Frequently asked questions

I submitted a payment, so why is my account still expired?

Paying with third-party systems like PayPal or Apple Pay involves a few steps, and people sometimes stop before reaching the last step. You can confirm whether a payment was submitted by looking at the Payment History list on the Admin > Billing page. If no recent payment appears there, please try again and don't stop until the page reloads with a blue confirmation message at the top.

If you have multiple accounts, you can also make sure you are renewing the account that is due for renewal. You can compare the account name shown in your billing notification email to the account name shown on the Admin > Account page of the website to see if you're logged into the right account.

How can I cancel my account?

Unless you made a payment on the BandHelper website and selected the Auto-Renew option, BandHelper does not auto-renew automatically. If you don't wish to continue the service, you can simply do nothing and let it expire. If you did make a payment and turned on Auto-Renew, you can go to the Admin > Billing page and click the Auto-Renew Stop button. You can also completely delete your account with the Delete button on the Admin > Billing page. That page shows your expiration date, auto-renew status and, if your account is already expired, the date it will be automatically deleted.

Why does the app icon have a red numbered badge?

A numbered badge on the app icon means you have items waiting for you to act upon. You can view these by opening the app, clicking the projects with an alert icon next to their names, then clicking the alert icon in the top toolbar. (The alert icon will be hidden if you turned off Settings > Appearance > Top Toolbar Buttons > Action Items.) Or you can log into the website, switch to the projects with an alert icon next to their names, and click the modules in the main menu with an alert icon next to their names.

Why doesn't swiping to change songs work reliably?

To change songs by swiping, you must swipe within 10 degrees of horizontal, at least a half inch in distance, within a tenth of a second. That's not excessively straight, far or fast, but it won't work if you swipe at an angle or for a very short distance.

Alternatively, you can edit your layout and add Next / Previous buttons to change songs with a tap, or go to Settings > App Control to assign a two- or three-fingered tap to the Select Next Song action. Or you can change songs with a remote foot switch or MIDI controller.

How can I see the total duration of my set list?

BandHelper will automatically show the total duration of your set list at the top of the main window, and the duration of each set in the set headings, but only if you've entered a duration for every song in your set list. If you're not seeing the totals, please check each of your songs to make sure a duration is set (or enter a default duration in the set list details window).

When I add a song to a set list, it isn't saved. How can I save the songs I add to a set list?

Are you using the Quick Add button in the set list view to add one song at a time? Those changes are only saved if Settings > General Settings > Save Quick Added Songs is turned on.

That button is meant for quickly adding a song during a show when you get a request or want to deviate from your set list. To build or edit a set list, you should use the Edit Songs button in the set list menu instead. Then you can add more than one song at a time, and your changes will always be saved when you leave that page.

How can I add a medley or a short sequence of songs when building a set list?

To indicate a medley or a sequence of songs performed with minimal gap between them, you can click the Link Songs button when adding songs to your set list, then drag the link between two songs. These linked songs will then appear grouped together when you view or share a set list.

If you frequently play the same sequences of songs, you can copy a sequence from a previous set list to a new set list. While editing the set list's songs, click the Add Songs button, then click the Set Lists button, and select a previous set list that contains this sequence. Then click each of the songs and links in the sequence, in order, and click Save. The songs and links will be added to the new set list in the same order.

If you wish, you can set up a special set list containing all of your sequences and then use that whenever you want to add a sequence to a new set list.

To move a sequence of songs within a set list, you can click the options button (three dots) for the first song, select Move Multiple Songs, select the last song, then select the song you want to move these songs after.

How can I copy a set list to make a new set list?

You can copy an entire set list by tapping the Edit Details button for the set list, then tapping the Copy button, then entering a name for the new set list.

If you already have a new set list and just want to copy a portion of a previous set list into it, you can tap the Edit Songs button for the set list, then tap Add Songs, then tap Set Lists and select the previous set list. Then you will see all the songs from that previous set list, and you can tap the songs to add them to your new set list in the selected order.

