Support — Plain and Simple Games

Thirty games in one app: Sudoku, Solitaire, Free Cell, Spider, Mahjong, Minesweeper, Crossword, Word Search, Five in Six, Bridges, Loop, Cross Sums, Five Dice, Colour Sort, Parking Lot, Nonogram, Connect, 2048, Block Fit, Echo, Twin, Span, Four Up, Dots and Boxes, Match Up, Low Twelve, Navigating the USA, Cross Off, Three Streets and Fifty Plates. No ads, nothing to buy, and nothing to download after you install it. The app is free.

Do I need an account?

No. Open the app and play — every game and every feature works signed out, and your stats and half-finished puzzles are saved on the device either way.

Signing in with Apple is optional and separate. It does exactly one thing: it lets the app notice that a different person has picked up a device that already holds someone's games. It is not what carries your games to another device — that is your device being signed in to iCloud, described below. If you play on one device, there is no reason to bother.

My games aren't showing up on my iPad

Check three things, in this order:

• Is each device signed in to iCloud? Open Settings in the app: it says Saved to your iCloud when that device really is syncing, and Saved on this device when it isn't. Fix it in the Settings app → your name.
• The same Apple Account on both? Your games travel through your own iCloud, so both devices have to be signed in to the same account.
• iCloud Drive switched on? Settings → your name → iCloud → iCloud Drive.

Sync happens in the background and can take a minute. Opening the app on both devices while they're on Wi-Fi is the quickest way to make it catch up.

Signing in with Apple is not what turns this on. It is worth saying because it is easy to assume: signing in lets the app notice that a different person has picked up a device holding someone else's games, and nothing more. Whether your games reach your iPad depends on your iPad being signed in to iCloud.

Is my data going to you?

No. There is no Plain and Simple server for it to go to.

Your games are kept on your device. If that device is signed in to iCloud, a copy also lives in your own private iCloud database — a part of your personal iCloud account, which we cannot read. Either way nothing reaches us. See the privacy page for the details.

Sudoku

The difficulty doesn't feel right. Difficulties here are worked out by solving the puzzle the way a person would and measuring how much work that took, rather than by counting how many numbers you start with. That means "Hard" should genuinely be harder than "Medium" — but it also means our Medium may not match another app's. If a difficulty feels consistently wrong, tell us; it's a number we can tune.

What does the hint do? The first press explains the next step in plain English — "in the top-left box, 7 can only go in one square." Press it again and it fills that square in. The first press is meant to teach you something; the second is for when you'd rather just get on with it.

Expert says there's no straightforward step. That's honest rather than a failure. Some Expert puzzles need you to try a digit and follow it through to see whether it works. There is always exactly one solution.

Five in Six

A real word wasn't accepted. The list has about ten thousand five-letter words but it isn't every word in English. Tell us the one it missed and we'll add it.

I can't tell the green from the yellow. You shouldn't have to. A letter in the wrong place also carries a heavy dark outline, and a letter that isn't in the word is sunk into the board and dimmed — so the board reads correctly in black and white. There's no color-blind mode to find because there's nothing to switch on.

Where's today's word from? It's worked out from the date on your own device, so everyone gets the same word without the app asking a server. That also means it works with no signal at all.

Solitaire

A card won't move. Klondike's rules are strict: columns build downward in alternating colors, foundations build upward from the ace in one suit, and an empty column takes only a king. Tapping a card is usually quicker than dragging it — it goes home if it can, and otherwise finds itself a column.

It says there are no moves left. It only says that when there genuinely are none; it checks every legal move before saying so. Plenty of Klondike deals can't be won at all — around two in three at draw three. It isn't always you.

Free Cell, Spider, Loop, Cross Sums, Echo, Twin and Span

Free Cell and Spider are the other two solitaire games on the shelf. Spider is one, two or four suits. Both have an honest "no moves left", the same as Klondike.

Loop and Cross Sums are dailies. Every board is proved to have exactly one answer before it ships — if you are stuck, there is a deduction available somewhere.

Echo, Twin and Span are sequence, pairs and recall. They sit on the shelf with the rest. There is no claim about what they do for you.

Crossword

Where do the puzzles come from? They're written by hand and ship with the app — a hundred of them at a time. Everyone gets the same five-by-five mini on the same day, worked out from the date on your own device.

Five Dice

I can't undo. That's the game. When a round goes badly you have to write it into one of the thirteen boxes anyway, including a zero into a box you were saving. Being able to take it back would remove the only hard decision in it.

Colour Sort

A pour didn't do what I expected. A pour moves the whole run of matching color on top of a tube, not one band — so pouring three greens moves all three. Tipping a tube that's already a single color into an empty one is refused, because it changes nothing except which tube things are in.

