Help & guides
Short, plain answers to how the app works. If what you need isn't here, write to us — a real person reads every message.
WipCount hasn't been released yet. These guides describe how the app works and will be updated with real screenshots the moment it's in the stores.
Getting started
Install WipCount from the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store, open it, and you're in. There is no sign-up form, no email address to hand over and no card to enter. The first month is free and everything is switched on.
The first screen is your project list. It starts empty — the only thing on it is the Import a pattern button.
Bringing a pattern in
Tap Import a pattern and pick the file from your phone or tablet. WipCount reads the chart out of the file: the grid, the symbols and the colour key.
Which files work
| File | Works? |
|---|---|
| A PDF chart from your designer | Yes — this is the usual one |
| A PDF made for stitching apps (often labelled so in the shop) | Yes, and it reads most reliably |
| An OXS file | Yes |
| A photo or scan of a paper chart | No |
| A picture of the finished design | No — that's not a chart |
Some designers include two PDFs with a pattern: a full one to read and print, and a chart-only one meant for apps. If you have both, import the chart-only version.
If a pattern won't import
Every publisher lays their PDFs out differently, and we add support for more of them all the time. If yours doesn't come in properly, please tell us which designer it's from — that's genuinely how the list grows.
Please don't email us the pattern file unless we ask. It's the designer's work and you paid for it. Telling us the designer's name and the pattern name is enough to start with.
Marking off stitches
Open a pattern and you'll see the chart. Pinch with two fingers to zoom in and out, and drag with one finger to move around. Zoom right in when you're stitching and pull back when you want to see the whole thing.
- To mark a square done — tap it. It fills in with your chosen colour.
- To frog a square — switch to the eraser and tap it again. The mark comes off and the square goes back to plain, exactly as it does on your fabric.
- To see only what you've done — switch to completed view. The unfinished squares grey out, so you can see the picture you've made so far.
You can change the colour your completed squares are marked in, to whatever is easiest on your eyes.
There is no Save button. Every tap is saved straight away. You can close the app, run the battery flat, or lose signal in the middle of a row — your stitching is already safe on the device.
Working one colour at a time
Most stitchers work a whole colour at a time. Pick the colour from the list — each one shows its symbol, its number and its name, like × 310 Black — and the chart shows just that thread. Everything else steps out of the way until you switch.
The colour list also tells you which brand each colour belongs to — DMC, Anchor and others — and lets you change a colour if you're substituting a different thread from your stash.
Your progress and history
Every project keeps track of:
- How far through you are, as a percentage
- The total number of stitches you've completed
- How many you've stitched today
The percentage also shows on your project list, so you can see at a glance where every WIP stands.
The History page — all your projects together
Those figures are for one project at a time. The History page adds up everything you're stitching, so you can see your work as a whole:
- Your running total — every stitch you have made in WipCount, across all your projects
- A month at a time — step back through the months, or jump straight to any month and year
- Day by day within that month, showing which project each bit of stitching belonged to
So if you picked up three different projects over the weekend, you can see the lot together rather than opening each one to add it up yourself.
It is worked out from the chart you have imported. For a pattern that comes out in parts, that means the parts released so far — so 100% means you're up to date, not that the whole design is finished. Add the next instalment and the percentage is worked out again against the bigger chart.
Folders, tags and finding things
Once you have more than a handful of projects, the list gets long. You can:
- Make folders and move projects into them, however suits you
- Tag a project with any label you like
- Mark the ones you love as favourites
- Search by name, or filter to finished, in progress, or favourites
The decisions wheel
Can't choose what to stitch next? Put your projects on the wheel, give it a spin, and let it decide for you. They're already in the app, so there's nothing to type in.
Tap the button in the top corner to choose which projects go on. Everything is on the wheel to begin with, and you can tick them on and off, clear the lot, or tap In progress to load just the ones you've already started.
Working through your WIPs, one at a time
In the same place there's a switch — "Remove each project after it's picked". It's off to begin with, so the wheel can land on the same project again and again if that's what you want.
Turn it on and each winner comes off the wheel once it's been picked, so you work through everything with no repeats. When you've been all the way round, Start again puts them all back.
