Need a hand?

Email support+sunline@lotabytes.com. Bug reports go to bugs+sunline@lotabytes.com.

Two addresses.

General support

support+sunline@lotabytes.com

Questions, feature requests, purchase and licence issues, anything else. A short description of what you're trying to do is always more useful than a long one.

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Bug reports

bugs+sunline@lotabytes.com

What you were doing, what you expected, what happened instead, plus your device and OS (e.g. "iPhone 13, iOS 17.4"). A screenshot helps if it's a visual issue. Crashes are reported automatically — a short description of what triggered the crash is still useful.

Quick answers.

Using the app

How do I change my location?

Three ways. Long-press the map anywhere and Sunline tries to reverse-geocode the point (or asks you to type a country and city if it can't). Or open Settings → Location and Time and pick a country and city from the autocomplete lists. Or, on mobile, grant location permission on first launch and the app sets it from GPS.

How do I switch between flat map and globe?

On touch: tap the map with two fingers. On desktop: press M. Or tap the map and use the globe / flat icon in the top-right controls.

Why are the cloud cover and political time zones grey-out / refusing to enable?

Both are Premium features (along with seasonal maps, the simulation shuttle, and the full Cloud Tuning panel). On the free tier the toggle briefly flashes when you try to enable it and the setting is not changed. See Premium for what's included and how to upgrade.

The map looks letterboxed on my laptop / monitor — what's that?

The flat map has a fixed 2:1 aspect; if your window's aspect doesn't match, the unused space is empty. Tap the map and press the Snap window to correct map aspect icon in the top-right controls — the window resizes to fit the map exactly. Switching to the globe view also fills any aspect naturally.

The animation is choppy. What can I do?

Sunline paces itself automatically — under sustained load it lowers its own frame rate (a small orange FPS box appears bottom-left while it does; long-press it for details). Things that also help: pick a slower time-lapse speed, turn off Show Seconds in the clock settings, and on mobile, turn off Show Political Timezones if it's on (these are drawn on the CPU).

Premium & purchases

How much is Premium?

The price varies by country (Apple and Google handle local pricing). Open Settings → Advanced in the app and the Upgrade to Premium button shows your local price once the store has finished loading.

Is Premium a subscription?

No, it's a one-time purchase. Once you've bought it, it stays bought.

I bought Premium but it didn't unlock.

If the licence says Purchase pending approval, that's a parental-approval or deferred-payment hold — features unlock automatically once approval comes through. Otherwise, tap Restore Purchases in Settings → Advanced; that re-queries the store. If it still doesn't unlock, email support+sunline@lotabytes.com with your transaction receipt and we'll sort it.

Can I use my Premium on iOS and Android both?

Apple and Google run separate purchase systems and don't share entitlements, so a purchase made on iOS unlocks Premium on Apple devices and a purchase made on Android unlocks it on Google-account devices. This isn't something the app can route around.

Can I get Premium on desktop?

Not in the current desktop builds — they don't offer in-app purchase. The full free experience is on desktop; for Premium today, the same Apple ID or Google account on a mobile device works.

Privacy, accounts, data

Do I need an account to use Sunline?

No. Sunline doesn't have accounts. There's nothing to sign up for, nothing to log in to.

What data does Sunline collect?

The only piece of personal information that ever leaves your device is your location — and only if you've granted location permission, only when you do something that needs it (look up a city, long-press the map), and only ephemerally: the third-party geocoder processes the request and doesn't retain it. Beyond that we send anonymous crash reports (Sentry) and anonymous product analytics (PostHog), the latter tagged with a randomly generated identifier whose only purpose is to aggregate events from the same install and which can't be tied back to a physical device or person. No accounts, no advertising IDs, no third-party trackers. The full breakdown is on the Privacy policy page.

Does Sunline work offline?

Mostly, yes. The Sunline is computed locally from your device clock; the day-night map, city lights, location marker, time zones, clock, and simulation all work without a network connection. The things that need a network are: looking up countries and cities in Settings, reverse-geocoding a long-press, downloading higher-resolution map tiers when you zoom, and (Premium) refreshing daily cloud cover.