Support

Everything below describes the current version of the app.

App version: 1.0 (2)

What the app does

DokuJoy is a simplified Sudoku game for children of roughly four to eight. Puzzles use numbers, colours or friendly shapes, on boards from 2×2 to 5×5. The rule is simple: each row and each column must contain every value exactly once. There are no 3×3 boxes as in adult Sudoku.

Requirements

iPhone and iPad. The minimum supported iOS and iPadOS version is shown on the App Store listing for the version you are installing.

Starting a puzzle

1. Tap Play.
2. Choose how it should look: numbers, colours or shapes.
3. Choose a board size.
4. Choose a difficulty.
5. Tap Start Game.

Tap an empty square, then tap a value from the row underneath. Tapping the same value again clears the square, and the eraser clears it too.

Stars

Finishing a puzzle earns stars based only on the difficulty you chose: one for Easy, two for Medium, three for Tricky. Stars never depend on speed or on mistakes, they are never taken away, and using hints does not reduce them.

Hints

The Hint button fills in one square correctly. Hints are free, unlimited and carry no penalty of any kind. If the last empty square is filled by a hint, the puzzle is completed normally and earns its full stars.

Two different kinds of lock

A level can be closed for two unrelated reasons, and it helps to know which is which.

Learning progression — opened by playing

Levels open up gradually as a child plays:

• Finishing Easy at a board size opens Medium at that size; finishing Medium opens Tricky.
• Finishing any 4×4 puzzle opens 5×5 Easy.
• 2×2 has only Easy, and 3×3 has only Easy and Medium.

Locked levels stay visible and say exactly what to finish to open them. This has nothing to do with money, and turning on Unlock All Levels in Parent Zone skips it.

Premium — a one-time purchase

Some levels are part of Premium, a single purchase that never expires and is not a subscription.

Free, with no purchase: 2×2 Easy and 3×3 Easy, in all three looks — numbers, colours and shapes.

Premium: 3×3 Medium, and every difficulty on the 4×4 and 5×5 boards.

The two locks are independent. Buying Premium does not skip learning progression, and Unlock All Levels does not unlock Premium. A child who taps a Premium level sees only a note asking a grown-up — never a price, and never a way to buy anything.

Premium

Where to find it

Parent Zone › Premium. Parent Zone is behind the parental gate, so purchasing is only ever reachable by an adult who answers the arithmetic question.

What it costs

The price is shown in your own currency on the Premium screen, and it is a one-time purchase. There is no subscription, no advertising, no second purchase, and nothing else to buy afterwards.

Restore Purchases

Parent Zone › Premium › Restore Purchases. Use it after reinstalling the app or on a new device signed in to the same Apple Account. You will not be charged again.

If it reports nothing to restore, the most common reason is being signed in to a different Apple Account from the one that bought it.

Restoring Premium is not the same as restoring progress

These are two separate things, and only one of them can come back:

• Premium belongs to your Apple Account. Reinstalling, or moving to a new device, does not lose it — Restore Purchases brings it back.
• Puzzle progress — finished puzzles and stars — is stored only on the device. Deleting the app deletes it, and there is no cloud backup. Restoring Premium does not bring it back.

We would rather say this plainly than have you discover it after a reinstall.

The purchase button is missing, or shows no price

The price comes from the App Store, so the screen needs a connection to fetch it once. If the App Store cannot be reached, the Premium screen says so and offers Try Again rather than showing a guessed price. The game itself keeps working offline throughout, and Premium you have already bought stays unlocked.

If it persists: check the connection, then try again in a few minutes.

“Purchase pending”

If the device uses Ask to Buy, a purchase waits for approval from the organiser of the Family Sharing group. Nothing is charged and nothing unlocks until it is approved. Once it is, Premium unlocks on its own — there is nothing to tap again, and no need to pay twice.

Purchases are turned off

If purchasing is restricted on the device, this is usually set in Settings › Screen Time › Content & Privacy Restrictions.

Refunds

Refunds are handled by Apple, not by us — we hold no record of your purchase. Use reportaproblem.apple.com.

Parent controls

Parent Zone is reached from the Home screen and is protected by a parental gate: a short arithmetic question intended for an adult. The question is randomised each time, and passing it is never remembered between launches.

Unlock all levels

Turn on Unlock All Levels in Parent Zone to skip learning progression, so every level your child already has access to becomes playable immediately. This does not award stars, does not change history, and does not unlock Premium levels.

Restoring normal progression

Turn the same switch off. The levels your child actually earned remain exactly as they were.

Resetting progress

Use Reset Progress in Parent Zone, then confirm. This removes finished puzzles, stars and unlocked levels. Sound, haptics and the unlock switch are kept.

Troubleshooting

No sound

• Check Sound is on in Parent Zone.
• Check the device is not in silent mode — the app follows the ringer switch on purpose.
• Check the device volume.
• The app mixes with other audio, so music you are playing will continue underneath.

No haptics

• Check Haptics is on in Parent Zone.
• Check Settings → Sounds & Haptics → System Haptics on the device.
• Not all devices have a haptic engine; iPad models generally do not.

Progress seems to be missing

• Progress is stored on the device only, so it does not move between devices.
• Check whether Reset Progress was used in Parent Zone.
• Deleting and reinstalling the app removes stored progress.
• If the stored file cannot be read, the app recovers from its backup automatically and keeps playing rather than failing.

The app will not open, or closes straight away

• Force-quit and reopen: swipe up from the bottom of the screen, then swipe the app card away.
• Restart the device.
• Check Settings › General › Software Update — DokuJoy needs iOS 17.0 or later.
• Reinstalling clears local progress. Try the steps above first; Premium is tied to your Apple Account and can be brought back with Restore Purchases, but puzzle progress cannot.

Accessibility

DokuJoy is built to be played without relying on any one sense:

• VoiceOver is supported throughout, including the parental gate and the Premium screen.
• Dynamic Type — text grows with the system text size, including the largest accessibility sizes.
• Colour is never the only signal. In colour mode every colour is paired with its own shape, so the game can be played without distinguishing colours.
• Reduce Motion — decorative movement is removed when the system setting is on; nothing important is shown only through animation.
• Sound and haptics are optional. Either can be turned off in Parent Zone and the game plays perfectly in silence.
• Dark appearance follows the system setting.

If something is hard to use with an assistive technology, please tell us — it is useful to know which setting was on and what happened.

Contact

Email iersininfo@gmail.com. Please include the app version shown in Parent Zone and the device model.

Never send passwords or card details. We will never ask for your Apple Account password, any password, a full payment card number, or a verification code. Nobody needs them to help you, and we cannot look up your purchase in any case — billing is handled by Apple at reportaproblem.apple.com.