The wheel remembers where you're up to, so you can work through your WIPs over weeks rather than in one sitting. Close the app and come back — the projects still waiting to be picked are exactly as you left them.
Backup, sync and a new phone or tablet
Your stitching is saved on your device first, always. Backup happens quietly on top of that — when you leave a pattern, when you close the app, and every few minutes while you're stitching. No internet? It waits and sends later. The app never stops to ask.
What actually gets backed up
Backup is part of the subscription.
- Free month: nothing is saved to the cloud. Your patterns and your stitching live on this phone and nowhere else. Lose the phone and it is gone — so export your progress now and then and keep the file somewhere safe
- Subscribed: both are saved — your pattern files and your stitching. Sign in on a new phone and everything comes back, with nothing to re-import
If you stop subscribing, we keep your backup for 12 months in case you come back. After that it is deleted. Delete your account and it goes straight away. Whatever is on your own phone is never touched — the phone is always the master copy.
Pattern files are large, so WipCount sends them over WiFi by default and lets your stitching go first. That way an evening's work is never stuck behind a chart.
What the little badge on each project means
| Badge | What it means |
|---|---|
| Backed up | Safely saved in the cloud |
| Waiting for internet | Saved on this device, not sent yet |
| Backing up… | Sending now |
| Couldn't back up | Something's wrong — tap it to see what |
| No badge at all | You're not signed in, so there's nothing to report |
Backup only protects you if you're signed in and subscribed. Without that there's nothing tying your stitching to you rather than to that particular device — so if it is lost or broken, your progress can't be recovered. During your free month, export your progress every so often and keep the file somewhere safe.
Getting a new phone or tablet
Install WipCount on the new device, sign in with the same Google or Apple account, and your projects and progress come down to it. Your pattern files come back too, so there is nothing to find and re-import — your stitching appears first, and the charts follow behind over WiFi. Sign in on both devices and they stay in step from then on.
Stitched on two devices while they were both offline? Nothing is lost. Every square you tap is saved on its own, with the time it happened, so the two devices are added together rather than one replacing the other — a square finished on either counts as finished.
They also never have to be online at the same time. Each device sends its stitches whenever it next has internet, and it doesn't matter which one goes first.
Keeping your own copy
You can export your progress to a file at any time and keep it wherever you like. Importing that file puts your completed stitches back onto the pattern.
Deleting a project
Deleting removes a project from every device and from the cloud. Because that can undo months of work in one tap, deleted projects sit in Recently deleted for 30 days first, so you can bring one back if you didn't mean to delete it.
The free month and subscribing
You get a full month with everything switched on, and we don't ask you for anything to start using WipCount.
At the end of the month, if you haven't subscribed, the app goes read-only. That means you can still open every pattern, see everything you've stitched, and export your progress — you just can't mark new squares. Nothing is deleted and nothing is hidden.
Subscribing is handled by Google Play or the App Store, not by us, so your card details never come near WipCount. To cancel, you use the same store — see the terms for where to find it.
I paid on my Android phone — does my iPad work too?
Yes, as long as you're signed in on both. The two stores don't talk to each other, so we record your subscription against your account rather than against the store you bought it from. Sign in and you're covered wherever you are.
When something goes wrong
A pattern imported, but the chart looks wrong
Most often the wrong PDF was picked — the printable one rather than the chart-only one. Try the other file if the designer supplied two. If it still looks wrong, tell us the designer and pattern name.
My percentage looks wrong
The percentage counts every stitch in the chart you imported, including the ones you haven't started.
On a pattern that is published in parts, the chart only holds what has been released. So the percentage tells you how far you are through the parts you have — not through the finished design, which nobody can count yet. When the next instalment comes out and you add it, the total grows and your percentage is worked out against the larger chart.
It says "Couldn't back up"
Tap the badge and it will tell you why. Nearly always it's no internet, or being signed out. Your stitching is still safe on the device either way.
Something else
Write to us. Tell us what you were doing and what happened, and include the app version from the About page if you can find it — it saves us a round of questions.