Most app problems come down to a handful of things. Work through the
one that matches your symptom.
The app opens to a blank or stale screen
Close it fully and open it again. On a phone that means swiping it
out of the recent-apps list, not just going back to the home screen;
on a desktop it means quitting the app rather than closing the window.
The apps deliberately cache content so they start fast and keep
working when your connection drops. That cache is usually a help, but
it is also the first thing to suspect when the screen looks empty or
wrong. A genuine restart rebuilds it.
Content looks out of date
Pull down to refresh where that gesture is available. If a screen has
no refresh, sign out and back in — that rebuilds the app's picture of
your account from the server.
Signed in on the web but not in the app
That is expected. The web and each app hold separate sessions on
the same account. Signing in on one does not sign you in on the other,
and signing out of one does not sign you out elsewhere.
Your data is not separate, though. Reading position, favourites,
follows, ratings, comments, drafts, credits, Premium and your
preferences all sync across everything you sign in to.
A story you downloaded is gone
The usual cause is signing out — that clears your downloads. There
is no automatic clean-up when your device runs low on space, so
nothing else removes them behind your back.
Downloads also do not sync between devices. A story downloaded on
your phone is not downloaded on your tablet, even though your reading
position is the same on both. See
Reading offline.
Notifications never arrive
- Check the permission your operating system holds for OutaStory. If
you dismissed the request the first time, the app cannot ask again
on its own — you have to grant it in the system settings. - Check your preferences at
/settings/notifications. - On macOS and Windows there is no operating-system push at all.
Nothing will ever pop up outside the app on those platforms. The
in-app notification centre at
/notificationsstill works fully, so that is
where to look.
A link opened a browser instead of the app
For some pages that is deliberate rather than a bug — help pages,
legal pages and account pages open in your browser by design. Which
links open where is explained in the
Apps and platforms section.
Reporting a crash so we can actually fix it
Open a ticket at /help/contact and include:
- Which app — web, Android, iPhone, iPad, Mac or Windows — and, if
you can find it, the version number. - What you did, step by step, right up to the moment it broke.
- Roughly when it happened, including your time zone. This is the
single most useful line, because it lets us find the matching error
report. - A screenshot, if the screen showed anything unusual.
"The app crashed" on its own is very hard to act on. The same message
with a time and a sequence of steps usually is not.