Jewels / iJewels FAQ

October 28, 2010 android, ios, jewels Comments

The following are some of the most Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for Jewels and iJewels. Please do read these before contacting for support, as I get several support requests a day for these, and I am no longer answering questions that are in the FAQ list. Thanks. 🙂

General (Jewels and iJewels)

• Problem: I used to get really high scores and now I cannot get them! Or: the latest update broke the game, cannot get high scores any more!
  Solution: I have not touched the game mechanics / rules except when adjusting the Timed mode. Not once. What explains these complaints then? Well, the game is based on (pseudo) randomness, so it's just a case of plain back luck(tm). Simple as that. 🙂
  Short answer: Bad luck, try again. 😉
• Problem: I don't want to submit scores, how can I disable the score submission?
  Solution: You can disable the score submission by going to the Profile-page from the main menu.
• Problem: I want to submit scores but don't want to register to Scoreloop!
  Solution: You don't have to register in order to submit scores. You only have to accept their terms, and a generated player name is assigned to you. You can change that name from the Profile-page. You don't have to provide an email address, it is optional.
  Short answer: You don't have to register.

On iJewels (iPhone, iPod touch, iPad)

• Problem: The game stays waiting for download / update, i.e. the icon is grey and there is "Waiting…" below it. What do I do?
  Solution: This is not related to iJewels but iOS, as I have seen this on other apps even before the first iJewels was released. The apps seem to download normally, but are still left in pending state. In any case, restarting the phone has always corrected this problem for me.
  Short answer: Restart your phone.
• Problem: The game freezes or crashes!
  Partial solution: No permanent solution right now. Restarting the game (by killing it first from the task list) should help. I have been unable to reproduce any crashes or freezes, apart from score submission related "freezes" that have been solved already in the game updates. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to fix something that cannot be reproduced reliably. Check out the question below, if that's what you mean instead.
• Problem: Switching away from the game and later resuming the game sometimes leaves you with black or white screen.
  Solution: The framebuffer doesn't get recreated properly for reasons unknown. This happens occasionally, and in my testing it seems that going away from the game and returning once again fixes the problem. I.e. press Home-key and then get back to the game. Killing the game from the task list (hold down Home-key) and restarting should also fix this.
  Short answer: Try pressing the Home-key and then returning to the game again. Or kill the game from the task list and restart it.

On Jewels (Android)

• Problem: Android Market force closes / crashes while downloading or updating Jewels. The game cannot be uninstalled either.
  Solution: This is a bug with the Market. Clearing the Market cache should resolve the situation. Go to Settings -> Applications -> Manage Applications -> Market and clear the cache.
  Short answer: Clear the Market cache, see above for details.
• Problem: Why does the game need access to my phone calls and/or access the internet?
  Solution: The Phone State-permission has nothing to do with phone calls, instead it is needed to get the device ID, which is required to use Scoreloop (as the SL profile is tied to one physical device). Internet access is naturally for the global scores, and also for the ads. The does work fine without a connection, though.
  
• Problem: I keep getting notifications from the game that an update is available.
  Solution: Update to the latest version from the Android Market. The update checker has been disabled for several versions now, so you must be running a quite old version of the game.