How to save recipes on iPhone (without losing them)

Why recipes get lost on iPhone

A recipe on your phone lives in the app you found it in. A video on TikTok, a blog post in Safari, a photo of a page from a cookbook, a message from your mum. Each one has its own place, and none of them talk to each other.

So you save it, forget where, and end up scrolling through screenshots or saved posts with a pan already on the hob. The fix is to save the recipe itself, not just the link or the video, and to keep everything in one place you can search.

That last part matters more than it sounds. A screenshot is only findable if you remember roughly when you took it and scroll to that spot. A bookmark is only useful if the site stays up and you remember which folder you used. A note is only as good as the title you gave it. None of these give you a way to search across everything you have saved by ingredient, by name, or by the night you plan to cook it. That is how recipes get lost even when you did save them.

The free manual ways, and where they fall short

These cost nothing and work for a handful of recipes. They get harder as the pile grows, and each one has a specific weak spot worth knowing before you rely on it.

Screenshots are the fastest but the least searchable. Notes are more flexible but you have to type or paste everything. Bookmarks keep the original page but also keep the ads and the long story. PDFs are good for a recipe you have already typed up, less good for one you found online five minutes ago.

1. Screenshots: pause on the ingredients and take a screenshot. Keep them in a named album in Photos so they don't drown in your camera roll. To make an album, open Photos, tap Albums, then the plus button, and name it Recipes.
2. Notes: copy the ingredients and method into a note, and paste the link at the top so you can rewatch the method. You can also use the Notes app's built-in scanner to capture a cookbook page. Give each note a clear title like 'Mum's lasagne' so search can find it later.
3. Safari bookmarks: save the page to a folder called Recipes. Quick, but you're relying on the website staying up, and the page still has the long story around the recipe. To make a folder, tap the book icon, then Edit, then New Folder.
4. PDFs: use the Share button in Safari, then Print, then pinch to save as a PDF to Files. Good for a family recipe you've typed up, but you can't change servings or search across them easily. Keep them in a folder called Recipes in Files so they don't mix with work documents.

What a recipe app adds

A recipe app keeps recipes in one searchable place. When you are choosing one, it helps to look for a few practical things: saving from other apps via the share sheet, scaling servings, a shopping list built from your plan, and a cooking view that is easy to read at arm's length. These are not universal standards, just the features that tend to matter once you have more than a dozen recipes.

Cookt is a free iPhone app that covers those four. It sits in the share sheet, so from TikTok, Instagram, YouTube or Safari you tap Share, then Cookt, and the link becomes a recipe in your cookbook. You can also paste a link, scan a cookbook page, or type a family recipe in. Some apps strip out the blog story; Cookt does this too, leaving you with ingredients and steps.

The free plan includes some recipe saves each week, the meal plan with no limit on meals, and the shopping list. Cookt Pro is an optional monthly or yearly subscription with a free trial for new subscribers, which adds more saves and AI help. There's no Android app yet, and no Windows or web app, so if you're not on iPhone, another app will fit better.

How to save a recipe to Cookt from any app

This works in any app with a Share button. On Instagram, the path is Share, then Share to, then Cookt. If you have never used the share sheet for a recipe before, the first time takes a moment; after that it is two taps.

Once the recipe is in, you can change the servings and every quantity scales. That is the part manual methods cannot do: a screenshot of a recipe for four is still a recipe for four when you are cooking for two.

1. Get Cookt from the App Store and sign in with Apple, Google or your phone number.
2. In the app where you found the recipe, tap Share.
3. Tap Cookt. If it isn't in the row, tap More at the end to open the full share sheet.
4. The recipe lands in your cookbook as ingredients with amounts, then clear steps, with the long story left behind.
5. Change the servings and every quantity scales. Sort recipes into books so your weeknight dinners aren't mixed in with baking.

Organising your cookbook so you can find things

Saving is only half the job. The other half is being able to retrieve a recipe months later, when you remember the dish but not the app you found it in. In Cookt, saved recipes live in your cookbook, which is searchable, and you can sort them into books.

A simple structure that works for most people: one book for weeknight dinners, one for baking, one for recipes you have cooked and liked, and one for things you want to try. Keep the names short so they are easy to scan. If you save a lot from social media, a book called 'From videos' can be a useful holding pen until you have cooked something and know it is worth keeping.

Search is the other retrieval tool. Because the recipe is stored as ingredients and steps rather than a link, you can search for a name or an ingredient and find it without remembering where it came from. That is the practical difference between saving a recipe and not losing it.

Cooking from a saved recipe

When it's time to cook, open the recipe and switch to cook mode. It shows one step at a time in big type, with a timer in the step that needs it, and keeps the screen awake while your hands are busy.

If you plan the week, drop saved recipes onto the nights you'll cook and Cookt builds one shopping list with amounts combined and grouped by aisle. Anything already in your pantry is left off. The list is on iPhone, in a widget and on Apple Watch.

This is also where the not-losing part pays off. A recipe you saved three weeks ago is on the plan for Thursday, and its ingredients are already on the list. You are not scrolling back through screenshots at the supermarket.

If a recipe won't save

Copy the link again and paste it into Cookt fresh, since a share sheet sometimes passes a shortened link. Check the video or page is public and opens in your browser.

If it still won't import, the support page has an email address and a real person answers.