The wrong counter is on my lock screen
A lock screen widget is only useful if it shows the one counter you actually want to see. Picking it is a two-minute job, and it is not where most people look first.
The short answer
You can already choose which counter appears. The setting lives in iOS, not in TimeSince: long-press your Lock Screen, tap Customise, then Lock Screen, tap the TimeSince widget, and pick the counter you want. Hidden and archived counters are not offered. This catches people out often enough that it has been raised as a feature request, when it is really a question of where the control lives.
A small setup
- 1
Long-press the lock screen
Press and hold on your wallpaper until the Customise button appears, then tap it and choose Lock Screen.
- 2
Tap the TimeSince widget
Tapping the widget itself, rather than the area around it, opens its own options.
- 3
Pick the counter
Choose the one you want visible. If a counter is missing from the list, check whether it is hidden or archived, because neither is offered.
- 4
Add a second widget if you need two
Each widget holds its own counter, so two counters means two widgets rather than one that rotates.
The situation
The widget picks something to show when you add it, and the control for changing it is in the iOS Lock Screen editor rather than anywhere inside the app, which is not where people look.
What gets difficult
The widget becomes dead space. You stop glancing at it, and the counter that actually needed to be visible goes back to being something you have to remember to open the app for.
How TimeSince helps
iOS lets you pick the counter per widget. Once it shows the right one, the counter you care about is readable without unlocking, which is the entire reason to have it there.
Someone asked for this on the feedback board: can you pick what shows up on the lock-screen widget?
The answer was yes, with instructions, because you already can. That is worth a page of its own, because a feature nobody can find is not meaningfully different from one that does not exist.
Where the control actually is
Not in TimeSince. In iOS.
Long-press your Lock Screen until Customise appears, tap it, choose Lock Screen, then tap the TimeSince widget. You get a list of counters and you pick one.
This is how all Lock Screen widgets work, across every app: iOS owns that editor, and an app can supply the list but cannot open it for you or choose on your behalf. Which is precisely why people look in the app's settings, find nothing, and reasonably conclude the feature is missing.
One lock screen widget, one counter
A lock screen widget holds a single counter. If you want two visible there, add two widgets. There is no rotation and nothing that picks for you, which is deliberate: a lock screen number is only useful if you know without thinking what it refers to.
Home screen widgets are different — the medium size shows four counters and the large shows eight, so one widget can cover a whole set. The single-counter rule is specific to the lock screen.
If a counter is not in the list
Hidden and archived counters are not offered. For hidden counters that is the whole point, since something behind Face ID appearing on your lock screen would defeat the exercise. For archived ones, bring the counter back to active and it will appear.
A bug worth knowing about
The same thread turned up a real one: the lock-screen widget could show an out-of-date time after you logged. The developer confirmed the fix shipped in the next update. If you are seeing a stale number, check your version before changing anything else.
For the broader question of logging without opening the app at all, the widget, Siri and NFC tags covers the three ways in.
What TimeSince helps with
- Puts the counter you actually check on the lock screen
- Lets you run several widgets, each showing a different counter
- Keeps the number readable without unlocking the phone
What TimeSince will not fix
- A lock screen widget shows one counter, not a list
- Hidden and archived counters are not offered to widgets
- It cannot log from a lock screen widget, only display
- The control is in iOS, so the app cannot change it for you
Explore the feature: Home screen widget
Frequently asked questions
Why is the setting in iOS and not in the app?+
Lock Screen widgets are configured by iOS itself, through the Lock Screen editor. An app can offer the list of counters but cannot open that editor or choose on your behalf.
My counter is not in the list. Why?+
Hidden and archived counters are deliberately not offered to widgets. A hidden counter appearing on a lock screen would defeat the point of hiding it behind Face ID.
The widget showed an out-of-date time after I logged. Is that fixed?+
That was a real bug reported on the feedback board, and the developer said the fix was going out in the following update. If you still see it, make sure you are on the current version.
What this is based on
- Customisability to the lock-screen widget, request and reply — TimeSince feedback board
Remember the last time
Three counters are free. Come back whenever you need them.
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