive — desktop only for the latter two).

• Desktop → Cloud: every time you make a change on the desktop, Cookie quietly copies the database to the Cookie folder in your cloud drive (at most every 5 seconds). The cloud drive app then syncs that folder to the cloud and to your other devices, just like any other file.
• Cloud → Desktop: when the desktop app starts, it checks whether the cloud copy is newer (e.g. you made changes on your phone) and pulls those changes in.
• Mobile ↔ Dropbox: the mobile app signs in to Dropbox directly (not via a synced local folder the way desktop does) and pulls from / pushes to the same Cookie folder there, based on your sync activity — at startup, periodically in the background, or manually with the Sync Now button in Settings.

6.2 Setting up cloud sync

On the Windows desktop app:

1. Open Settings → Cloud Sync.
2. Cookie auto-detects installed cloud drives (Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox) and lists them.
3. Pick one. Cookie creates a Cookie folder inside it (with a cookie.db and an Images subfolder) and copies your current library there.
   • If you pick Google Drive or OneDrive while Use network share is turned on, Cookie will tell you that's not available — a PC can only use one Cloud Sync provider or NAS at a time. Turn network share off first, or pick Dropbox, which works either way.
   • Picking Google Drive or OneDrive shows a reminder every time (not just once) that neither one ever reaches the mobile app — only Dropbox does.
4. If your cloud drive wasn't detected, use Browse for cloud folder manually… and pick the right location yourself.

Changes push to your cloud folder automatically shortly after every save — there's no sync schedule to configure. Use Sync Now any time to pull in changes immediately instead of waiting for the next automatic check.

On mobile:

1. Open Settings — next to Dropbox, tap Sign in.
2. If this is the first device connecting this Dropbox account to Cookie, confirm using this device's existing data to start the library; otherwise Cookie finds the existing library and pulls it in automatically.
3. Use Sync Now any time to force an immediate sync (handy right after making a change on another device) — otherwise Cookie also pulls automatically at startup and periodically in the background.

6.3 Sharing the cloud folder with someone on a different cloud account

This is the scenario where, for example, you share your Cookie Dropbox folder with another person who has their own, completely separate Dropbox account — so both of you see the same recipe library on your own devices, signed into your own clouds. This works on mobile as well as desktop, since Dropbox is the only provider that reaches both.

This works because Dropbox supports sharing a folder with another account, which then appears as a normal folder inside that person's own Dropbox too — Cookie doesn't need to know or care whose account it is, it just sees a Cookie folder with cookie.db and Images in it.

Step-by-step:

1. On the device that already has the Cookie folder set up, open Dropbox in the browser, desktop app, or mobile app.
2. Find the Cookie folder → Share folder (or "Share").
3. Enter the other person's email address (the one tied to their Dropbox account) and grant edit access.
4. The other person receives an email/notification and accepts — the shared Cookie folder now appears inside their own Dropbox.
5. On their device(s), open Cookie's Settings and sign in to Dropbox using that account — Cookie finds the existing library and pulls it in automatically.
6. From then on, both of you read and write the same cookie.db and Images folder — recipes either of you add, edit, rate, or mark "Made it!" sync to the other, same as if you shared one Dropbox account.

Google Drive and OneDrive support the same kind of folder sharing too (in their own apps — "Share"/"Add shortcut to Drive" for Google Drive, "Share" → "Add shortcut to My files" for OneDrive), but since neither reaches the mobile app, that only helps if everyone involved is on Windows. If any phone or tablet needs to be part of the sharing, use Dropbox instead.

6.4 Sharing individual recipes

If you just want to send one recipe to someone — and they're not sharing your library at all — use the Share button on a recipe's detail page. Two options:

• Copy as HTML Email — copies a nicely formatted version of the recipe (photo, ingredients, steps) to your clipboard. Paste it into a new email and send — the recipient doesn't need Cookie to read it.
• Copy as .cookie File — copies a .cookie file (a small JSON file with the full recipe, including your notes and rating) to your clipboard. Paste it as an email attachment. If the recipient has Cookie, they can import it.

To import a .cookie file someone sent you:

• Desktop: open the navigation menu → Import Shared Recipe → Open .cookie File… and select the file (e.g. from your email attachment/downloads folder).
• Mobile: open the .cookie file attachment from your email/Files app and choose to open it with Cookie (or use the equivalent import option in the app).

6.5 Local network (LAN) sync between desktop PCs

For households with multiple Windows PCs on the same Wi-Fi/network, Cookie can sync libraries directly between PCs without any cloud account:

1. On each PC, open Settings → Local Network Sharing and turn on Make this PC visible on the network.
2. On one PC, click Search for Cookie PCs — other PCs running Cookie with sharing enabled appear in the list.
3. Select a PC and click Sync with selected PC — recipes, meal plans and images merge in both directions (nothing is overwritten, everything is combined).
4. With sharing left on, this also happens automatically in the background.

Section 7

Feature Comparison: Desktop vs Mobile

Section 8

Cocktail Bar (add-on)

The Cocktail Bar is an optional add-on that adds a cocktail recipe library alongside your food recipes — same import, editing, rating, sharing and sync features, plus glass-type icons and spirit/method tags.

• Unlock once on the device/account that purchases it; it's then available to every device sharing the same library (re-activate from Settings → Household Licenses if you change routers/networks).

Section 9

Unit Converter

A quick popup converter for cooking units (volume, weight, temperature) — available from the navigation menu on both desktop and mobile. Handy for converting a US recipe's cups/ounces to metric, or oven temperatures between °F and °C.

Section 10

Backup & Restore

Both desktop and mobile can save and restore a manual backup, independent of automatic cloud sync — useful before a risky change, or when migrating to a new cloud provider.

Desktop

From Settings → Backup & Restore:

• Export Backup — saves a .db file plus a companion _images.zip containing all your recipe photos. Keep this somewhere safe (a different drive, cloud folder, USB stick).
• Import Backup — restores from a previously exported backup.

Desktop also keeps automatic daily backups (up to 3) right next to your database with no setup needed — see Settings → Backup & Restore's ⓘ for details and the folder location.

Mobile

From Settings → Backup & Restore:

• Backup Now — saves a backup file. If Dropbox is connected, it's pushed straight into a Backups folder in your Dropbox (kept separate from your live-synced library); otherwise it opens your device's share sheet so you can save it wherever you like.
• Restore from Backup — pick a local file, or pick one from Dropbox's Backups folder.

Section 11

Troubleshooting

• My phone isn't seeing recipes I added on my PC — first check your PC is actually using Dropbox for Cloud Sync (Google Drive/OneDrive never reach mobile at all). Then on mobile, check Settings and tap Sync Now. Make sure Dropbox is signed in on your phone and has finished syncing.
• Changes aren't appearing on my PC — cloud sync pulls in new changes when the desktop app starts. Restart Cookie, or wait — it also pulls periodically.
• I shared my Cookie folder with someone but they see nothing — make sure they added it with Edit permission (not view-only), and that their device's Cookie points at the shared Cookie folder, not a different/empty folder.
• Something crashed — go to Settings → Diagnostics → View Error Log on desktop, or Settings → Share diagnostic log on mobile. This log is useful if you contact support.

Section 12

Getting Help

Still stuck? Reach out and we'll help you sort it out.