Frequently asked questions
iOS and Mac

Pretty Progress has two different types of widgets: Single Event widgets and Dashboard widgets.

Single Event widgets are available for all users in every location: Home Screen, Lock Screen, StandBy, Watch Complications, and Mac's Desktop and Notification Center. If you don't see these widgets appearing on your device as an option to add, please restart your device. If, after restarting, they still don't appear, please contact support at hi@prettyprogress.app.

Dashboard widgets are available only for PRO users and are only accessible on your Home Screen and Mac.

Please, check How to add countdown widgets on your iPhone's Lock Screen for a detailed explanation.

Check the iPad detailed explanation.

The widget above the clock uses the same Apple Lock Screen customization flow. While editing the Lock Screen, tap the Pretty Progress widget to choose or configure which event appears. The exact picker and editing flow are controlled by iOS.

Please, check How to add countdown widgets on your iPhone's Home Screen for a detailed explanation.

Check the iPad detailed explanation.

Please, check How to add countdown timers on your Apple Watch for a detailed explanation.

Please, check How to add countdown timers on your Apple Watch Smart Stack for a detailed explanation.

Please, check How to add countdown widgets on your Mac's desktop for a detailed explanation.

If you are looking for adding in on your notification center, please check How to add countdown widgets on your Mac's notification center.

The size of the widget is selected in the process of adding a widget to your Home Screen before being able to edit the widget or choose its settings. This is part of the native iOS flow and behavior.

For a detailed explanation of how to add a widget with different sizes, please check this page.

1. Open the event you want to change
2. Go to the second tab at the bottom of the event editor
3. Find Time units
4. Choose Single unit, then select Days

This is useful when you want to show the total number of days instead of a mixed format such as months and days.

In all cases the Total time of the Countdown is the difference between the Start time and the End time, including the difference in hours and minutes of those dates.

If you choose Count down, the time displayed will be the Remaining time, and if you choose Count up, the time displayed will be the Past time. In both cases the hours and minutes are included in the calculation.

If one of the times above, for example Remaining time, is 4d 14h 56min the time shown will be 5 days left (if Days is the unit selected to display) if you have chosen Round up, and 4 days left if you have chosen Round down.

When 5 days left would change to 4 days left depends at what time your progress will finish. Following the previous example, if your progress finishes at 0:00, then at 0:00 the time displayed will change. If your progress finishes at 17:30, then the time displayed will change at 17:30.

For All day events, the event is calculated using the full day rather than a specific hour and minute. If you need a countdown that ends at an exact time, turn All day event OFF and choose the end time.

If the format is not what you expect, open the event and check the Time units and Round up or Round down settings. Some Apple live widget formats can display time slightly differently from Pretty Progress' own calculated formats because the live widget text is controlled by iOS.

1. Open Pretty Progress at least once after installing or updating the app
2. Check that Pretty Progress and iOS are updated to the latest versions available for your device
3. Restart your device and try adding the widget again
4. If you already had a Pretty Progress widget added, remove it and add it again

If Pretty Progress still does not appear in the widget list, contact support at hi@prettyprogress.app with your app version, iOS version, device model, and a screenshot or screen recording of what you see.

iOS limits how often widgets can update to protect battery life. Pretty Progress can request widget refreshes, but iOS decides the final timing.

Because of that, widgets cannot reliably count live seconds or update every second. Opening Pretty Progress can manually refresh the widgets.

Unfortunately, this is a common issue affecting several users and apps that is related with iOS. When this happens, update Pretty Progress and your device to the latest versions. If the problem continues, try restarting your device and removing/reinstalling Pretty Progress.

Other times, the first time that a widget is added can take a little bit more time to load data. This will happen more often if you have a lot of widgets on your Home Screen or Lock Screen.

Using the Pattern theme with a lot of dots to draw will harm the performance of the app and may require more memory from the OS than the memory allowed by iOS for every widget. This may also produce some of the widgets to break and not work properly.

If you continue facing the issues, here there's a more extended article explaining more options you can try to make your widgets work.

Pretty Progress does not limit the number of widgets you can display on your Home Screen or Lock Screen. However, iOS imposes memory limits on apps, which may affect widget usage.

This memory depends on the iOS version, your specific device and other factors. The limit affects how often widgets can be updated and, if you have several widgets, how many of those widgets will be updated each time.

Some calculations make require more memory than others. For example, if you are using themes like The Pattern to draw a lot of dots proportional to your days left, it requires a higher memory than more simple cases. Changing your widgets design for more simple themes may help to show more widgets, but is unsure.

Unfortunately, sometimes iOS stops updating widgets. When this happens, opening and closing Pretty Progress or restarting your device typically gets it started again.

It is currently not possible to increase the refresh rate of the widgets due to the way Apple handles widgets. This is also why widgets cannot reliably show live seconds or update every second.

Apps have the ability to request when a widget should be updated, always inside of a budget of requests (currently Pretty Progress requests updates widgets every 5min), but it is iOS who finally decides and manages when that happens depending on several factors. Apple does this so that widgets do not consume so much battery.

It is possible to update widgets manually every time an app is used again. Your widgets will be updated every time you open the app.

Pretty Progress is only available for WatchOS 9.0 and above, and you need the app installed on your iPhone. If your Watch is using a WatchOS version lower than 9.0, you will need to update your WatchOS to be able to use Pretty Progress.

If you are using WatchOS 9.0 and you still don't see the Watch app in your Watch, please contact us at hi@prettyprogress.app.

If you buy Pretty Progress PRO on 1 device, you can use it on all your devices.

In case you purchase PRO, you only need to do it one time for all the devices that share the same Apple account. Additionally, the purchase can be shared within your iCloud family.

