Support

Write to support@BuildMeAStory.com and a person will read it.

Things that go wrong, and why

A story stopped building part-way through

Building a story takes 10 seconds or so of continuous work, so a connection that drops in the middle can end it. The words are written first and the pictures after, which is why a failure usually leaves you with a readable story missing some of its illustrations rather than nothing at all. Try again on a steadier connection.

Some pages have no picture

Each illustration is a separate request, and they are made a few at a time so as not to overwhelm the service. If one fails, the rest of the story still arrives - a missing picture is one page’s failure, not the story’s.

If many pages are missing pictures at once, that is usually a rate limit: too many images requested in a short window. Waiting a few minutes and building the next story generally clears it.

Nothing happens when I tap Create

Check the device is online. Building a story needs a connection even though reading one does not.

My stories have disappeared

Stories are stored on the device rather than on our servers, so they do not follow you to a new device and they do not survive the app being deleted. There is no way for us to recover them - as we never had a copy. This is the direct cost of the privacy position described in the privacy policy, and it is a real one.

The text is too small to read

Use the small-A and large-A buttons in the bar at the top of a story, or pinch the page. It works on top of your device’s own text-size setting rather than replacing it, so if you have already made text bigger system-wide, this makes it bigger again from there.

Reporting a problem

Please include, if you can:

• What you were doing, and what happened instead
• Your device and its operating system version
• The app version from the Settings page, and which store you installed from
• Roughly when it happened, and your time zone

There is no need to send us the child’s name or the story idea - we do not need them to investigate, and we would rather not receive them.

Data and deletion

To have the usage data from your installation deleted, find your installation number in the app’s settings and send it to support@BuildMeAStory.com. It is the only thing that identifies your records, since nothing collected is linked to you personally.

Deleting the app removes everything held on your device, including the stories.

The privacy policy sets out what is collected and what is not.

Suggestions

Ideas for additional functionality, art styles, age ranges or anything else are welcome at the same address.

Please give us your feedback so that we can make the app even better.