How can I sort the list of set lists?

The list is sorted automatically by the set list name and event date. Set lists that don't include event info will appear in the top part of the list, sorted alphabetically. Set lists that do have event info will appear in the bottom part of the list, sorted from newest to oldest. So when you create a master song list or practice list, you can leave the date field empty (in Basic accounts) or attach an event (in Plus or Pro accounts) to keep it at the top of your list, but when you create a set list that you will perform on a specific date, you can select a date (in Basic accounts) or attach an event (in Plus or Pro accounts) to keep it in the dated part of the list.

How can I add songs or rearrange my set list while performing?

BandHelper offers a few ways to handle varying your set list during a performance:

• If you want to add a song from the set list view, you can tap the Quick Add button in the bottom toolbar and select a new song, which will be added to your set list after the currently selected song.
• If you want a way to play songs out of order and keep track of which ones you've played so far, you can edit your layout, tap the song list, tap its options button, and turn on the Song Number option. Then a numbered checkbox will appear next to each song in the set list view, and you can check them off as you go.
• If you want to completely jump around with no planned list, you can edit your layout and turn on the Song Number option, then open a Smart List, which you can configure to show all the songs in your database, sorted by the field of your choice. Then you can quickly jump around your complete song list, checking off songs as play them.
• If you don't even know what song you want to play next, you can let the app pick a song at random. First, go to the Edit Details page for your layout and make sure the Random Song button is enabled. Then view a set list or smart list and click the Random Song button (similar to a "shuffle" icon) in the bottom toolbar and BandHelper will select a random song from the list. Or click the Quick Add button and click the Random Song button there, and BandHelper will show you three random songs to choose from.

I've attached two documents to a song. How do I view the second one?

If you have attached multiple documents to a song, you can tap the right or left side of the current document to view adjacent documents.

If you want to jump directly to a particular document and your layout includes a document button, you can tap and hold the document button until a submenu appears, then tap the desired document name. In the set list view, you can also customize your layout to include Multiple Document Buttons in either the song list or the song info area, and then you'll see a separate button for each attached document. Or for hands-free access, you can map a remote control device like a foot switch or MIDI button to each of the first ten documents, from the Settings > Remote Control window, and then select a document with the press of a physical button. (This also works with multiple recordings or multiple MIDI presets attached to a song.)

If you simply want to change which document appears by default for a given song, you can edit the song, scroll down to the Documents list, then drag a different document into the first position. (This also works with multiple recordings or multiple MIDI presets attached to a song.)

Finally, you can display a second document on a second mobile device using screen sharing, or an external video display, if you change Settings > General Settings > External Display > Content to Document +1.

How can I set up my account so each band member sees his or her own document for each song?

BandHelper offers several ways to show different documents or lyrics to different people:

1. If you are using only the Lyrics and Chords fields and no attached documents, and some people need to always transpose the chords to a different key, they can edit the song and change the Personal Transpose settings. This is useful for guitarists using a capo, or horn players with non-C instruments.
2. If you are using only the Lyrics and Chords fields and no attached documents, and some people want to make personalized edits to the lyrics and chords, you can start by entering default or "shared" lyrics and chords for each song. Then the people who want to replace or customize the lyrics or chords can turn on Settings > Account Sync > Personal Sync > Lyrics or Settings > Account Sync > Personal Sync > Chords. Then those people can edit the songs and enter their own info into the Personal Lyrics or Personal Chords fields. They will still see the shared lyrics or chords for songs where they haven't entered personal lyrics or chords. If needed, account administrators can view or edit other users' personal fields from the song edit pages on the website. Personal lyrics or chords cannot be shared by multiple users, so if two users want to see the same alternative content, they will have to each enter that content separately, or place that content into a document that can be shared.
3. If your songs use a combination of lyrics or documents and you know which one each person needs, you can edit each document from the Repertoire > Documents page and change the users the document is assigned to. The document will be hidden from any unselected users and each user will see the first item in the list that is assigned to them. In this setup, the sequence of the documents attached to a song doesn't matter, but you should place the lyrics at the end of the list, so they only appear when no document is assigned.
4. If every song has a matching set of lyrics and documents and each person wants to see a different item in the set, you can sequence the lyrics and documents the same way in every song (e.g., always put the lyrics first, then the rhythm chart, then the horn chart). Then each person can change Settings > General Settings > Defaults > Document on their device to show that item in the sequence by default (e.g., setting it to 3 would show the horn chart for each song). This option allows someone to quickly switch between sets of documents -- for example, from the Trumpet 1 parts to the Trumpet 2 parts -- with one settings change.

