Widget not appearing or showing blank

Widgets are drawn by iOS on the app's behalf, on the system's schedule. When one goes blank or vanishes, it is nearly always the system's own widget cache rather than anything wrong with your events.

There are two different problems here, with different fixes. Pick the one that matches what you are seeing.

On an iPad Lock Screen? A bug in current versions of iPadOS stops Lock Screen widgets loading on iPad: they stay as grey placeholder boxes whatever you try, including reinstalling. Neither section below will help with that one. We have reported it to Apple. iPad Home Screen widgets work normally in the meantime.

Countdown is not in the widget gallery

If you cannot find the app at all when you go to add a widget, your events are safe. iOS keeps its own register of which apps offer widgets, and it sometimes loses an entry after an update.

1. Check you are looking under the right name. In the widget gallery we are listed as Countdown, not Event Countdown, so look under C.
2. Restart your iPhone. Hold the side button and either volume button, slide to power off, wait about thirty seconds, then turn it back on. Open Countdown once, give it a few seconds, then look at the gallery again. A restart is what makes iOS rebuild that register, and on its own it fixes this most of the time.
3. Offload the app. Go to Settings, General, iPhone Storage, tap Countdown, then tap Offload App. When it has finished, tap Reinstall App on the same screen. This reinstalls the app and its widgets while keeping every one of your countdowns, and it will not sign you out.
4. Reinstall the app. If offloading did not do it, delete Countdown and install it again from the App Store. Your events are stored on your account rather than only on the phone, so signing back in brings them all back. If you cannot remember your password, use Forgot Password on the sign in screen and we will email you a reset link.

While you are on the iPhone Storage screen, it is worth checking whether Offload Unused Apps is switched on. If iOS has offloaded Countdown at some point to save space, the icon stays on your Home Screen but its widgets disappear from the gallery, which looks exactly like this problem.

A widget is blank, stuck or out of date

The app is in the gallery and the widget is on your screen, but it is empty or showing the wrong thing. Work down this ladder; most cases are fixed by step 2.

1. Open the app. Widgets refresh their data when the app runs. Check your events are there; if the app looks right, the widget will follow.
2. Remove and re-add the widget. Touch and hold the widget, tap Remove Widget, then add it again from the gallery. This forces iOS to rebuild it.
3. Restart your iPhone. The widget system itself can wedge; a restart clears it.
4. Check the widget's event still exists. A widget pinned to a deleted event has nothing to show. Edit the widget (touch and hold, then Edit Widget) and pick an event.
5. Premium widgets need Premium. The Live Countdown widget, Lock Screen widgets and the multi event grid are part of Premium. If a subscription lapsed, those widgets stop updating. See What Premium includes.

Still stuck?

Contact us with your iPhone model, iOS version and which widget size you added. In the app, Settings then Contact Support attaches the details automatically.