Undo costs a move. Otherwise a "fewest moves" figure would mean nothing.

I'm stuck. If the board genuinely has nothing left to do, it says so. If it hasn't said so, there is still a move.

Parking Lot

What is par? The fewest moves the lot can actually be solved in — worked out in advance and checked twice, rather than the best score somebody managed. So "fourteen moves, par eleven" means eleven is genuinely possible.

Undo costs a move here too, for the same reason.

The hint moved a car that seemed unhelpful. Hints only ever offer a move that's on a shortest solution. One that merely looked sensible would quietly make the puzzle longer.

What decides easy, medium and hard? Par, and nothing else. Easy lots go in ten moves or fewer, medium in eleven to seventeen, hard in eighteen and up. Today's lot has no difficulty of its own — it is whatever the day happens to be, the same for everybody.

Why do all the other cars look the same? Because they are the same. Every car in the way moves by exactly the same rules, so there is nothing to tell you apart from where they are and how long they are — which is the puzzle. Only your car is different, and it is the amber one with the arrow.

Nonogram

How do I know a row is finished? Its numbers go gray when the squares you've filled match them. That only tells you something you could work out by counting — it never points at a square.

Crossing out squares. The Cross out tool marks squares you've worked out are blank. They're your own notes: being wrong in them costs nothing, and you never have to cross everything out to finish. Only filling in a square that shouldn't be counts as a mistake.

Am I told when I get one wrong? Only if Point out mistakes is on in Settings. With it off you find your own errors, which is how the puzzle works on paper.

Do I have to guess? No. Every picture in the app is checked to be solvable by reasoning about one row or column at a time. If you're stuck, there is a deduction available somewhere on the board.

Bridges

What am I trying to do? Join every island to its neighbors so that each one has exactly the number of bridges written on it. Bridges run straight up, down, left or right between two islands with nothing in between; there can be one or two between any pair; and no two bridges may cross.

And one more rule, which is the important one. Everything has to end up joined into a single network. You can satisfy every island's number and still be wrong, because you have left two groups sealed off from each other. That is the thing worth watching for, and it is what makes the endgame interesting.

How do I build one? Tap an island, then tap one it can see. Or drag from one to the other. Doing it again adds a second bridge, and a third time takes them both away — that cycle is also how you remove a bridge you don't want.

Nothing happened when I tried. The bridge you were drawing would have crossed one already there. Crossings are the only move the game refuses.

An island has gone red. It has more bridges than it asked for. The app shows you that and does nothing else — it will not tell you the position is unwinnable or block a move that leads nowhere, because working that out is the game.

Do I ever have to guess? No. Every board is worked through before you are given it, using only the moves a person actually makes, and any board that would come down to a coin flip is thrown away and another one grown.

Undo goes back as far as you like.

Word Search

How do I claim a word? Drag from its first letter to its last. Or tap the first letter, then tap the last — both do the same thing, and the tapping route is there so the game works with VoiceOver as well as with a finger.

Which directions do words run in? All eight: across, down, both diagonals, and each of those backwards. A word never turns a corner and never runs off one row onto the next.

My finger slipped and nothing happened. A selection has to be a straight row, column or diagonal. Anything else is refused rather than snapped to the nearest line — snapping would sometimes claim a word you weren't pointing at.

What is Theme only? The same puzzle with the word list withheld. You are told the theme and how long each word is, and the list fills itself in as you find them. It is considerably harder at the end, and it is counted separately on the scorecard because it isn't the same puzzle as playing with the list.

Is today's grid the same for everyone? Yes. Practice grids are picked at random from the same bank and never touch your streak.

Can a word be hiding in two places? No. Every grid is checked, in two separate programs, that each word can be found in exactly one place — a word findable twice would tick off your list from a spot the puzzle never intended, and leave the real one unmarked.

Minesweeper

Do I ever have to guess? No, and this is the one thing worth knowing about this version. Every board is solved before you are given it, using only the three moves a person actually makes — counting a square's neighbors, subtracting one square's from another's, and the total mines left. Any board that would come down to a coin flip is thrown away and another dealt. If you are stuck, there is a deduction available somewhere.

I hit a mine anyway. Then there was a step that hadn't been earned yet. That is not a comfortable thing to be told, but it is the true one, and it is worth knowing because the move you missed is findable.

How do I plant a flag? Switch to Flag with the control under the board, then tap. It is a mode rather than a long press, because a long press is undiscoverable and on an expert board you want to plant a run of flags without changing your grip.

Opening a square's neighbors all at once. Press and hold an already-opened square. If the flags around it match its number, all its remaining neighbors open. This will lose you the board if the flags are in the wrong places — it does exactly what you told it to.

