Support
Need a hand with Bento? Read the common questions below, and if your answer isn't there, just send an email.
Bento is a one-person project. Most messages get a reply within a few business days. Please include your iOS version and a sentence about what you were doing when the issue happened.
Common Questions
I bought Bento Pro on another iPhone / iPad. How do I get it on this device?
Open Bento, tap the gear icon in the top right, and tap Restore Purchase in the Pro section. As long as you're signed into the same Apple ID that bought Bento Pro, the unlock will appear immediately. No re-purchase, no extra cost.
I bought Bento Pro and the puzzles are still locked.
Make sure your iPhone is online (the App Store needs to confirm the purchase with Apple), then tap Settings → Bento Pro → Restore Purchase. If that doesn't help, fully quit Bento (swipe up on the app preview from the App Switcher) and reopen it. If you're still stuck after that, please send an email — include the Apple ID you bought Bento Pro on so we can verify the purchase.
How do I request a refund?
Refunds for in-app purchases are handled by Apple, not by us. Visit reportaproblem.apple.com, sign in with the Apple ID that purchased Bento Pro, find the transaction, and tap Report a Problem. Apple decides the outcome and processes the refund directly.
What's Kids Mode and how do I use it?
Kids Mode is a separate puzzle catalogue with smaller 4×4 and 6×6 grids designed for teaching the Killer Sudoku rules to a young learner. Toggle it on the home screen using the pill between the Daily Puzzle card and the difficulty grid. Kids Mode also uses brighter colors, a more forgiving star score, and gives you 5 hints per puzzle (instead of 3) so kids can experiment without getting punished for it.
I'm new to Killer Sudoku. How do the cages work?
Open Bento and tap the gear icon → How to Play. The first-launch tutorial walks through the rules: cages are dashed groups with a small sum in the corner; the digits you put in a cage must add up to that sum, with no number repeating inside a cage. Same row/column/box rules as classic Sudoku otherwise.
Can I sync my progress between my iPhone and iPad?
Bento doesn't currently sync between devices. Your progress lives entirely on each device. If you have iCloud Backup enabled in iOS Settings, your gameplay state will be included in your encrypted device backup — but it won't auto-sync between devices. Cross-device sync is on the roadmap for a future update.
I think I found a bug, or a puzzle that doesn't have a solution.
Sorry about that — please send an email and include the puzzle's ID (visible in the picker as E1, M3, K-H7, etc.) along with what happened. Every puzzle in Bento is generated and checked for a unique solution, so a real broken puzzle is a serious bug we'd want to fix immediately.
Bento doesn't ask for any permissions. Is that on purpose?
Yes. Bento doesn't access your camera, microphone, photos, contacts, location, or any other system permission. There's no account, no analytics SDK, no ads, no tracking. Everything runs on your device. See the Privacy Policy for the full breakdown.
Will there be more puzzles, or new modes, in future updates?
Yes — the catalogue will grow over time, and there's a roadmap that includes a Daily Puzzle widget for the Home Screen, more difficulty fine-tuning, and (eventually) sibling Bento puzzle apps using a shared engine. Updates are free for everyone who owns Bento Pro; new puzzles unlocked by Pro stay free for Pro owners.
Suggestions, Compliments, Complaints
Bento is shaped by the people who play it. If you've got a feature idea, a UX nit, or you just want to say something nice (or not), drop a line. Every email is read.