Help center
Short answers for every part of a shoot: linking your phones, running the cameras, switching live, editing and exporting on the deck, getting footage into your editor and fixing the usual snags.
What you need, what each device does, and linking them up.
| Role | What it does |
|---|---|
| This is the camera | Films with the iPhone's cameras, saves at full quality, streams a live picture and takes commands from remotes. Tap Lead to make it the lead camera for the others. |
| This is the remote | Shows a camera live and controls it: focus, exposure, lenses, recording. One camera on iPhone, up to four on iPad. |
| Podcast deck | Switches which camera is on air, starts or stops every camera at once, and edits and exports each take on the phone. Up to four cameras, with or without live pictures. |
| Screen broadcast | Sends the phone's whole screen, so you can shoot in Apple's Camera app or Final Cut Camera. Start it from ⓘ › Start Screen Broadcast. |
| Mac | Always a remote for up to four cameras, a deck, and where your files land. |
Paired devices reconnect by themselves next time. You can also pair from Network & Seats, with the other device on any screen. To unpair, open Settings › Paired devices and swipe left on the device.
At the top, ? opens this help center (it's also inside the app, so it works offline) and ⓘ explains how the roles work, with pairing tips. Below the role buttons, Network & Seats shows this phone's seat and its connections (see Plans).
Open Settings (the gear) and give each phone a clear name such as “Wide” or “Host cam”. Names appear on remotes, on the deck and in your file names.
Controls, settings and hands-free commands.
The top row of buttons each have a small label:
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Hide | Shrinks the panel to a slim bar with the shutter; ⌃ brings it back. |
| Voice | Voice commands on or off (the speech bubble turns yellow). See Voice commands. |
| Dim | Darkens the camera's screen to save battery; it keeps recording and streaming. |
| Loupe | A small window with a full-resolution close-up of the focus point, with red focus contours. Tap the window to turn the contours off or on; tap the picture to move it. It shows on the camera and on every remote watching it. |
| Lead | On a camera, in video mode: makes it the lead camera for the others. |
| Mark · All | On a remote: drop a marker, and link every camera (see All). |
| 4K·30 | The current format; tap it for the camera settings. |
Tap the format button (for example 4K·30) to open settings beside the picture. You only see what applies to the current mode.
Manual ISO, shutter, white balance or focus on the back camera switches to the single lens for your zoom; lens buttons keep working, with a short switch between lenses.
| Say | What happens |
|---|---|
| “cheese” | Takes the photo half a second later (or starts or stops recording in video mode). |
| “action” | Starts recording, switching to video if needed. |
| “cut” | Stops recording. |
| “mark” | Drops a marker in the timecode (on a remote or Mac). |
Voice only listens for commands; it never mutes or changes the camera's recorded sound. Change the words in Settings › Voice commands. With All on, the words reach every camera.
Several cameras, one shoot.
With All on, the shutter, the space bar and voice commands fire every camera, and these settings reach them all: photo or video, timer, format, colour, LUT, ISO and shutter, white balance, portrait, dim screen and exposure aids. Zoom, focus, lens, exposure compensation and microphone stay per camera.
The lead's shutter, “action” and “cut” and shared settings drive every camera, and the others set their timecode clock by the lead, so the takes still line up later.
Cameras following a lead show a yellow-and-black tape, FOLLOWING and the lead's name, and their own Lead button is hidden: a camera can't lead while it follows.
On the start screen, tap ⓘ, then Start Screen Broadcast, and open the Camera app or Final Cut Camera. Everything on screen is sent, so turn on Do Not Disturb. Remote controls and timecode work in ActionCheese's own camera mode.
Choose the camera on air while you record; edit and export each take.
Choose Podcast deck on the start screen and tap a camera's bar to put it on air (or press its big button with live pictures hidden). The camera on air shows ON AIR on its own screen, and a Mac follows along.
Everything else (exposure, sound, format) is set on the cameras themselves or from a Mac or iPad remote.
Every take recorded while you switched gets a “Take NN – Program” timeline in the XML files on the Mac. Each camera sits on its own video track, holding only the stretches it was on air, with every camera's full sound on tracks below.
Only switches made while the cameras record end up in the cut.
No laptop needed: the deck phone collects every take, lets you fix the cut and exports a finished video.
Tap a take. The preview plays the cut; tap the corner button for full screen (vertical videos get a tall preview). Below it, the strip shows the take as coloured blocks, one colour per camera, starting from your live switches.
Tap Sound in the editor:
Sound sync moves a camera's sound up to half a second earlier or later, for a microphone that's slightly out of step.
After a successful export, the deck deletes that take's 1080p copies; only the finished video stays. To change it later, tap Collect again to re-edit on the exported take: the cameras send those takes again (they keep them for 2 days) and your edits are still there.
Tap the take's name at the top of the editor, or swipe it in Takes, to rename it; the exported file uses the name. Delete (swipe, long-press, or More › Delete Take…) asks first: it removes the deck's copies and edits, never the 4K originals on the cameras or videos you exported.
From the phones to your Mac editor, already in sync.
Turn sending off entirely in Settings › Send captures to a Mac.
Plug the camera iPhone into the Mac with a data cable, keep ActionCheese open on the phone, and transfers switch to the cable by themselves; the transfer line shows USB. Expect about 30 MB/s on Lightning iPhones and 100 MB/s or more on USB-C iPhones with a USB 3 cable. The phone needs to trust the Mac (“Trust This Computer”), and only paired devices exchange files.
| Editor | File | How |
|---|---|---|
| Final Cut Pro | .fcpxml | File › Import › XML |
| DaVinci Resolve | .fcpxml | File › Import › Timeline |
| Premiere Pro | – Premiere.xml | File › Import |
Each take arrives as synced angles (a multicam clip in Final Cut and Resolve, one track per camera in Premiere) with your markers. Import the file in XML per take to bring in just the newest take.
