A way through
Something not behaving, or a puzzle that looks wrong? Write to Josh, who makes Dabble and answers the email himself. Most questions are answered further down this page first.
Email Dabble supportjoshua-law@hotmail.com · usually a day or two
What you were doing, what happened instead, and the version line at the bottom of You — the screen behind the ••• key at the top of Home. A screenshot, your iPhone model and your iOS version help too. Never send a password or a payment detail; nothing about Dabble ever needs one.
The day's run is five puzzles, in the same order, for every player everywhere. That is what makes the score worth comparing. There is no solve screen between them — a board finishes, its dot fills in along the top, and the next one arrives.
The board turns over at 8pm New York time, for everybody at the same moment, so it is a fresh puzzle in the evening rather than something that changes overnight. If your day seems to have rolled at an odd hour, that is why.
Dabble holds up to two freezes, spent automatically and silently to cover a day you missed. They are topped back up at a streak of seven and every thirty days after that, and they cannot be bought.
If the freezes are gone and you missed a single day, Home offers to mend it the next morning: play one puzzle from the day you missed and the streak carries on. The offer lasts that day only, and it pays no stars — it buys back the chain and nothing else.
Codes are eight characters in the form DAB-K7M2-XQ4P, and
upper case, lower case, dashes and stray spaces are all accepted — you
can paste the whole message it arrived in.
Two things are worth checking. A code never contains the letters O, I, L or U, or the digits 0 or 1, because those are the ones people mistake for each other, so a code that seems to have one has been misread. And the person handing it out has to wait until Dabble says their code is ready before it can be typed in.
Adding works one way and takes effect straight away, so somebody can have you before you have them. They appear under Waiting on the friends screen, reached from the people key at the top of Home. Add back puts them on your board too; Delete takes the request off this phone.
Deleting a request does not stop them seeing your day — their side of the connection is theirs. If you do not want either of you to appear on the other’s board, choose Block on the same card. Blocking removes both directions and stops either code being added again.
On the Your board tab, tap the minus beside their name. Remove takes their day off your board; yours stays on theirs if they added you separately. Block takes both of you off each other’s boards and prevents either code being added again.
Blocked people are listed at the bottom of Add. Unblocking permits a future add but does not silently restore either old connection.
If a name or interaction needs Josh’s attention, choose Report to support on the same card. Dabble opens a new email with that player’s reference already included; add what happened and send it.
Open Settings, then tap Delete account, and tap it once more to confirm. Your name, code, connections and every day you published are deleted, along with the account and its cloud save. Puzzle progress on this phone stays.
If deletion fails, the app keeps your account details so you can retry. Check your connection and try again.
Older accounts may need you to disconnect Dabble in your Apple Account settings; the app will show instructions after deletion. Apple’s instructions.
The puzzles, your stars and your streak work with no internet at all. Making a code, adding somebody, refreshing the board and leaving it are the only parts that need one.
An invitation opens Dabble directly only when Dabble is installed on that phone. If it opened this website instead, the page shows the code in large type with a key that copies it — install Dabble, then paste it into Add.
Stars, streak, hints, skips and every level you have climbed are kept on this phone, with a recovery copy in the iOS Keychain and iCloud when they are available. Delete and reinstall Dabble on the same phone and it picks up the furthest valid copy; iCloud can take a little while to arrive after a fresh install.
For a new phone, sign in with Apple or Google under Save your progress before moving. That keeps your progress, code and friends with the account you chose. Signing out removes the friends identity from that phone but does not delete the account or its saved progress.
To erase puzzle progress, use Start the puzzles again in You. To delete a friends account and its cloud copy, use Delete account.
Open You and switch off Daily nudge. Off means off — no badges and no pile of catch-up reminders later. You can also turn Dabble's notifications off entirely in iOS Settings under Notifications.
Both switches are on the You screen. Turning on the second one adds shapes and readouts wherever colour would otherwise be the only signal, and Dabble follows the system Reduce Motion and Dynamic Type settings without being asked.
Every game and every daily run is included for everybody. There is no subscription and no paywall.
Hints and skips arrive four ways: a starting hand of ten hints and five skips; an optional ad you can watch for two hints; the wheel at the end of a level, which pays a hint 15% of the time and a skip 5% — the numbers printed under the wheel are the numbers it actually rolls; and the shop, where they cost stars you have already won or can be bought as optional packs.
Purchases go through Apple. A pack that was paid for but did not arrive is delivered the next time Dabble opens. On a new phone, the ad-free bundle comes back with Restore purchases in the shop. Refunds are handled by Apple at reportaproblem.apple.com.
Dabble may show a short ad between levels — never inside a puzzle, a daily run or a lesson. You can also choose to watch an ad for two free hints, in the shop or when you run out. The ad-free bundle in the shop removes all ads for good, including that option. Ads are not personalised, and where the law asks for it, you can change your choices under Ad privacy choices in the shop.
Every board Dabble ships was solved by machine before it shipped, so a board that seems impossible is usually one move away rather than broken. One game is the exception: a vase poured onto the wrong stack cannot be un-poured, and a board can be tipped into a state with no way home. Dabble says so under the board when that happens — then undo, or start over. Starting over costs nothing, on any board in the app; the score is your moves against the target and nothing else.
If you are sure a board is wrong, email a screenshot. The puzzle on screen is enough to find it.
Requests, complaints and ideas are all welcome at the same address, and so is anything about your data — see the privacy page for what Dabble keeps and how to have it deleted.