Questions & Answers

Check your Screen Time Always Allowed list in iOS Settings. While an app sits in that list, Allow List rules and category selections cannot block it. Only a Block rule that names the app will.

So you have two remedies: remove it from Always Allowed, or name it directly in a Block rule.

Because a blocker you can switch off isn't a blocker. The moment you most want to quit is exactly the moment you need to meet some friction — a few seconds to breathe and reconsider.

The way out of a running rule is Stop, behind a 5-second breathing gate. Tap the rule's card under Active, or its switch, breathe, then choose: take a break, if the rule has one left, or Stop. While a rule is running it can't be edited or deleted — Stop it first. Siri can start a rule but has no command to end one.

A Strict rule goes further: while it blocks, it has no breaks and no Stop at all. See What is Strict? below.

This is a feature, not a limitation.

Every rule is either a Block rule, which blocks the apps and website categories you choose, or an Allow List, which blocks everything except the apps you allow. Its type decides when it applies.

• Immediate — starts the moment you start it and runs for a length you choose, until the end of the day, or until removed.
• Scheduled — runs on the days and hours you pick.
• Time Limit — a daily allowance. The apps stay open until you have used it up, then they are blocked for the rest of the day.
• Open Limit — the apps stay blocked on the days you choose, with a few short opens a day: say five opens of ten minutes each.

Block rules come in all four types. Allow Lists come as Immediate or Scheduled; turn on Block all apps to block all. (The apps that will be excluded are the ones on your Screen Time Always Allowed list in iOS Settings.)

Allow Lists and Strict are part of Kazeway Pro. Every Block rule type is free, with no limit on how many rules you create.

Almost always one of these:

• Screen Time permission. Kazeway can't block anything without it. Check iOS Settings and make sure access is granted.
• Nothing chosen. A Block rule needs apps, categories or website categories. An Allow List needs apps to allow, or Block all apps turned on.
• The rule isn't on, or it isn't time yet. Scheduled rules run themselves, but only inside their window — outside it, nothing happens, and that's correct. A Time Limit blocks only once its limit is reached.
• Your device is almost out of storage. With very little space free, iOS can fail to start or stop a block on time. Kazeway shows a banner on the Block tab when this happens; freeing some space fixes it.
• The apps are on your Screen Time Always Allowed list in iOS Settings.

If none of those explain it, email us and say which rule and which app — that's usually enough to spot it.

Yes, by category. Kazeway can block categories of websites alongside apps in the same rule.

To block all websites, use an Allow List: it blocks all web content. You will need to select some apps to allow or turn on Block all apps. An Allow List can't block websites alone. If you're only interested in blocking websites, create a Block rule and select your browser apps (e.g. Safari, Brave).

Strict is a Pro setting on a rule. While a strict rule is blocking, it has no breaks and no Stop until it ends.

For the same stretch, two things apply to the whole phone: apps can't be deleted — any app, Kazeway included — and the date and time can't be set by hand. The clock will still follow you across time zones — you just can't manually adjust it. When the phone is almost out of storage, deleting apps stays possible so you can free space.

A strict rule must leave at least an hour without blocking between one block and the next, so there is always a time to change it: the app won't save Strict on a schedule that blocks all day every day, on a Time Limit under an hour, or on an Immediate Block with no end. Every type can be strict except Open Limit.

If your subscription ends while a strict rule is blocking, it stays strict until that block ends. From its next start it blocks as an ordinary rule, with Stop and any breaks it has, and Strict comes back if you subscribe again.

One pass a week that ends every strict rule that is blocking, all at once — for the day something comes up that you couldn't have planned for.

It's in the app under Settings → Emergency Pass, behind the same 5-second breathing gate. Once used, it comes back at midnight seven days later: use it on a Thursday and it's back the following Thursday.

The pass belongs to the phone, not to a rule or to your account. Each device has its own, and neither deleting the app nor Delete All Data gives you a new one.

One. Kazeway can only block anything because you gave it Screen Time access, and iOS lets you take that back. Turning off Kazeway's Screen Time access in iOS Settings removes all of its blocking at once — strict rules, their limits on deleting apps and changing the time, and every other rule.

If you want that way closed too, ask someone you trust to set a Screen Time passcode in iOS Settings and keep it to themselves. Apple describes it as a passcode that secures Screen Time settings.

We'd rather you never need this. It's here so you know where the exit is in a real emergency.

A break lifts a running rule's block for a few minutes — on terms you set in advance, not in the moment.

When you build a rule you set two things: how many breaks it allows each day, and how long each one lasts. To take one, tap the rule's card under Active or its switch, breathe through the 5-second gate, and choose the break. When the time is up the block returns on its own; there is nothing to remember and nothing to press.

The count is a budget. Once it's spent, the rule blocks without interruption until it ends. A Time Limit offers its breaks only after the limit is reached. An Open Limit's breaks are called opens — they're the point of that rule. A strict rule has none while it blocks.

Every day at midnight, so a Scheduled rule that runs every night gives you the same number each night rather than a lifetime total. Switching a rule off and on again doesn't refill them.

An Immediate Block is the exception: each time you start one, it begins with its full allowance.

No. A running rule can't be edited, and that's the point: giving yourself more breaks while it's blocking is exactly the impulse the gate exists to slow down. Stop it first, behind the breathing gate, or change it once it has ended.

