Help and questions

It proves that an alarm rings on your phone as it is set up now. Sunup sets a test alarm for one minute ahead and asks you to lock the phone and wait. When it rings, you play one quick round, and then Sunup tells you that it passed, or exactly what to fix.

It also checks every permission Sunup needs and your phone maker’s battery settings. Sunup runs the test when you first set it up, and you can run it again from Settings at any time. It offers it again after an Android update, because an update can change settings.

These three let an alarm ring on time and show itself over the lock screen:

• Alarms and reminders lets Sunup ring at the exact minute you set.
• Full-screen alarms lets the ringing screen open over the lock screen and turn the screen on.
• Notifications are how Android opens the ringing screen, so without them it can’t appear by itself.

Sunup checks them with you when you set it up, and can open the right page in your phone’s settings for each. Our privacy policy lists every permission Sunup has, and why.

It means a phone setting could stop an alarm ringing: notifications are off, full-screen alarms are off, alarms and reminders aren’t allowed, or your phone is limiting Sunup’s battery use. The banner says which one it is, and how to put it right. It goes away once everything is fine.

1. Open your phone’s Settings › Battery (on some models, Battery and device care › Battery).
2. Tap Background usage limits, then Never sleeping apps.
3. Tap +, choose Sunup, and tap Add.
4. If Sunup is listed under Sleeping apps or Deep sleeping apps, remove it from there.

1. Open Settings › Apps › Manage apps › Sunup.
2. Switch on Autostart.
3. Tap Battery saver (on HyperOS, Battery) and choose No restrictions.
4. Lock Sunup in your recent apps: open the recent apps, press and hold Sunup’s card (on some phones, pull it down), and tap the lock. “Clear all” then leaves it alone.

1. Open Settings › Battery › App launch (on newer phones, Settings › Apps › App launch).
2. Find Sunup and switch off Manage automatically.
3. In the box that opens, keep Auto-launch, Secondary launch and Run in background switched on, then tap OK.

1. Open Settings › Apps › App management › Sunup (on some phones, Settings › Apps › Sunup).
2. Tap Battery usage.
3. Switch on Allow auto launch and Allow background activity. If you see a choice of battery modes instead, choose Unrestricted or Don’t optimise.

1. Open Settings › Battery › Background power consumption management (on some phones, High background power consumption).
2. Find Sunup and choose Allow, or switch it on.
3. Then open Settings › Apps › Autostart (on some phones, i Manager › App manager › Autostart manager) and switch Sunup on.

1. Open Settings › Apps › Sunup.
2. Tap App battery usage (on some phones, Battery) and choose Unrestricted.

Nothing to do: Pixel phones let alarm-clock alarms through as they are. Just don’t set Sunup’s battery use to Restricted (in Settings › Apps › Sunup › App battery usage).

That depends on the way out you chose in the alarm’s settings:

• Standard (as it comes): after 2 minutes of ringing, a “Can’t play right now?” link appears. Tap it and type the long phrase it shows, and the alarm stops.
• Easy: press and hold the button for 5 seconds. Good for gentle reminders.
• Strict: there is no way out except finishing the challenge. Sunup warns you when you choose it.

Whichever you choose, an alarm stops by itself after its “stop ringing after” time (10, 20 or 30 minutes; 30 unless you change it), unless you set it never to stop, and Sunup records a missed morning. A mistake in a game never sends you back to the start, and after three misses in a row the next puzzle is gentler.

Each alarm has its own snooze: off, or from 1 to 30 minutes, and how many snoozes in a row it allows, up to 5. Snooze shows on the ringing screen only while the alarm allows one. With Sunup Premium, Earn your snooze makes you play one round before you can snooze. A snooze doesn’t break your streak.

A Sunup Premium extra for anyone who tends to go back to sleep. A few minutes after you’re up (3, 5 or 10, as you choose), the phone asks “Still up?”, and you have 60 seconds to tap. If you miss it, the alarm rings again, with one round to play.

So that you can’t start the game and doze off. The sound drops while you play, and if you stop touching the screen for a few seconds (5, 10 or 20, set for each alarm), it comes back to full until you touch the screen again. You can also choose to keep it loud, or silent, while you play.

On silent, yes: Sunup rings on the phone’s alarm sound, which silent and vibrate modes don’t mute. Do Not Disturb lets alarms through unless it has been set to block them, so if you have changed its settings, check that alarms are still allowed.

While an alarm rings, Sunup sets the alarm volume to the level you chose for that alarm, and puts your own level back afterwards. A gentle start, if you chose one, grows the sound from soft to full over 30 or 60 seconds.

It plays softly while you’re on the call, and rings fully once the call ends.

With Sunup Premium, open the alarm, tap its sound and choose your own file. Android’s file picker opens, and Sunup only sees the file you pick: it needs no permission to read your storage. Keep the file where it is: if you move or delete it, choose it again.

Open the repeating alarm and use Skip next. Only the next ring is skipped, and the alarm carries on as normal after it, so there is nothing to remember to switch back on.

Everything in Sunup is free for 7 days, Premium included. The 7 days start the first time one of your alarms rings, not when you install, so you can set things up and run the “Will it ring?” test without using any of them. Test rings and Try it now don’t count.

You don’t need a card, and there is nothing to cancel. When the 7 days end, nothing is charged, and Sunup carries on as the free version.

A proper alarm clock, for good: unlimited alarms and every reliability feature, four games (Quick Sums, Light Trail, Odd One Out and Type it), 1 to 3 rounds at Gentle or Normal, snooze rules and the emergency way out, 10 sounds, all three looks and the last 7 days of Mornings. Free or Premium, every alarm rings the same way.

Sunup Premium is a monthly or a yearly subscription through Google Play, which shows the price in your currency, with any tax, before you pay. It adds every game, up to 10 rounds, Tough and Adaptive, mistakes that add a round, earn your snooze, the wake-up check, all 30 sounds and your own, and your full Mornings history.

Yes, but there is no need to. A subscription starts, and is charged, on the day you subscribe: the free days you have left are not added on. Everything is already unlocked during the 7 days, so most people wait until the trial is over.

Subscriptions are managed by Google Play. Open the Play Store, tap your profile picture, then Payments & subscriptions › Subscriptions, choose Sunup Premium and tap Cancel subscription. You can also go to play.google.com/store/account/subscriptions.

Premium carries on until the end of the month or year you have paid for, and your alarms keep ringing after it. Uninstalling the app does not cancel a subscription.

This can happen on a new phone or after reinstalling. Make sure the Play Store is signed in with the Google account you bought Premium with. Then open Sunup’s Premium screen, in Settings, and tap Restore purchases. Sunup asks Google Play again, and Premium comes back. You won’t be charged twice.

If it still doesn’t show, email us with the order number from your Google Play receipt (it starts with “GPA.”).

Payments go through Google Play, so refunds follow Google Play’s refund policy, and you can ask Google for one from your order history. If Google can’t help, write to us and we will look at it fairly.

If your old phone backs up its apps to your Google account (most do), Android can bring Sunup’s alarms, settings and mornings to the new phone when you set it up from that backup and install Sunup. Open Sunup once on the new phone, so that it can set your alarms, and run the “Will it ring?” test: the new phone may need a setting changed.

A sound file of your own stays on the old phone: copy it across and choose it again. If you have Sunup Premium, restore it too (see I pay for Premium, but the app doesn’t show it).

No and no. There is nothing to sign up for, and Sunup works fully offline: it doesn’t even have permission to use the internet. Your alarms and mornings stay on your phone. See our privacy policy.