Can You Use ForeFlight's Logbook Without a Subscription?

ForeFlight keeps your logbook readable after the subscription ends, but it stops you adding to it. ForeFlight's support article on the subject, last updated September 1, 2026, calls the state Limited Logbook Access mode: existing entries stay open for viewing, editing, deleting and printing, while creating new entries, importing data and adding new endorsements all require an active subscription (checked October 2026).

Read that as two halves. The entries you flew last year are safe. The flight you fly tomorrow has nowhere to go.

What still works after the subscription ends

ForeFlight's list of functions that survive a lapse is specific, and worth reading in full before you decide whether to renew (ForeFlight support, checked October 2026):

• View, scroll, filter, edit and delete existing entries.
• View and edit existing flight details, track logs and photos.
• View, print and manually export logbook reports, including the Complete, Condensed and Part 61/141 reports.
• Manage certificates, ratings and existing endorsements.
• Create, edit and remove aircraft.
• Manage crew members, passengers and contacts.
• Add an instructor signature to an existing entry on the device.

The edit permission matters more than it looks. Under 14 CFR 61.51(i)(1) you must present your logbook for inspection on a reasonable request from the FAA, the NTSB or a law enforcement officer, and a lapsed ForeFlight account can still do that, on paper or on the screen. A checkride needs the same thing, and the printed Complete report puts endorsements and certificates on its last pages, where an examiner can leaf to them.

What stops working

Six things need an active subscription, per the same article: creating new entries or draft entries, creating new custom fields, adding new currencies, importing logbook data, creating new endorsements on the device, and sending endorsements through draft entries (ForeFlight support, updated September 1, 2026).

Read that list from a student's seat. Every lesson produces an entry, and some produce an endorsement too, and 61.51(a)(1) says training time used toward a certificate must be documented. A lapsed account cannot take either. Suppose you let the subscription expire in March and fly four lessons in April: those four flights, and whatever your CFI signed for them, are living somewhere else until you renew and type them in.

One more caution. A separate, older ForeFlight article dated October 14, 2025 says plainly that an active subscription is required to maintain access to the ForeFlight Mobile app. The logbook article is newer and more specific, so treat it as the current description of the logbook. Treat the older one as the description of everything else: charts, weather and planning do not come along for free.

Does the CSV export still work after it lapses?

ForeFlight's lapsed-subscription article keeps "print and manually export logbook reports" on the allowed list, but the CSV export lives on ForeFlight Web, which the article does not mention (ForeFlight support, checked October 2026). The reports named in that list are the PDF layouts. A PDF proves what you flew. It does not import anywhere.

The machine-readable export is a different button. ForeFlight's export article (updated February 7, 2025) puts it on ForeFlight on the Web: log in, click Logbook, click the Export tab, click the blue Export button, and a CSV downloads. Nothing we fetched from ForeFlight says whether a lapsed account can still sign in there. It may well work. Do not find out on the last day.

Export before the renewal date

Two files, not one. The CSV excludes signatures, endorsements, photos and track logs (ForeFlight says so in its auto-export article, updated November 21, 2024), so pair it with the PDF Complete Logbook - 2 Page report, which carries the entries with category and class, plus endorsements, certificates and license information.

ForeFlight will do this for you on a schedule. On ForeFlight Web, open Logbook, select the Settings tab, slide Export to Email to On, and pick CSV (the default), PDF, or both. The first email arrives within minutes; after that, one every 30 days. Export Now sends one immediately. Turning the switch off and back on resets the 30-day clock.

Turn on both formats today, while the account is live. Then file the email somewhere that is not ForeFlight.

Where to keep the entries afterward

Start with a folder you control. Put the dated CSV and the PDF in it, then put a second copy somewhere else entirely, because a backup that lives beside the original fails at the same moment the original does. Two files, two places. After that, pick a logbook that can read the CSV so the entries keep working as a logbook rather than as an archive; the step by step for the file itself is in How to export your ForeFlight logbook.

Our own product, FlyFren's logbook, is free, runs in a browser, imports ForeFlight CSV exports, and previews every entry before anything is saved (flyfren.com, checked October 2026). It does not list instructor endorsements or signatures, so the PDF still does that job. The other free option, MyFlightbook, works in a browser and on iOS and Android. Its FAQ says it imports ForeFlight exports with minimal manipulation, apart from custom fields, whose bracketed headers must be renamed. Then there is LogTen, Apple only; it is free until you have logged more than 50 hours of total time, after which adding flights needs a $79.99 or $129.99 yearly plan, and its support team handles ForeFlight migrations by email. The three are compared in LogTen vs ForeFlight vs MyFlightbook, and the wider free field in Best free pilot logbook apps.

If you decide to stay, the cheapest ForeFlight plan that includes Logbook is Starter at $130 a year, checked October 2026. Whatever you choose, export first and decide second.

This article is educational and is not a substitute for the current regulations, the AIM, official weather briefings, or instruction from a CFI. Check the current text at the linked sources before you rely on any detail.