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Settings
Settings is where you tune Submersion to match how you dive: the units you read, the decompression model defaults, how screens look, and where your data lives.
Note
Where to find it: Open Settings from the navigation rail (or the More menu on a phone). The page is organized into labelled sections — Units, Decompression, Appearance, Notifications, Manage, Data, Diver Profile, and About.
Almost everything here is stored per diver. Each diver profile keeps its own units, decompression defaults, theme, and layout, so switching the active diver switches the whole look and feel with it. The handful of genuinely device-level items (cloud-sync credentials, the database storage location, debug mode) are called out where they appear.
Sets how every measurement and timestamp in the app is displayed. Changing a unit is purely a display choice — your dives are stored in metric internally, so you can switch back and forth without altering any data.
A Quick Select control at the top applies a whole system at once — Metric, Imperial, or Custom (mix individual units freely). The individual units are:
| Setting | Options | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Depth | Meters, Feet | Meters |
| Temperature | Celsius, Fahrenheit | Celsius |
| Pressure | Bar, PSI | Bar |
| Volume | Liters, Cubic Feet | Liters |
| Weight | Kilograms, Pounds | Kilograms |
| Altitude | Meters, Feet | Meters |
| SAC rate | Volume per minute (L/min, ft³/min), Pressure per minute (bar/min, psi/min) | Volume per minute |
Below the units, Time & date format sets the clock and calendar style:
| Setting | Options | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Time format | 12-hour, 24-hour | 12-hour |
| Date format | Several presets (for example Jan 5 2026, 5 Jan 2026, 2026-01-05) |
Jan 5 2026 |
Tip
Picking Metric or Imperial in Quick Select sets every unit in one tap. Reach for Custom only when you want a blend — say, depth in metres but pressure in psi.
Controls the defaults for Submersion's built-in Bühlmann ZH-L16C decompression model and how computer-reported figures are treated. These are starting points for new dives and for on-demand recalculation; they do not retroactively rewrite a logged profile.
Tap Current settings to open the gradient-factor picker. Choose a quick preset or set your own with the GF Low and GF High sliders (each adjustable from 15 to 100):
| Preset | GF Low / High | Character |
|---|---|---|
| High | 50/75 | Most conservative — longer, deeper stops |
| Medium | 50/85 | Balanced |
| Low | 50/95 | Least conservative — shorter stops |
| Custom | Your values | Set both sliders by hand |
Note
A lower GF is more conservative. New divers start on the Medium preset (GF 50/85), and profiles you calculate use that default until you change it here.
When a dive computer records its own decompression figures, you can choose whether Submersion shows those or its own calculated values. Each metric has an independent selector — Calculated or Dive Computer:
| Source | Applies to |
|---|---|
| NDL source | No-decompression limit |
| Ceiling source | Decompression ceiling |
| TTS source | Time to surface |
| CNS source | Central-nervous-system oxygen toxicity |
When a metric is set to Dive Computer, Submersion uses the computer's data where it exists and falls back to its own calculation when the computer didn't record that figure. You can still flip any metric per dive from the profile legend without changing this default. See Dive Profiles.
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Oxygen is narcotic | Counts oxygen alongside nitrogen when estimating narcosis (END / equivalent narcotic depth) | On |
| END limit | The equivalent narcotic depth you treat as your personal narcosis ceiling, adjustable from 20 to 50 m (66–164 ft) | 30 m (98 ft) |
Controls the app's look and the layout of every list and detail screen. Appearance is a lightweight hub: a few General choices, then a tile for each major section that opens that section's own appearance options.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Current theme | Opens the theme gallery (see below) |
| Theme mode | System (follow the device), Light, or Dark |
| Language | App language, or System to follow the device locale |
| Map style | Basemap for maps: OpenStreetMap, OpenTopoMap, or ESRI Satellite |
| Navigation | Customize the phone bottom bar (see Navigation & layout) |
The theme gallery is a grid of selectable visual themes — Submersion, Console, Tropical, Minimalist, and Deep — each pairing a colour palette and typography. Tap one to apply it; theme mode (light/dark/system) still applies on top of your choice.
Under Sections, each major area — Dives, Sites, Buddies, Trips, Equipment, Dive Centers, Certifications, and Courses — has its own appearance page. What you can set depends on the section, but typically includes:
- List view — the default layout for that section's list: Detailed, Compact, or Table (Certifications and Courses offer Detailed and Table).
- List fields — which columns or card fields appear, and in what order (opens the column editor described in Navigation & layout).
- Card colouring (Dives) — tint dive cards by a numeric attribute: None, Depth, Duration, or Temperature, using a gradient preset (Ocean, Thermal, Sunset, or Forest) or a custom two-colour gradient.
- Map background (Dives, Sites) — show a faint site map behind cards.
- Table mode — toggle the details pane, and for dives the inline profile panel and data-source badges.
