Shelves: sorted by Paperwise

Shelves are the “Sorted by Paperwise” row on the Vault. Paperwise puts each item on one shelf by what it is, so your bills are on Money and your passport is on IDs and passports without you filing anything.

What it is

A shelf is a view, not a place. Paperwise decides which shelf an item belongs on from its kind (a note, a card, a photo, a file) or its document type (a receipt, a contract, a medical paper). You don’t move things onto shelves, and putting an item in a folder doesn’t take it off its shelf.

Each item is on at most one shelf.
Only shelves with something on them appear on the Vault, each with a count.
Shelves are for everyone, free or Pro.

Which shelf gets what

Paperwise checks these rules in order and uses the first that fits.

Shelf	What goes on it
IDs and passports	ID cards, passports and other identity documents. A scan made with ID card goes here straight away.
Money	Receipts, invoices, bills, bank statements and tax papers
Health	Medical papers
Home	Contracts and letters
Work and school	School and academic papers, certificates, forms, whiteboards and book pages
Cards	Cards you add with Card, and scanned business cards
Notes	Notes you write in Paperwise, and scanned handwritten notes
Photos and videos	Photos and videos added as files: Photo from the + sheet, or images and videos from Files
Files	Any other file you import
(no shelf)	Scans without a type, or typed “other”. You’ll find them in All items.

The document type wins over the kind. A PDF invoice you imported is on Money, not Files. A note that was typed as a receipt is on Money too.

How items get a type

By hand: open an item and tap ••• → Change type… to pick its type yourself.
Without AI: what you add with a specific tool sorts itself. ID card scans go to IDs and passports, cards to Cards, notes to Notes, photos to Photos and videos, and files to Files (or to a typed shelf when they have a type).
With Pro’s AI helper: a paper scan needs a document type to land on a typed shelf like Money or Health. With Name and sort new scans on (Account → AI helper), Paperwise names and types what you add on this iPhone from then on. For an older document, use Ask → Name and file with AI on the document.

Nothing goes to AI until you allow it. Before AI first reads a document we tell you it isn’t fully private. With Pro’s “Name and sort new scans” on, you’re told once for everything you add afterwards. See Name and sort with AI.

Step by step

Open a shelf

On the Vault, under Sorted by Paperwise, tap a shelf.
Tap an item to open it. On iPad, it opens beside the list.

Add something while on a shelf

You can use Scan and + on a shelf. What you add goes to the vault, not to that shelf, because a shelf is a sort, not a place. It appears on whichever shelf fits it.

Free and Pro

Shelves are free. Kinds and capture tools sort without AI. Typing paper scans automatically (so a scanned bill lands on Money) uses the AI helper, which is Pro.

Privacy

Sorting by kind happens on your iPhone.
Hidden items, and deleted items, are on no shelf, in no count and in no shelf cover.
A shelf’s cover never comes from a protected document (IDs, medical, bank or tax papers). See Protected documents, Never send to AI and Hidden.

What if…

What if my scan isn’t on any shelf?

It has no document type yet. It’s in All items. Give it one with ••• → Change type…, or with Pro use Ask → Name and file with AI.

What if an item is on the wrong shelf?

The shelf follows the document’s type. To fix it, open the item and tap ••• → Change type…, then pick the right type. You can also file the item in one of your folders, which is often the better place for your own sorting. Changing the type to or from ID, Medical, Bank statement or Tax also adds or removes its protection; removing it asks for Face ID first.

What if a shelf disappeared?

A shelf shows only while it has items. When its last item is deleted or hidden, the shelf goes away until something new fits it.