FAQ

Can I make a donation?

If you love the app and feel like it deserves more than its base price and subscription price, then you can always make a donation through PayPal or Buy Me a Coffee (best for less than £15). Every donation is tremendously appreciated!

My subscription features are not loading

If you’re facing issues with subscription renewal, you may simply need to restore the subscription in the app. Apple fairly aggressively notifies an app when a subscription has lapsed, but Apple doesn’t always notify the app when the subscription period has been extended. To restore the subscription in the app go to the Setting tab, and tap on the “Subscribe” button at the top. On this subscription page there is a link below the two big buttons that reads “Restore Purchases”. Tap this link if you have an active subscription that isn’t working.

On iOS the subscription can be shared with others in your family. To set up Family Sharing follow the instructions outlined on this Apple support page. Similar as above, when making changes to your family the other family members can restore the subscription within the app.

On iOS the app fully supports subscription sharing through Family Sharing. To set up Family Sharing follow the instructions outlined on this Apple support page.

Google doesn’t allow subscription sharing of app subscriptions on Android (except for their own subscriptions). A possible workaround is to add your account to the device of your partner/child. When you install Octopus Watch on your account on their device, they will also have access to it through their account. Instructions on how to add your account to their device can be found here. This is a workaround that is currently not blocked by Google. If you have problems with this method only Google can assist you further.

The Rates chart isn’t auto-scaling!

This is by design. The lower and upper limit of the chart on the Rates tab is fixed. This lower and upper limit only ever changes with a major version update. The benefit of a fixed scale is that it makes the contents glanceable; at a glance you can see if prices are high or low. There is no need to hunt down the scale or figure out the axis labels. The maximum is determined by looking at the highest rate of the past running year (ignoring some of the extremes), and adding a buffer of ~20% to it. The same method is used to fix the lower limit. The lower limit is never higher than -5p/kWh. By design, when prices drop very low or go very high the values will go beyond the chart—prices, quite literally, are off the charts!

I have both an iOS and Android device, do I need to pay twice?

Yes. As you can imagine Apple and Google do not share data with each other on app purchases and subscriptions. Each platform is also independently developed and maintained, so it quite literally takes twice as long to create both an iOS and Android version of the app. As such, if you want to use Octopus Watch on both platforms you will need to pay on both platforms.

I have missing data

Missing data in the History tab is one of the most common problems. A dedicated page describes what causes missing data and how Octopus Watch deals with missing and incomplete data.

My data is fetched slower than [app/website]

Octopus Watch prides itself on accuracy. One of the ways it guarantees this is by ensuring that your data for a given day is only pulled in when your data is complete. This means that the app only pulls in your data when all typical 48 records (one for each half hour) are present. Other apps and websites may pull in your data before it is complete and pad missing entires with zeros. This leads to incorrect calculations and changing totals, which Octopus Watch strictly avoids. Particularly for modern SMETS2 meters it is common to see that early on in the day only 46 records are fetched during summer time. The missing 2 records are retrieved by the third-party data collector (DCC) later in the day.

My export is fetched slower than my import

Octopus Watch fetches your export meter data immediately after it retrieved the import meter data for the given day. If your export meter data is not available yet it simply means that your export meter data is not complete yet (see above). It is common for the export meter data to be fetched/completed later in the day than your import meter data.

My data is fetched slower during the summer

The data for SMETS2 meters is commonly collected at midnight GMT. During British Summer Time (BST) this means that the data that is collected and the data for a day are misaligned (46 records apply to one day, 2 apply to another). As such, data during BST times is often delayed until the missing records are collected by the third-party data collector (DCC).

My Economy 7 times are wrong

The consumption data while you are on an Economy 7 tariff are handled in a completely different way than any other tariff due to regulatory requirements. Two special registers on your meter are used exclusively by Economy 7 and the time at which these registers switch over is not shared through the Octopus Energy API. The Octopus Watch app follows the official guidelines from Octopus Energy. However, if you are on an Economy 7 tariff, only your own meter knows the exact times at which you move from peak to off-peak tariff and these times may vary wildly from the ones shown in the app.

Does the app support Intelligent Octopus?

No. The Intelligent Octopus tariff has default off-peak and peak times. However, the off-peak times can change from day to day (and from user to user?). The Octopus Energy API is not making the information available to know when these times were shifted historically. Specifically, Octopus Energy announces despatch times (when rates are lower) through their API. They then actively delete this information. That’s very unfortunate, as Octopus Watch needs this historic data, e.g. it needs to know the dispatch times a week, a month, a year ago for accurate calculations. The implications for the app are as follows:

the app does not show the “intelligent” label: since Intelligent Octopus is not supported, your tariff will show up either without a label or with the “fixed” label in the History tab.
the app may show incorrect rates: the app will show the rates only for the default times. The app is unaware of any shifted off-peak times and will not show you the correct rates for these shifted off-peak times.
the app may show incorrect daily totals: whenever the off-peak times are shifted, the app will not be aware of this and will calculate the daily totals based on the default off-peak times. This means that the daily totals will be incorrect on these days.

I am travelling. Which times will I see?

Octopus Watch will remain locked to the UK time zone, regardless of the settings on your device. This means you’ll still see your rates at their normal UK times, which is where you are using the energy.

Widgets are not updating

Widgets function independently of the main app, and can be frozen by iOS and Android to conserve battery. A widget can request an update but it isn’t guaranteed one. How much time the widget gets to run depends on the amount of time the main app is active. For example, if you never use the Octopus Watch app, the widget will eventually stop updating. To make sure the widget stays up-to-date make sure you user the app throughout the day.

Actively use the app!

Both iOS and Android freeze a widget indefinitely if the parent app is never used. The more you use Octopus Watch, the more the widget gets allotted time to pull in the new rates.

Certain Android versions and custom launchers aggressively optimize battery usage, potentially causing widgets to stop updating. For these cases, disable battery optimizations for Octopus Watch. This won’t drain your battery, as Octopus Watch is well-optimized.

Android: Disable battery optimisation

Some custom Android versions have overly aggressive battery optimisation which breaks widgets. Disable battery optimisation for Octopus Watch if you want to use the widget.