Help.

I am blocked and I cannot get in

There is no code we can give you, and no code you can type. Writing to us would be the slowest way out of all of these, and it is why the list comes before the address at the bottom of this page.

There are five ways out, and you do not need anybody to agree to any of them.

Ask the person holding your key

They tap yes or no. If nobody answers at all, what you asked for opens on its own after eight hours.

Stand them down

24 hours. It stays blocked until then, and they see it in their app from the moment you start it.

Unblock everything

18 hours. Blocked the whole way through, and you can stop it at any point before it finishes.

Emergency unlock

16 minutes, now, without asking anybody. Once a calendar month. Whoever holds your key sees that it was used.

Delete the app

Every block on that phone comes off. Nobody can prevent it and no code is needed. About a day and a half later their phone is told yours has stopped checking in, so it is not quiet.

Only one of those is quick, and that is the one you get once a month. It is meant to be like that. If any of the others were instant you could open anything the moment you felt like it, and there would have been no point setting it up.

The first four are all on one screen. Get to it from the screen that stops you, or from Settings, where the same list sits under If you are stuck.

Somebody set this up on my phone and I did not agree to it

Deleting the app removes every block on that phone. Nobody can stop that, and it does not need a code or anybody’s permission.

The app cannot see your messages, your photos, your location or your browsing, and neither can the person holding the key.

The person holding my key has gone quiet

You are never left waiting on one person for ever.

Every ask opens by itself

Eight hours after you send it, answered or not. It is never turned down for you.

Name a backup

Open the block, then Backup keyholder. Three hours after an ask with no answer, it goes to the backup as well, never instead. A new backup can answer nothing for the first day.

Stand them down

24 hours, in the same place. The block stays up until it finishes.

Their phone has not been seen for over a week

Then the app offers End it now instead, and that one does not wait. The server checks the week itself.

Nominating a backup waits a day for the same reason standing somebody down does. A backup can answer, so one that arrived instantly would be a keyholder you appointed yourself.

I am holding somebody’s key and I want to stop

You can give one key back on its own, and keep any others you hold. You do not have to erase anything.

On the home screen tap Keys you hold, tap the key, then Hand this key back at the bottom.

Their block stays exactly as it is and nothing on their phone unlocks. A key that opened somebody’s phone on the way out would be a key anybody could use. They are told when nobody is left holding it, so a key never quietly stops working.

Nothing to write, nothing to explain, and nobody is sent a reason.

Nothing buzzed

Nothing buzzes yet. Notifications are not switched on at our end, so no banner arrives on either phone, whatever your iPhone settings say.

The app fetches everything the moment it is opened. An ask reaches the other person when they next open theirs, and their answer reaches you when you next open yours. Nothing is lost while a phone is shut.

This page changes on the day that changes.

Paying, cancelling and refunds

What is paid for

The app is bought through Apple, in the App Store, on the phone being blocked. The person holding a key never pays for anything, in any case, for ever.

What it costs and how long any free trial runs are shown in the App Store and in the app before you buy. They are not printed here, because a figure on this page would be wrong in some country the moment it was typed.

Cancelling

Cancelling goes through Apple, not through us. On your iPhone open Settings, tap your name, then Subscriptions.

It stops the next renewal, and you keep what you paid for until the period you already paid for ends.

Refunds

Apple handles refunds, under their own terms. We cannot issue one.

If a payment fails

Nothing already set up is switched off. Every block stays where it is and every key stays with the person holding it. What stops is adding another one.

Removing everything

Deleting the app takes every block off that phone. It does not remove what the server holds. Those are two different things and this page will not pretend otherwise.

The control for the rest is in the app: Settings, then Privacy, then What is collected. It is at the bottom of that screen, and you type the word ERASE first.

Every block is lifted before anything is deleted, so nobody is left with a blocked phone and no way in.

If you were holding somebody else’s key, their block stays up. You come off it and they are told nobody holds it. Taking it down from here would leave a phone blocked with nobody in the world able to open it.

Writing to us