The mines-left number went negative. You have planted more flags than there are mines. It is shown honestly rather than stopping at zero, because that number is the only thing that would tell you one of your flags is wrong.

Why is today's board twelve by twelve rather than one of the classic sizes? Because sixteen across doesn't fit a phone at a size worth tapping, and the daily shouldn't need scrolling sideways. It has 26 mines, which is a slightly tighter squeeze than intermediate. The three classic sizes are all there under Beginner, Intermediate and Expert.

A square opened and shows nothing. That means no mines are next to it. It is left blank rather than showing a 0, the way it always has been.

Mahjong

Which tiles can I take? Any tile with nothing resting on top of it and at least one of its long sides clear. Tiles you can't take yet are shaded back — but that is only a help, not the rule: what makes a tile blocked is what you can see sitting on it and beside it.

Two tiles that look different matched. Why? Flowers and seasons are the exception. Any flower takes any other flower, and any season takes any other season, because there is only one of each in a set. Everything else has to be the same tile. A flower does not take a season.

I've run out of pairs and there are still tiles left. That happens, and it isn't a board that was impossible. Every board in the app is built backwards from a finished solution, so all of them can be cleared — but taking the wrong one of four identical tiles can close off a stack for good. Undo goes back as far as you like, or start the board again.

Find a pair. It shows you two tiles that can be taken right now. It is honest about being a pair rather than a good one — knowing which pair keeps the board winnable would mean solving the rest of the game for you.

The tiles are small on my phone. Use Little Pile, which is 72 tiles and sized to fit a phone comfortably. The two big boards pinch to zoom and drag to move.

Is today's board the same for everyone? Yes, and it is always played on The Mound, so that a time on Tuesday and a time on Wednesday measure the same thing. Practice boards are dealt fresh each time and never touch your streak.

Connect

I've joined every pair and it still isn't finished. Every square has to be covered too. That's the rule that makes it a puzzle — joining the pairs on their own usually has a dozen lazy answers. The counter at the top shows both: pairs joined, and squares filled.

I drew over another color and it disappeared. Running a line into another color cuts that one back to where you crossed it. That's deliberate, and it's how these games normally work — refusing to move instead makes the board feel stuck.

Undoing a wrong turn. Drag back along your own line and it rewinds. Starting again from a dot clears that color completely.

The boards got smaller again at level 49. That's the second pack starting. Each pack runs from 5×5 up to 8×8, so the ladder is two laps rather than one long climb. None of the boards in the second pack repeat one from the first.

2048

I made 2048 and it didn't stop. It isn't supposed to. Reaching the tile is worth a mention, not an ending — carrying on past it is the half of the game most people are after. The run ends when nothing moves in any direction.

Swiping does nothing. Then nothing moves that way. If no direction moves anything the run is over, and the board says so underneath.

Can I undo? No. The tile that appears after each move comes from the run's own number, so an undo would mean re-rolling it — and a high score you can undo your way out of isn't one.

Block Fit

Nothing falls when a line clears. That's right. The line empties and everything else stays exactly where you put it. It is a puzzle about where things go, not a game about reflexes.

Why won't it give me a new piece? All three have to be gone before the tray refills. That's the game — the awkward one has to be found a home before any help arrives.

I can't see the shape under my finger. You shouldn't have to: the piece lifts above your finger while you drag, and a dashed outline shows where it will land. If there's no outline, it won't fit there. You can also tap a piece and then tap the board instead of dragging.

None of my three pieces fit. Then that's the run, and the board says so.

Two players, Fifty Plates

Four Up, Dots and Boxes, Match Up, Low Twelve, Navigating the USA, Cross Off and Three Streets sit under their own heading, for one iPad between two people. Four Up, Dots and Boxes, Low Twelve and Cross Off will play you when there is nobody else about; Match Up and Navigating the USA need two people.

Fifty Plates is the licence-plate game. It saves as you go. The app cannot check whether you really saw a plate, and it does not try.

Turning things off

Settings has switches for the clock, mistake highlighting, automatic pencil marks, draw-three solitaire, hard mode in the word game, and vibration. Your times are recorded whether the clock is showing or not.

Settings → Games hides any game you don't play from the home screen. Nothing is deleted — stats, streaks and half-finished boards all stay exactly where they were, and switching a game back on returns everything.

Deleting everything

• On this device: delete the app.
• From iCloud: Settings → your name → iCloud → Manage Account Storage → Plain and Simple Games → Delete Data.

We can't do it for you, because we can't reach it.

Getting in touch

help@plainandsimple.app — a real person reads it.

If you're reporting something that went wrong, the most useful things to include are which game, what you were doing, and whether it happens every time.