Support

Reps aren’t being counted

Rep counting uses the camera and needs to see your whole body. Work through these in order:

1. Check the camera is allowed. Open Profile › Settings › Permissions and tap Open iOS Settings, then switch Camera on. If it’s off, the app tells you on the workout screen rather than failing silently.
2. Get further back. Push-ups and sit-ups: lay the phone on the floor to your side, screen facing you, about 6 feet away. Squats, lunges, jumping jacks and high knees: prop it up about 8 feet away so your whole body fits in frame.
3. Give it light. Pose tracking struggles in a dim room or when you’re backlit by a window. Put the light in front of you, not behind.
4. Watch what it tells you. Mid-set it will say “back up” or “can’t see your legs” when the framing is the problem. That message is the fix.

It counts the wrong number

The counter calibrates to the range you are actually moving through, so it needs a couple of clean reps at the start of a set to learn what your rep looks like. A few things throw it:

• Someone walking through frame. It rides out short gaps, but a person standing between you and the phone will stall it.
• Changing depth mid-set. If your reps get much shallower as you tire, it adapts — but a sudden half-rep may not register.
• A very steep camera angle. Looking almost straight up or down at you flattens the movement it keys off. Get the phone closer to the height of your body.

If it misses one, tap +1. That counts exactly the same as a rep the camera saw — nothing is second-class.

It can’t hear my answer

1. Check both permissions. Spoken answers need the microphone and speech recognition. Both are under Profile › Settings › Permissions › Open iOS Settings.
2. Answer after the question finishes. It listens once the prompt has been read.
3. Say the term, not a sentence. It expects short factual answers. “Mitochondria” beats “I think it’s probably the mitochondria” — though both are accepted.
4. Switch how you answer. In the pre-flight screen, How you answer lets you pick Speak, Type or Either. If a room is loud, type.

Near-misses count. Synonyms, abbreviations and mistranscriptions of technical terms are all accepted — you do not have to say the answer word for word.

Questions aren’t read out loud

• Check Read questions aloud is on under Profile › Settings › Workout.
• Check the ringer switch on the side of your iPhone and the volume during a session.
• Voice and Speech rate are in the same section if the default voice is too fast, too slow, or you’d prefer a different one.

The Arena can’t find anyone

The Real Arena looks for another StudyBuff player online through Game Center. If nobody turns up within 30 seconds, Buff Bot steps in so you still get your race — that’s expected, not an error, especially at quiet times.

• Sign in to Game Center. Real matches need it. StudyBuff asks the first time you tap Find an opponent, or you can sign in under iOS Settings › Game Center.
• Check Screen Time. If multiplayer games are restricted under Content & Privacy Restrictions, StudyBuff offers Buff Bot instead.
• Be online. Unlike Buff Bot, a real match needs an internet connection.

What another player can see

Your Game Center name, your reps, your score and which round you’re on. Never your camera — it only ever counts your reps on your own device — and there’s no chat. Online matches always play a standard bout on a deck that ships with the app, so both players race exactly the same thing.

Decks and questions

• Five decks ship with the app — Cell Biology, US History, Spanish 101, Chemistry and Geometry.
• Make your own from the Decks tab with + New Deck. Decks you create are stored on your phone and are yours.
• Questions repeat on purpose. Anything you miss comes back before the session ends, and again later. Get one right four times running and it won’t return for about a week.
• Difficulty is set by Question level under Profile › Settings › Workout — Middle school through Grad.

Writing a deck with AI

Tap + New Deck and pick how you want to start: a Topic, pasted Notes, a File (PDF or text), or a Photo of a page. Then Generate with AI.

• The button stays grey until there's something to work from. A line underneath says what it's waiting for — a topic, more pasted text, a file, or a photo.
• On iPhones and iPads with Apple Intelligence this runs on the device. The New Deck screen says “Written on your iPhone” (or iPad). It's free, it works offline, and your notes aren't sent anywhere.
• If it says AI writing isn’t available here, this device can’t run Apple Intelligence and DeepSeek isn’t set up or allowed. Everything else still works — build a deck by hand with Or build one by hand.
• Want stronger questions? Switch on Write with DeepSeek on the New Deck screen. The app asks your permission first and shows exactly what’s sent. Turn it off any time in Profile › Settings › AI features.
• Questions came out odd? Regenerate, or open the deck and edit or delete individual cards. A more specific topic gives better questions — “the Krebs cycle” beats “biology”.

Progress, sign out and deleting data

StudyBuff has no account system of its own and keeps none of your data on a server, so there is nothing to recover if you reset — and nothing anyone else can reach. The Privacy Policy covers exactly what is stored and where.

Where every setting lives

All of it is under the Profile tab, on the Settings toggle at the top.

Requirements

• iPhone running iOS 26, or iPad running iPadOS 26, or later.
• A working camera for automatic rep counting. Everything else — questions, grading, spaced repetition, the Arena, the whole game layer — works without one.
• No internet connection needed for workouts, Buff Bot, or writing decks on devices with Apple Intelligence. Online Arena matches and DeepSeek need a connection.
• Apple Intelligence for on-device deck writing. Without it, that one feature needs a configured fallback; everything else is unaffected.
• No account. Sign in with Apple is offered, never required.

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