If you are using the default document or default recording setting and need to add a placeholder in some songs, you can use these empty files: Empty Document - Letter, Empty Document - A4, Empty Recording.

How can I resize my lyrics?

When you are viewing lyrics from a song edit page or the set list view, you can pinch-zoom in or out to resize the text. If you are using the Chords field, which displays above the Lyrics field, you can resize the chords text separately. Resizing is not available from the lyrics or chords editing fields.

If you're using a Mac that does not have a trackpad to perform pinch gestures, you can open the document toolbar, then click the Lyr+, Lyr-, Cho+ or Cho- buttons to change the Lyrics or Chords text size

To save the text size, you can open the document toolbar, then click the Save Text Size button (aA icon). You can also click Reset Text Size (aA with a line through it) to return to the default size.

You can use this same technique to resize your notes if you have added the notes field to your layout in the set list view.

How can I send MIDI to another app or device to perform some action?

BandHelper can send almost any MIDI message to perform actions on almost any other app or device. Setting this up is a two-step process. First, you'll need to find out whether the action you want to trigger has an associated MIDI message on the target app or device, and find out what that message is. The user manual for that app or device is usually the best place to find this information. You can also check user forums for that app or device, or contact its manufacturer for help. Once you know what MIDI messages you need to send, you can use our Sending MIDI tutorial to enter these messages into BandHelper. We can help with the BandHelper setup, but we usually can't provide MIDI specs for the app or device you're trying to integrate with.

I want to send MIDI to two or more devices and my MIDI interface only has one MIDI Out port. What should I do?

If your devices have MIDI Thru ports, you can connect the first devices to the MIDI Out port of your MIDI interface, then connect the second device to the MIDI Thru port of the first device, the third device to the MIDI Thru port of the second device, etc. If your devices don't have MIDI Thru ports, you can either add a MIDI splitter between your MIDI interface and your devices, or replace your 1-port MIDI interface with a multi-port interface like this or this, or purchase a wireless interface for one or more of your devices like this or this.

I play in two bands. Do I need two BandHelper accounts?

In most cases, no. Within your account, you can set up multiple projects, and then keep your songs, events and other data separate between the projects, or share selected items between projects as needed. For example, two projects might have completely separate events; mostly separate but a few shared songs; and mostly separate but a few shared users.

Currently, your settings will be the same across all projects, and your subscription payments will cover all the projects in your account. If you need separate app settings for each project, or you need to keep the billing separate for each project, you will need to create separate BandHelper accounts.

How can I copy songs to another Account?

In most cases, you won't need to do this, because you can create multiple projects within an account, then assign songs to multiple projects. Then edits to the song in one project will automatically appear in the other projects.

If you want to copy a song to another project and then edit it independently in each project, you can copy the song, then assign the new copy to a different project.

If you do have separate accounts and want to copy songs between them, you can edit the song in the mobile app, then tap the Copy button, choose Copy To Another Account option and select the destination account. There's no way to share songs between accounts so that edits in one appear automatically in the other, and there's no way to copy a batch of songs to another account.

How can I rename an account or transfer it to another person?