- Dive profile (Dives) — the chart's right-hand axis metric, and markers for max depth, tank-pressure thresholds, gas switches, and the gas timeline. A Default visible metrics tile sets which overlays (depth, temperature, pressure, SAC, events, ceiling, ascent-rate colouring, NDL, TTS, CNS, OTU, ppO₂/ppN₂/ppHe, gas density, GF, surface GF, mean depth) are switched on for new profiles. See Dive Profiles.
- Dive details (Dives) — reorder and hide the sections on the dive detail screen.
Tip
Card colouring turns a long dive list into a quick visual scan — colour by depth to spot your deeper dives at a glance, or by temperature to find the cold ones.
Customizes where things sit on screen.
- Navigation customization (Settings → Appearance → Navigation) controls the phone bottom bar. Home (first slot) and More (last slot) are pinned; you choose which destinations fill the slots between them and drag them into order. A Reset button restores the defaults. On wide screens the side navigation rail shows every destination and is unaffected.
- Column / field configuration (reached from a section's List fields tile) controls each list. In Table view you choose which columns are visible, reorder them, pin columns, and save named presets. In card views you assign fields to the title, subtitle, and stat slots. A Reset to default option is always available.
- Dive detail sections (Settings → Appearance → Dives → Dive details) reorders and hides the sections of the dive detail screen. A short list of core sections is always shown.
Optional reminders for upcoming equipment service. Submersion checks your gear's service schedule and certification dates and can notify you before something comes due. See Equipment and Certifications & Courses.
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Enable service reminders | Turns on local notifications (prompts for permission the first time) | On |
| Remind before due | How many days ahead to alert — pick any of 7, 14, 30 days | 7, 14, 30 |
| Reminder time | The time of day reminders are delivered | 09:00 |
Note
Reminders are delivered by your device, so they need notification permission granted to Submersion. If reminders never arrive, check your system notification settings for the app.
Curators for the reusable lists Submersion offers when you log a dive. Editing them here keeps your pick-lists tidy everywhere they appear.
| Item | What it manages |
|---|---|
| Dive types | The dive-type categories (recreational, training, technical, and any you add) |
| Tank presets | Saved tank configurations — size and working pressure — for quick reuse |
| Species | The marine-life library used when recording sightings — see Marine Life & Photos |
| Tags | Custom tags for organizing and filtering dives |
When you keep more than one diver profile, a Shared data section also appears, letting you share sites and trips across profiles and bulk-share everything you already have.
Backup, sync, storage, and data-repair tools.
| Item | What it does |
|---|---|
| Site match sensitivity | How eagerly Submersion suggests an existing site when you log a dive: Strict, Balanced, or Relaxed |
| Backup | Create and restore full backups — see Backup & Restore |
| Cloud Sync | Keep devices in sync through your own cloud storage — see Multi-Device Sync |
| Database storage | Where the database file lives (app default, or a folder you choose) |
| Offline maps | Download map regions for use without a connection |
| Fix dive times | Bulk-adjust the timestamps of imported dives (see below) |
| Media sources | Where photos and files come from — photo library, files, URLs, and services |
Note
Cloud Sync now appears on every platform. The page itself shows the backends your platform supports — iCloud on Apple devices, S3-compatible storage everywhere (iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, Linux). Sync credentials are stored in the device keychain, not in your dive database. See Multi-Device Sync.
A few of the Data entries are repair and utility tools rather than preferences:
- Fix dive times corrects timestamps on imported dives — handy when a batch came in shifted by a time-zone offset. Submersion stores dive times as their wall-clock value, so a dive logged at 14:00 local reads 14:00 everywhere; this tool fixes older imports that landed offset.
- Data source preferences (under Decompression) switch each decompression metric between the dive computer's figures and Submersion's own calculations.
- Offline maps and Media sources (under Data) manage downloaded map regions and where imported photos and files come from.
- Debug logs — when debug mode is on, a Debug section appears with a log viewer for troubleshooting and bug reports. See Debug Mode.
Opens your diver profile, where you switch the active diver, add or remove profiles, and edit personal, emergency-contact, medical, insurance, and certification details. Because almost every setting on this page is per-diver, the active diver chosen here determines which set of preferences is in effect. Full details are in Diver Profile.
App information and housekeeping.
| Item | What it does |
|---|---|
| About Submersion | App name, version, and description |
| Open-source licenses | Licenses for the libraries Submersion uses |
| Report issue | Opens the project's issue tracker |
| Check for updates | On non-store builds, checks for and installs new versions |
Tip
Tapping the version number five times enables debug mode, which adds a Debug section with detailed logs. See Debug Mode.
- Diver Profile — manage divers and the per-diver data behind these settings
- Dive Profiles — how the decompression and overlay settings shape the chart
- Backup & Restore — protect your dive log
- Multi-Device Sync — keep every device in step
Getting Started
Logging Your Dives
Your Dive World
Diver & Gear
Insights & Planning
Setup & Data
Reference