Usually not. Each iPhone or iPad backs up its own rules to your private iCloud, and reinstalling on the same device brings them back with their names, schedules, break settings, and their app and category choices, along with your goal settings and app settings.

Two things don't come back: whether each rule was switched on, and Screen Time permission, which you grant again. Rules return switched off.

A reinstall starts fresh if you were signed out of iCloud, or had turned Configuration Backup off in Settings.

No. Each device keeps its own rules, goals and settings, and a change on one doesn't reach another. Each also backs up on its own, to your private iCloud, so a reinstall on that device brings its setup back.

A backup holds your rules — names, schedules, time limits, break settings, app choices and whether a rule is strict — your goal settings, and your app settings, like time format, display language and which notifications you get.

It leaves out your usage statistics and insights, whether a rule is switched on or running, the breaks used today and the emergency pass.

Backup is on by default. You can turn it off in the app under Settings → Configuration Backup, which also deletes that device's backup.

If you move your data across — with Apple's transfer from your old iPhone, or by restoring a backup of it — your rules, goals and settings come with it. Every rule arrives switched off, so you turn on the ones you want.

If you set the new iPhone up from scratch, Kazeway starts fresh, as it would on any new device.

Either way, your goal, your challenge and your streaks start fresh. They are worked out from that phone's own Screen Time history, and a new device does not have one yet.

Your Pro subscription carries over too. If the app shows you as free, tap Restore Purchases in its Settings.

No. Turning a rule on applies to the device you turned it on from, and each device enforces its own blocking. An Immediate Block you start on your iPhone doesn't shield your iPad.

No. Without it there's no backup, so a reinstall starts fresh, but everything else works exactly the same. Blocking, insights and breaks are all local.

The bar fills as you use your phone. The goal is to never fill that bar completely. The challenge is to use your device less than a certain threshold to challenge yourself. All is explained below:

The goal adapts to your phone usage patterns:

• Your usual — the median of your past 29 days that have screen time data. A day without any screen time data is left out. Today is also left out as it's incomplete. Line these days up lightest to heaviest and take the middle one. That's the median. We're not using the average so that one long flight doesn't skew it. This is recalculated daily.
• Your goal — "your usual" minus a tenth, to the nearest 15 minutes. A 10h usual gives a 9h goal. Every day you finish under this goal adds one to the counter next to the yellow flame . The smallest this value will ever be is 2h.
• Your challenge — "your usual", halved. A 10h usual gives 5h. Finish under that and the counter next to the orange flame grows. The smallest this value will ever be is 2h.

Both your goal and your challenge move as your usage moves. Going over resets that streak to zero. If your phone is new or you just enabled screen time data, your goal is 4 hours and your challenge is 2 hours. These values will remain the same until your history has at least 7 days with screen time data.

No. Apple's Screen Time framework is built so the app that displays your usage cannot transmit it anywhere. It is read on your device, shown to you, and never leaves. We have no way to see it.

Your rules back up to your private iCloud container, which is Apple's storage rather than ours — we can't read that either.

The privacy policy has the full detail, including what our subscription provider receives.

In the app, go to Settings and scroll to Delete All Data. It removes your rules, goals and settings from this device, along with its iCloud backup, and returns the app to a fresh start.

It isn't available while a rule is running — Stop it first. A strict rule stops only when it ends, or with the emergency pass.

It covers one device at a time, so to delete everything, use it on each device where you have Kazeway. A device you no longer have can be erased remotely through your Apple Account, and Kazeway's iCloud data, every device's backup included, can be removed in your Apple Account settings.

It cannot be undone, your subscription is not affected, and it doesn't reset the emergency pass.

Everything that makes blocking hold is free: unlimited rules of every Block type, schedules, time limits, opens, breaks, and the breathing gate before Stop. Insights show you today and yesterday.

Kazeway Pro adds three things — Allow Lists, Strict rules with the weekly emergency pass, and your full Insights history: up to 30 days, in Day, Week and Month views.

The pricing page has the full comparison.

New subscribers get a free trial before the first charge. You'll see the exact length and price on the purchase screen, and Apple shows them again in its own confirmation sheet before anything is charged.

Cancel any time during the trial and you won't be billed. Each Apple Account is eligible for one trial.

Through Apple, not through us — cancel it in iOS Settings, where Apple keeps your subscriptions. We never see or handle your payment details, so cancellation lives entirely in Apple's hands.

Your Pro features stay active until the end of the period you already paid for.

Kazeway is currently iOS only (iPhones and iPads). Your subscription belongs to your Apple Account, not to the app, so any iOS device signed in to the same account has it.

If you are signed in to iCloud, this happens on its own. Your subscription is tied to an identifier Apple creates for your Apple Account, so a new iPhone or a fresh install picks it up at launch without you doing anything.

If the app still shows you as free, open Settings in the app and tap Restore Purchases under Subscription — it's on the upgrade screen too.

Two things. "Hey Siri, activate a rule in Kazeway" activates a rule by name, and "Hey Siri, what's blocking in Kazeway?" tells you which rules are running.

There is deliberately no command to Stop one. A voice shortcut that could easily undo your commitment would defeat the purpose. If the rule is strict, Siri says so before it starts.