Most problems with Banked. come down to one of three things: a permission that was declined, a phone that isn't syncing, or a session that ended when nobody expected it to. All three are below, with the actual fix rather than a suggestion to restart. If none of it helps, write to us.
One person answers this address Expect a reply, not a ticket number
§ 01Reaching a person
Email rayyan.zahid.anwar@gmail.com. There is no phone line and no chat widget — Banked. is made by one person, and that address goes straight to them.
Include which device had the problem, the parent's or the child's, and roughly when it happened. That alone answers most of what we'd otherwise have to write back and ask.
§ 02Pairing a child's phone
Pairing runs from the parent's phone. On that device:
- Tap + on the Children tab and give the child a name.
- A pairing code appears — a QR code and ten characters underneath it.
- On the child's phone, install Banked., choose the child role during setup, then scan the code or type it in.
The code accepts one phone and then closes itself. That's deliberate: an open code is a way for someone else's device to pair to your family's data. If you're moving a child to a different handset, open their pairing sheet on the parent device and choose Pair a different phone, which reopens the code for one more use.
Both phones need to be signed into iCloud and online — the two devices talk through iCloud, not directly to each other. A code that says it's already been used means a phone has paired to it; reopen it from the parent device rather than making a new child, or the child starts again with an empty balance.
§ 03Steps aren't counting
This is the most common thing people write in about, and there are two separate switches involved. They live on different screens, and having one on tells you nothing about the other.
| Switch | Where | What it controls |
|---|---|---|
| Steps | Health app › Profile › Apps & Services › Banked. | Whether Banked. may read the step count. |
| Fitness Tracking | Settings › Privacy & Security › Motion & Fitness | Whether the iPhone records steps at all, for any app. |
Check the first one first. If the Health app shows a step count for today and Banked. shows zero, the phone is recording fine and the read permission is the problem.
iOS shows the Health permission sheet once. Declining it during setup means it can never appear again, and the Health app is the only way back — which is why a phone can sit on zero steps with nothing in the app looking wrong.
Banked. will not appear under Motion & Fitness. It reads Health rather than the motion sensors directly, so there is no entry there to find. The switch that matters on that screen is Fitness Tracking, at the top.
Health also doesn't backfill the moment permission is granted. Straight after setup a reading of zero is normal; give it a walk and a few minutes.
§ 04How sessions work
Banked minutes are not spent automatically. The child opens a session, which is a window of time they choose, and the apps unlock for exactly that long.
- Starting a twenty-minute session takes twenty minutes out of the bank immediately.
- The clock runs in real time whether or not the phone is being used.
- Ending a session early hands back the whole minutes still on it. Stopping with eight minutes left puts eight minutes back.
- When the clock reaches zero the restricted apps close again on their own.
So minutes are spent by decision rather than by drift, and a child who finishes early is rewarded for it. A session also ends if a bedtime window opens underneath it, and at midnight when the day rolls over.
§ 05Apps aren't locking
Working through the likely causes, cheapest first:
- A session is running. Apps are meant to be open during one. The child's Today screen shows the countdown.
- Screen Time permission was declined or revoked on the child's phone. Nothing is enforced without it. The child's dashboard says so outright when this happens, and so does the parent's.
- The app isn't finished setting up. Restrictions don't begin until the parent has completed their side.
- The app was deleted from the child's phone. Deleting Banked. removes every restriction with it — see the next section.
§ 06A phone that's gone quiet
If a child's phone stops reporting for two days, every parent paired to that child is told, and the child is greyed out on the dashboard.
This is not proof of anything. A phone that has been switched off, flat, or away from signal looks exactly the same from the parent's side as one where the app was removed. It is a prompt to check, not a verdict.
It matters because deleting Banked. lifts every restriction on that phone. If that's a concern, the parent's Rules tab has Stop them deleting apps — bear in mind it is Apple's device-wide setting, so it blocks deleting any app on that phone, not only this one.
Nothing is lost while a phone is quiet. If it starts reporting again the child returns to the dashboard with their rules, balance and streak intact.
§ 07Adding a second parent
Two parents can follow the same child. On the phone that already has them set up, open that child and choose Add another parent — their code is shown there as a QR code and as ten characters.
On the second parent's phone, tap +, then Already set up by someone else?, and scan or type that code.
Sharing that code does not let another child's phone pair — that stayed closed when the first one used it. It only subscribes another adult to a child who already exists.
§ 08Unpairing and pairing again
Unpair from the parent's device. The child's phone releases itself on its next sync: every restriction lifts and the app stops managing it.
The child stays on your dashboard afterwards, greyed out, with their rules kept. Pairing them again is two taps and puts everything back as it was. Deleting them for good is a separate action, offered only once they're already unpaired, and that one does take their rules with it.
§ 09Subscriptions and refunds
Subscriptions are handled entirely by Apple. We can't see your payment details, can't cancel on your behalf, and can't issue a refund.
- Cancel: Settings › your name › Subscriptions, on the parent's phone.
- Refund: reportaproblem.apple.com.
- Restore after reinstalling: the Plan tab has a Restore purchases option.
Deleting the app does not cancel a subscription. They are separate steps, and only the App Store can do the second one.
§ 10What the app can't do
Some behaviour is set by iOS rather than by us, and no amount of support can change it. Worth knowing before you conclude something is broken:
- Screen Time restrictions can apply a minute or two late. iOS reports usage on its own schedule.
- Scheduled windows shorter than fifteen minutes are ignored by the system.
- Anyone with the device passcode can revoke Screen Time, sign out of iCloud, or delete the app. Banked. is a household agreement, not a security product.
- Both phones need iCloud and a connection to stay in step. Offline, each shows the last state it received and catches up later.
§ 11Reporting something broken
Email rayyan.zahid.anwar@gmail.com with the device model and iOS version, which phone it happened on, and what you expected instead. A screenshot of the screen where it went wrong is worth several paragraphs.
The rules for using Banked. are in the Terms of Service, and what the app stores is in the Privacy Policy.