If you buy PRO on your iPhone, then on your iPad or Mac you need to go to the upgrade screen and tap in Restore purchase at the bottom of the screen (see following question for more details). If you are logged in to the same account, then PRO will be restored and will also work on your iPad or Mac.

1. Be sure that you are logged in the same Apple account that made the initial purchase
2. Check that your purchase status is valid on the App Store, checking your purchase history following the instructions on this link. If you are a subscriber, Pretty Progress will appear under Subscriptions. If you bought Lifetime, Pretty Progress will appear under Purchased
3. If the purchase is valid, open Pretty Progress and tap in any of the buttons that ask you to upgrade to PRO
4. In the screen that appears showing you the plans available, scroll to the bottom of the screen, you will see a button that says “Restore purchase”
5. Tap that button and the purchase should be restored automatically

This usually means Pretty Progress cannot confirm the App Store purchase on the device yet. Please check the following:

1. Make sure the App Store is signed into the same Apple account that made the original purchase
2. Check your Apple purchase history following the instructions on this link
3. If you bought a subscription, confirm it is active. If the subscription was canceled, PRO access lasts until the end of the paid period. If it expired, restoring the purchase will not unlock PRO
4. If you bought Lifetime, Pretty Progress should appear under your purchases and should not expire
5. Open Pretty Progress, go to the screen that asks you to upgrade to PRO, scroll to the bottom, and tap Restore purchase

If the purchase is valid and restore still does not work, contact support at hi@prettyprogress.app with a screenshot of the App Store purchase status.

If you already have an active trial, monthly subscription, or yearly subscription and want to switch plan, some plans such as Lifetime may not appear in the app until the current subscription period ends. Cancel the current subscription in the App Store if needed, then wait until the paid period or trial expires. After that, open Pretty Progress again and the app will prompt you to upgrade to PRO so you can choose another available plan.

If you are trying to buy the yearly or annual subscription and the App Store confirmation flow keeps returning you to the purchase screen, try restarting your iPhone. You can also open the Pretty Progress page directly in the App Store, where the subscriptions should be visible and can be purchased from there.

In-App purchases do not appear in the subscription tab in Family Sharing. The process for sharing the PRO in-app purchase with a family member is the following:

1. Be sure that the member is part of the family sharing group
2. The member will have to go to the App Store and tap on their account button in the upper right corner
3. Go to purchased and select the family member that purchased PRO
4. Download the app from that screen
5. Open Pretty Progress
6. Tap in any of the buttons that ask you to upgrade to PRO
7. In the screen that appears, at the bottom of the screen, you will see a button that says “Restore purchase”
8. Tap that button and the app should be upgraded to PRO automatically

Apple and Google Play purchases do not transfer automatically between platforms.

In some cases, PRO status can be matched manually. To request this, contact support from inside Pretty Progress on both platforms so both emails include the user IDs needed to review the case.

Events do not currently sync between Android and Apple devices. iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac can sync with each other through iCloud.

Yes, iCloud synchronisation between Apple devices is available for PRO users. To sync events:

1. Use the same Apple account and iCloud account on every device
2. Check that your iCloud account has enough available storage
3. Install the latest version of Pretty Progress on every device
4. Open Pretty Progress and make sure Backup with iCloud is ON in the Settings screen on every device
5. Fully close Pretty Progress on every device and open it again
6. Leave the app open briefly and give iCloud some time to finish the first sync

Some iOS or iCloud system issues can delay or prevent sync, and those are outside Pretty Progress' direct control. If iCloud is not syncing system-wide, Pretty Progress will not be able to sync until iCloud starts working again.

iCloud sync is available for PRO users. If your events are not syncing, first restore PRO on every device if needed, then check the following:

1. You are signed into iCloud with the same Apple account on every device
2. Your iCloud account has enough available storage
3. Pretty Progress is updated to the latest version on every device
4. Backup with iCloud is turned ON in the Settings screen on every device
5. Pretty Progress has been fully closed and reopened on every device

The first sync can take some time. If iCloud itself is delayed, full, or not working on your device, Pretty Progress events may not sync until the iCloud issue is resolved.

Install Pretty Progress, restore PRO if needed, and make sure you are using the same Apple account and iCloud account that had the original events.

Then open Pretty Progress and confirm that Backup with iCloud is ON in the Settings screen. If events do not appear, fully close Pretty Progress on every device, open it again, and leave it open briefly.

If iCloud storage is full or iCloud sync is not working system-wide, events may not restore until iCloud sync works again.

Pretty Progress syncs with the native Apple Calendar app. To use Google Calendar, first add your Google Calendar account to Apple Calendar, then select or sync those calendar events from Pretty Progress.

Direct Google Calendar integration is not currently available.

Yes. In the Calendar Sync settings, choose the specific calendar you want Pretty Progress to import from.

Pretty Progress can sync events from a selected calendar instead of all calendars. Exporting Pretty Progress events back to calendar apps is not currently available.

If you have deleted any of the standard events and you want to restore them, including their special functions, you can do so in the Settings screen:

1. Tap the (···) button at the top right of the app's Home screen
2. Scroll down and tap in Restore Default Events button
3. Go back to the app's Home Screen and you will see the standard events restored on the grid

Note that the Restore Default Events button will only appear if you have deleted any of the default events. If you have not deleted any of the default events, then it will not appear. Archiving an event will not make the button to appear, if you can't find your event in the list of Ongoing events, try searching for it on the Archive.

Please, contact hi@prettyprogress.app for any other kind of enquiry. You can also use any of the other channels available. I'll be happy to help :)