When you add a new medication to PillBox, the first dose card is automatically filled in with a default time. If you add more doses to that medication, each one gets its own default time. These defaults come from Dose Time Defaults — a list you can edit in Settings.
What are dose defaults?
Dose defaults are a set of common times and labels you use over and over when setting up medications. Instead of typing the same times and names for every new dose, PillBox fills them in for you.
Example: If most of your medications are taken at 8:00 in the morning, 12:00 at midday, and 18:00 in the evening, you set those three times as your defaults once. Then whenever you add a new medication with a dose at one of those times, PillBox prefills it automatically — no typing needed.
How dose defaults work
When you add a new medication, you create dose cards one at a time. The first dose you add reads the first default time and label. If you add a second dose, it reads the second default. A third dose reads the third, and so on.
Example walkthrough:
You have three dose defaults set: - Morning at 8:00 - Afternoon at 14:00 - Evening at 18:00
You add a new medication, and PillBox prompts you to add a dose. The first dose card comes with Morning and 8:00 already filled in. You adjust the dose amount and tap Done. Next, you tap to add another dose — it appears with Afternoon and 14:00 prefilled. A third dose brings Evening and 18:00.
If you add a fourth dose to the same medication, there's no default left (you've used the first three), so it appears with a blank name and a suggested time four hours after your previous dose — adjust it however you like.
Setting up your dose defaults
- Tap Settings (found in the Profile tab).
- Tap New medication dose times (under Dose Time Defaults) — you'll see a list of the current defaults, each showing a name and time.
- Tap any default to edit its name and time.
- To add a new default, tap the + button at the bottom.
- To remove a default, swipe left on it (you must always keep at least one).
- Tap Done when you're finished.
Dose defaults are shared across all your profiles — any profile can use them when creating new medications.
Important: Changing defaults doesn't affect existing medications
Once you save a dose for a medication, it stays exactly as you set it — changing your dose defaults later won't alter it.
Example: You create a medication called "Aspirin" with a morning dose at 8:00 using your "Morning" default. Later, you change the "Morning" default to 7:00. Your Aspirin dose stays at 8:00. Only new doses you add to new medications will use the updated 7:00 time.
If you want to change when you take an existing medication, edit that medication directly in the Medications tab.
Minimum and maximum
You can have between 1 and 12 dose defaults. You must keep at least one (so PillBox always has something to suggest when you add the first dose to a new medication). If you don't need all 12, just set up what you use — PillBox will only use the defaults you've created.
What about relative doses?
As PillBox adds new scheduling features, dose defaults may carry additional options — for example, a dose that's taken after your last dose of the same medication (a relative schedule). When that happens, your dose defaults will evolve, but the basic idea stays the same: a set of templates that seed new doses automatically.