e Ed Caspersen

Troubleshooting

Quick answers to the most common questions. If your issue isn’t here, email nospam@edcaspersen.com with a short description and what device / iOS version you’re on.

The tuner isn’t detecting my pitch

  1. Check that microphone permission is granted. Open iOS Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone and confirm Centimental is toggled on. If it’s off, toggle on and relaunch.
  2. In Centimental, go to Settings → Audio Input and confirm the “Active Input” reads a real device.
  3. If the input looks right but notes still don’t register, open Settings → Attack Mute → Off. The mute can swallow very soft plucks on some instruments.

Detection is jumpy on low strings

Low E on guitar and low B on a 5-string bass are physically the hardest pitches to detect cleanly. Their fundamentals are below ~80 Hz where acoustic energy is quiet and overtones are louder than the fundamental.

  • Try Settings → Picking Style → Standard (Pick). A firmer strum helps the pitch detector find the fundamental faster.
  • Raise Settings → Noise Gate if you’re in a loud room. The threshold filters out background noise that can confuse low-string detection.
  • If you’re on the iPhone’s built-in mic, consider plugging in a USB-C audio interface. Direct signal from the pickup is dramatically cleaner than mic’d sound.

The wrong string is getting detected

Sympathetic resonance (other strings vibrating in sympathy with the one you plucked) can fool auto-switching.

  • Tap the string circle for the string you want to tune. This manually selects it as the active target and suppresses auto-switching for a moment.
  • Damp the other strings with your fretting hand while you tune.

My lock haptic isn’t firing

  1. Make sure Settings → Lock Feedback → Haptic is on.
  2. Pick a haptic style: Medium or Heavy are the most reliably felt. Light is genuinely subtle on newer iPhones.
  3. Tap Test Haptic Now to preview.
  4. If Test works but lock haptics don’t, silent mode or a Focus profile may be suppressing system haptics. iOS 17 and later routes many haptics through the audio ducking system.

Audio cuts out when I plug in a USB-C interface

Centimental handles USB-C audio route changes automatically, but some interfaces need a few seconds to negotiate sample rate and settle.

  • Wait ~3 seconds after plugging in. If nothing happens, go to Settings → Audio Input and tap Stop Tuner → Start Tuner to force a fresh engine startup.
  • Some interfaces default to 96 kHz on first connect. Centimental works at 44.1 or 48 kHz. If your interface has a sample-rate switch, try the lower setting.

iCloud sync isn’t working across devices

  • iCloud sync is off by default. Turn it on under Settings → Sync on every device you want to share preferences across.
  • Confirm both devices are signed in to the same iCloud account.
  • Confirm iCloud Drive is enabled: iOS Settings → your Apple ID (top of Settings) → iCloud → iCloud Drive.
  • KVS sync propagation can take a few seconds on Wi-Fi, up to a minute on cellular. It’s not instant.
  • Try force-quitting and relaunching the app on the receiving device. Apps occasionally miss a sync notification if they’ve been backgrounded for a long time.

A custom tuning I made disappeared

Custom tunings are stored locally and (for Pro users) backed up to iCloud KVS. If a tuning vanishes:

  1. Force-quit and relaunch the app. iCloud sync occasionally needs a foreground event to fetch.
  2. Check the Strings tab on your other devices. If the tuning’s there, a sync will bring it back to the device that “lost” it.
  3. Centimental uses UUID-based union merge when two devices have different tunings offline, so in normal operation no tuning should be lost, even during offline edits. If you have a genuinely missing tuning, please email nospam@edcaspersen.com with your Apple ID email and I’ll investigate.

The Watch app can’t find my custom tuning

The Watch syncs your custom tuning library from the iPhone via WatchConnectivity. If a custom tuning selected on iPhone doesn’t appear on Watch:

  1. Confirm both devices have Centimental Pro.
  2. Open the iPhone app. The moment the iPhone app is in the foreground, pending WatchConnectivity transfers flush.
  3. On the Watch, force-quit and relaunch the app (digital crown → app switcher → swipe right on Centimental → X).
  4. If nothing works, unpair and re-pair in the iPhone Watch app.

The app crashes on launch

If a crash happens before the UI appears, iOS’s persistent store may have been corrupted (power loss during a write, interrupted update). Centimental automatically recovers with an in-memory fallback, but preferences won’t persist until the store heals.

  • Force-quit the app and relaunch. SwiftData’s recovery path creates a fresh persistent store.
  • If the problem persists, uninstall and reinstall. If iCloud sync was enabled before, your custom tunings will re-sync on first launch (re-enable the toggle if needed).

How do I reset everything?

Delete the app and reinstall. All local preferences, favorites, and custom tunings are wiped. If iCloud sync is enabled, iCloud values will still be there and resync on first launch. To truly start fresh, turn off iCloud sync from Settings → Sync first, then delete and reinstall.

Feature requests and bugs

Email nospam@edcaspersen.com. Include:

  • What you expected to happen
  • What actually happened
  • Device model and iOS version (iOS Settings → General → About)
  • Centimental version and build (Settings → About → Version)

Short, specific reports are much easier to act on than vague ones. Screenshots help a lot.

Still stuck? Email nospam@edcaspersen.com.