FAQ

General

Is HealthViewer free?

HealthViewer includes a free 7-day trial with no payment required. After the trial, a personal-use license costs $24.99 as a one-time purchase—there is no subscription. The license can be used on your personal devices and includes updates for its license tier. Applicable taxes may be added at checkout. Without a license, existing data remains readable, but adding new data is disabled.

Where is my data stored?

In a .hvdb file on your device — wherever you chose to save it when you created the database. HealthViewer never uploads your data anywhere.

Can I use HealthViewer on multiple computers?

Yes — copy your .hvdb file to another computer (via USB, encrypted cloud storage, AirDrop, etc.) and open it with HealthViewer. Both machines use the same password.

Can I track a family member’s health?

Yes. Create a separate profile for each person: on the unlock screen, click Add a profile. Each profile is its own encrypted .hvdb file with its own password, so one person’s results never mix with another’s. All your profiles are listed on the unlock screen. To move between them, click Switch profile at the bottom of the sidebar and unlock the other one. A license on your computer covers every profile you open there.

Is there a mobile app?

Not currently. HealthViewer is a desktop app for macOS and Windows.

Why does Windows warn me when I install HealthViewer?

When you run the Windows installer, Microsoft Defender SmartScreen may show Windows protected your PC and list the publisher as Unknown publisher. This happens because the installer isn’t signed with a Windows code-signing certificate yet, and HealthViewer is new, so SmartScreen hasn’t seen many people download it. The warning is about the file’s reputation. It doesn’t mean SmartScreen found anything harmful.

To install:

Click More info.
Check that the file is named HealthViewer Setup followed by the version number.
Click Run anyway.

Your browser may also warn that the file isn’t commonly downloaded. In Edge, open the download’s … menu and choose Keep, then Keep anyway.

Only download HealthViewer from healthviewer.net or the releases page on GitHub. Don’t run a copy you got anywhere else. After the first install, HealthViewer checks every update against a release signature and refuses to install an update that doesn’t match.

If Smart App Control is turned on in Windows 11, it may block the installer with no option to run it anyway. Smart App Control can be turned off under Windows Security → App & browser control, but once it’s off it can’t be turned back on without resetting Windows. Only do that if you’re comfortable with the change.

The macOS app is signed and notarized by Apple, so macOS doesn’t show this kind of warning.

Importing

Why can’t HealthViewer read my PDF?

A few common reasons:

Unsupported format — The PDF is from a lab system without a dedicated parser. Check the Supported PDF Formats list. If your system isn’t listed, try connecting via FHIR/MyChart or exporting a CSV from your portal. You can also send us a redacted sample so we can add support for it.
Scanned PDF — The PDF is a scanned image with no text layer. Enable an AI provider in Settings to use AI-based extraction.
Protected PDF — Some portals produce password-protected PDFs. Remove the password protection first (Preview on macOS can do this: File → Export as PDF).
Corrupted or unusual encoding — Try downloading the PDF again from your portal.

Can I import a CSV?

Yes. HealthViewer accepts CSVs from most lab systems. The column order is flexible — it tries to detect which columns are test name, value, unit, and reference range.

I imported results and some are wrong. Can I fix them?

Yes — go to Results, find the result, and click to edit any field. Changes are saved immediately.

Can I delete imported results?

Yes — select results in the Results view and click Delete. This is permanent.

AI Features

Is AI required?

No. All core features — import, tracking, trends, reports — work without any AI configuration.

Does AI see all my health data?

Only when you use an AI-powered feature, and only the data relevant to that feature is sent. For example, the Appointment Prep report sends your recent lab results to the AI; it does not send your journal or medication list.

Which AI provider should I use?

For getting started without a credit card: Groq, Cerebras, or OpenRouter all offer free access. For the best quality results: Anthropic (Claude) or Google Gemini (Gemini 2.5 Flash). See the full comparison in Settings & AI Configuration.

My API key isn’t working

Make sure there are no extra spaces around the key
Check that your API account has credits or is within the free tier limits
Some providers (OpenRouter) require a payment method on file even for free models
Try the “Test” button in Settings to verify connectivity

Privacy & Security

Can someone else read my data if they get my .hvdb file?

No — the file is encrypted with AES-256-GCM using your password. Without the password, the data is unreadable. See Privacy & Security for full details.

Does HealthViewer send data to Anthropic or other AI companies?

Only when you explicitly use an AI feature. See AI Features & Data Sharing.

Troubleshooting

The app is slow after importing many results

HealthViewer is optimized for typical personal health record sizes (hundreds to low thousands of results). If you have tens of thousands of results, filtering and trend views may be slower.

I forgot my password

There is no recovery mechanism. If you have a backup (.bak) file from before you changed your password, you can try restoring from it. Otherwise, the data cannot be recovered.

The app shows a lock file warning

HealthViewer detected another instance is using the same database file. Close all other HealthViewer windows and try again. If the warning persists with no other instances open, the lock file may be stale — you can safely dismiss it.