Splitwise not working? Problems with documented causes

Which Splitwise problems have a documented cause?

Thirteen symptoms below trace to a rule Splitwise states as of October 2026, and each row says what to do about it. Start with the first row if you cannot add an expense.

Symptom	Documented cause	What to do
You cannot add another expense today	Free accounts can add up to 4 expenses each day	Options for the daily limit
The “Convert to” button is missing	Currency conversion is a Pro feature	What Pro’s conversion does
No scan or itemize option for receipts	Only Pro subscribers can scan and itemize receipts	Receipt scanning and what needs Pro
A balance looks wrong	Simplify Debts reshuffles who pays whom, balances are separate per currency, and the Totals screen is not meant to show your balance	Audit a balance step by step
You cannot remove a member	They have an outstanding balance, and it has to be cleared first	Remove someone from a group
You deleted a payment but the money still moved	Deleting a record does not cancel Splitwise Pay, Venmo or PayPal transfers	Undo a settle up
A receipt upload fails	An attached image or PDF must be 2MB or less and finish within 30 seconds	Use a smaller file
You cannot join a group	You cannot join a group on your own; a member invites you by email, phone or link	How people join a group
A friend never accepts your invite	People invited by email or phone can be added to expenses before they accept	Add a friend without their email
Settle up does not send money	Splitwise Pay, Venmo and PayPal are US options; Pay by Bank is in select European countries; elsewhere you record the payment	Using Splitwise outside the US
Transaction import is missing	It is a Pro feature, “currently available only in the US”	What Pro includes
Someone changed or deleted your expense	Anyone involved in the expense or its group can edit or delete it, and there are no group admins	Edit, delete and restore an expense
You cannot see an expense a friend mentions	You see an expense if you are in it or in its group, and expenses outside any group are visible only to the people involved	Who sees your expenses

What do the daily limit and Simplify Debts look like in numbers?

The daily limit and Simplify Debts are two rules that can look like faults, and both are easy to check with arithmetic.

The daily limit. Say a group on a day trip logs parking, a ferry, three meals, two snacks, tickets and a tip. That is 9 expenses. A free account can add 4 of them. The other 5 wait for the limit to reset, go to a friend who adds them as paid by you, or need Pro. On EvenOut’s free plan, all 9 go in the same day.

Simplify Debts. Say Ana owes Ben $35 and Ben owes Cy $35. With Simplify Debts on, the group shows Ana owing Cy $35 and Ben owing nothing. Ana’s balance is minus $35, Ben’s is $0 and Cy’s is plus $35 either way, so the total is unchanged. The screen can name someone Ana never paid, and that is the feature working.

How do the same situations work in EvenOut?

EvenOut’s free plan has no daily expense limit and no ads, and its charts and search are free. The table lists the situations above where the two apps differ.

Situation	EvenOut	Splitwise (as of October 2026)
Expenses added in a day	No daily expense limit on the free plan	Free accounts can add up to 4 expenses a day
Charts and expense search	Free	Pro
Ads	No ads on any plan	An ad-free experience is a Pro item
Who can edit or delete an expense	The group owner chooses “Everyone” or “Only their own”; a “Viewer” can follow along and comment but not change expenses	No group admins or special permissions; anyone involved in the expense or its group can edit or delete it
Someone who is not on the app yet	“Add a guest” in a group by name, then invite them to claim their spot later	People invited by email or phone can be added before they accept; name-only placeholder friends are added from the web app

Why do two screens show different numbers?

The Totals screen and the group’s balances answer different questions. Splitwise says Totals is “not intended to show your current balance” and is calculated on your device. The “Balances” section in the group header is the place to read what you owe or are owed.

Simplify Debts adds one more reason a group can look different from yesterday. Any group member can switch it on or off in group settings, and it re-runs when an expense or payment is added. On mobile, tap the gear icon in the top right corner of the group page and scroll down to the toggle. On the web, click the gear icon, then “Edit group settings” and “Advanced settings”. If the who-owes-whom picture changed overnight, check that toggle before you suspect a bug.

What if none of those match?

A crash, a blank screen or a sync error is something a help page cannot diagnose from outside your phone. For those, write to support@splitwise.com. Splitwise aims to reply to most support requests within 1 business day. Put these in the message:

1. The group or friend and the expense involved.
2. What you tapped and what you saw instead.
3. A screenshot, if the screen shows a message.

What if the cap is the problem?

If the cap keeps getting in your way, EvenOut’s free plan has no daily expense limit, and Import from Splitwise in the Account tab brings a Splitwise group’s CSV export over for free. On Splitwise the limit is the rule, not a fault, and the ways through it are to wait, ask a friend to add the expense as paid by you, or subscribe to Pro. Splitwise alternatives with no daily expense limit compares the apps that work this way.