Support
Getting hold of a person
Motorfile is made in the UK by one person. There is no ticketing system and no bot — email arrives with someone who can actually change the app.
If you are reporting something wrong with a vehicle’s data, include the number plate and what you expected to see. It makes the difference between a guess and a fix.
01 — Common questions
The things people ask first
Where does the data come from?
The MOT History service run by the Driver & Vehicle Standards Agency. It is the same record a garage sees: every test, the result, the reasons for any failure, the advisories, and the odometer reading taken on the day.
My car is missing, or the details are wrong.
Motorfile shows the official record exactly as it stands and does not edit it. A car under three years old has never been tested, so there is nothing to show yet. If a detail is genuinely wrong, it is wrong at the DVSA and has to be corrected there — we cannot change it from our end, and you would not want an app that could.
Why does the tax date have to be typed in?
The DVLA service that publishes tax dates is closed to new applications with no published reopening date. Rather than pretend, the app asks you once and then keeps it accurate itself. If the service reopens, this becomes automatic.
Is this an HPI check?
No, and it is important that we are blunt about it. Outstanding finance, stolen markers and write-off categories come from finance houses, the police and insurers, and we have none of that. Motorfile is thorough on MOT and mileage and silent on everything else. If you are buying a car, get a provenance check as well.
What does “nearside” mean?
The left-hand side of the car as you sit in it. The app translates it, because being sent to the wrong wheel is worse than not being told at all.
Do I need an account?
No. There is nothing to sign up for and nothing to sign into. Your cars live on your phone.
I got a new phone. Where did my cars go?
Because everything is stored on the device rather than on a server, a new phone starts empty unless it was restored from a backup of the old one. Re-entering a plate rebuilds the history instantly — it comes from the DVSA, not from us — but your photographs, documents and costs come back only from a device backup.
How do I cancel?
In the App Store, under your Apple account subscriptions, the same as any other app. We cannot cancel it for you and cannot see that you have. The one-off £2.99 check is not a subscription and has nothing to cancel.