Every camera stamps the same time-of-day timecode, so you can also sync by timecode yourself, for example with Premiere's Create Multi-Camera Source Sequence.
Tap Mark, press M on the Mac, or say “mark”. Markers land on the right take in the XML, and in Markers.edl (Resolve: Timeline › Import › Timeline Markers from EDL) and Markers.csv.
Shot a few angles on a Sony, a GoPro or an audio recorder as well? Their clocks don't match the phones, so use ActionCheese Sync, the free Mac companion. Drop the camera cards inside the day's shoot folder and give Sync that one folder: it lines the other cameras up with the iPhones by their sound and writes a Premiere timeline with every angle in place.
Your footage never leaves your devices.
There are no sign-ups and no ActionCheese servers, and your footage is never uploaded. The list of phones on your plan is kept in your own iCloud, where only you can see it. Devices only connect after you confirm the pairing code on both screens, and only paired devices can see your cameras or receive files.
Vault captures aren't backed up: deleting the app deletes them. Send them to your Mac or move them out first.
In any gallery, tap Select, choose captures and tap Delete. Captures in Photos ask for confirmation on the camera phone; vault captures go straight away. Copies already on your Mac stay there.
The usual snags and what to do.
The tile shows “No picture · repairing…” and fixes itself: the remote restarts that camera's stream after 3 seconds, and reconnects after 11. The camera also restarts its own camera if iOS paused it (heat, a call, another app). It keeps recording on its own the whole time. To repair straight away, choose Repair Connection in the camera's name menu, or long-press its tile on a lead camera.
If the words you say don't appear above the controls, Dictation is off: turn it on as described in Voice commands. On a Mac, also check System Settings › Privacy & Security › Microphone and Speech Recognition.
It's following another lead camera (it shows the yellow-and-black FOLLOWING tape). Turn off Lead on the other camera, or disconnect it, first.
Import the newest XML files: the Mac lines clips up by the timecode inside each file, and rewrites the day's timelines when it opens. Timelines generated before the timecode was read from the files may be off by up to a second; reopen the Mac app to rebuild them. On the deck, Sound sync fixes a microphone that's slightly off.
Check the camera's Sound › Microphone setting and the microphone meter on the remote. Most Bluetooth headsets record in low phone-call quality; for good sound use a wired USB-C or Lightning mic.
Move devices closer or clear the line of sight; the stream lowers its quality automatically when the link struggles, and the recording itself is always full quality. Hide live pictures on a deck phone that doesn't need them.
Free to start; Pro when your cameras need full-length takes.
| Plan | Price | Covers |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Remotes, podcast deck (editing and export included) and Mac imports, on any number of devices, plus one camera with takes up to 3 minutes. |
| Pro | $39.99 a year or $6.99 a month | Up to four cameras with full-length takes, including the lead camera. |
| Lifetime | $99 once (launch offer) | Everything in Pro, without renewing. |
The app is free to download. Pro is billed through the App Store; the App Store sets the price in your currency. Pro belongs to the Apple ID that buys it and covers up to four cameras. Family Sharing isn't included: lend seats to family or crew instead.
The phone needs internet once to check your plan. After that it works off-grid and checks in again at least every 30 days.
A phone without Pro can still film: it shows a yellow FREE · 3 MIN label, and each take stops after 3 minutes, with a 10-second warning first. The lead camera needs Pro.
One free camera per shoot: if a second one joins, the remote offers Lend a Seat (with Pro) or Get Pro. Remotes, the podcast deck and Mac imports are always free.
Open Settings › ActionCheese Pro › Cameras on this plan, swipe left on one of your phones and tap Remove, or on a lent seat and tap End Loan. There's no limit: the seat is ready for another phone straight away.
Tap Network & Seats below the role buttons on a phone's start screen, or in the top bar on the Mac. Paired phones and Macs stay linked whenever ActionCheese is open on them, on any screen, so you can manage seats without anyone being in camera mode:
For an iPhone signed in with someone else's Apple ID, family included. Pair it, then lend it a seat from whichever device you have to hand:
The app also offers it when a second free camera joins a shoot.
A loan lasts up to 14 days and renews whenever that phone and the device that lent it are linked, with ActionCheese open on any screen. If you don't meet, it ends by itself and the seat comes back to your plan. To end a loan early, tap End Loan in Network & Seats, or swipe it under Lent seats. The seat is free for another phone straight away; the borrowing phone stops at once if it's nearby with ActionCheese open, otherwise when the loan runs out.
Lend and end loans as often as you like. You always have 4 seats at a time, your own phones and loans together: lend three to friends for today's shoot, end those loans, and lend them to three others tomorrow.
Borrowed a seat and done with it? Tap Give Back Seat in Settings › ActionCheese Pro or in Network & Seats. Your phone goes back to 3-minute takes straight away.
The seat returns to the lender's plan the next time your phone links up with theirs, or when the loan would have ended anyway. Your phone won't be lent a seat again automatically.
Every camera brings its own seat, so cameras on different Pro plans work together in one shoot, and any remote, deck or lead camera can run them all.
Got a code from a creator? Tap Redeem Code on the Pro screen or in Settings › ActionCheese Pro, or open the creator's redeem link on your iPhone.
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