You can change the display name for your account, or change the account name that your bandmates use to log in, from the Admin > Info page on the website. If you change the account name, you'll have to notify all your bandmates and ask them to enter the new name on the Settings > General page of their apps, and use it when logging into the website.

If you want to give control of your account to someone else, you can add them as a user if they're not already, and select the Administrator setting on their user edit page. Then they will have full control of the account, and they can remove your Administrator setting or deactivate you as a user if they wish.

How can I move all my data to a new device?

All your app data, attached files and most of your app settings are stored online in your BandHelper account. If you get a new device, all you have to do is install the BandHelper app and enter your login info, and your data and settings will download onto the new device.

Some app settings are meant to be device-specific and are not synced across devices. If you wish, you can manually export those with the Settings > Export Settings button and import the resulting file with the Settings > Import Settings button on the new device.

Layouts that are set to Scalable will sync to and open on a new device of the same type (phone to phone or tablet to tablet), but you might want to create a new layout on the new device to precisely control the sizing and positioning of interface elements.

If you're setting up an iOS device from a backup of your old device, or if you're using Android Backup Service on Android, we recommend updating to the current app version on your old device and opening it once to update your data before starting your migration. This will avoid compatibility problems from opening older app data in the current app version on your new device.

How can I back up all the data I've entered into BandHelper?

All your app data, attached files and most of your app settings are stored online in your BandHelper account, which serves as a backup. If you lose your mobile device, your data will automatically download to a new device.

Individual items you delete from your account, like songs and events, are available to undelete for 90 days from the Account > History page of the website or the Settings > Account Sync > History page of the mobile apps. To undelete an item, find the Delete action for that item in the history list, select that action and click Continue to undo it. To revert an edit to an item, find the Update action in the history list, select that action and click Continue to undo it.

If you wish to manually back up your data, you have a couple options:

In the web interface, account administrators can use the Export buttons at the bottom of the Songs, Events, Transactions and Contacts pages to export those items to standard spreadsheet files. You cannot import these files back into BandHelper, but you could use them to reformat your data for use in a different system. You can also use the Export buttons at the bottom of the Documents, Recordings and Files pages to download all the files in your account. If you are viewing a multi-page list, items from all the pages will download, but if you filter the list, only the filtered items will download.

Also in the web interface, you can use the Account > Export page to export each project to a database file. These files can be imported back into BandHelper, but only into a new project. This would mainly be used to copy a project to another account, if your band splits up and you want to allow some band members to move a copy to a new account. This could also be used as a backup if something catastrophic happens to your account data. These files do not include attached documents, recordings or other files, so you would also need to export those from the Documents, Recordings and Files pages.

Why does BandHelper require a subscription?

A subscription business model is the only practical option for a product like BandHelper. Here are a few reasons why:

• It's not possible to charge for version upgrades for the app portion of BandHelper because none of the app stores allow developers to charge for upgrades. The app stores only support subscriptions or a "free upgrades forever" business model, which doesn't support ongoing development to add new features and maintain compatibility with new OS versions.
• It's not possible to charge for version upgrades for the web-based portion of BandHelper because it runs in the cloud and is not installed onto your device. This is why cloud services are never sold based on version upgrades. Some cloud services are supported by advertising or by sharing your personal data, but for a professional product like BandHelper, I think a subscription is a better option.
• One goal of BandHelper is a centralized setup, so one or two tech-savvy band members can set up data that the rest of the band can access with minimal effort. With a subscription model, this centralized setup can extend to payments: only one person has to deal with payments to activate the account, while the rest of the band simply installs the free apps to access it.
• Selling BandHelper as an app purchased separately by each user would be okay for bands with a long-term, fixed lineup where everyone shares equally in the finances. But a subscription paid at the band level allows band leaders to either share the cost with their bandmates or assume the full cost themselves, and lets them add substitute players to their account without requiring that the subs purchase anything.

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