Find your symptom below, read why it happens, then work through the steps in order. Almost everything on this page is fixed in under five minutes without opening the plush.
Start here
Three checks that solve most reports
Before you read anything else, run these. They cover the majority of the messages that reach our inbox.
Look at the status light and match it against the legend below. The colour names the problem more reliably than any symptom you can describe.
Put in two fresh AA (LR6) alkaline batteries. Weak cells cause quiet answers, dropped connections and failed pairing, and they look like completely unrelated faults.
Check that your home Wi-Fi and internet are working on another device, and that the toy is on a 2.4 GHz network rather than a 5 GHz one.
Read the light first
One small LED, seven states. It is the fastest diagnosis available, and it is on the toy rather than in the app, so it works even when nothing else does.
Green
Listening. The child can speak. If nothing is being heard, see the conversation section below.
Yellow
Recording the voice, or preparing and speaking the answer. Normal, and usually over in a few seconds.
Blue, blinking
Pairing mode. The toy is waiting for the Wi-Fi settings from the app. This is where a brand new plush starts.
Red
Starting up, or connecting to the Wi-Fi network. If it never goes out, the toy cannot reach your network.
Orange, slowly pulsing
The batteries are too flat to run the Wi-Fi radio and the toy has stopped trying. Replace both batteries.
Purple
Play is not allowed right now (switched off, or outside the daily time window), or a firmware update is running.
Off
Standby: connected and waiting for a button press, or asleep. A press wakes it within a few seconds.
Power and batteries
Weak batteries are behind more faults than anything else, and they rarely announce themselves as a battery problem.
Nothing happens when you press the button and the light stays off
Why The toy has no power, or it is asleep and the batteries are too flat to bring it back up.
What to do
Press the button once and wait a few seconds. From sleep the toy needs a moment to wake, and no light shows during the first instant.
Open the zipped pocket on the back of the plush and check that the slide switch on the battery holder is on.
Check that both batteries sit the right way round, following the + and - markings on the holder.
Replace both with fresh AA (LR6) alkaline batteries. Do not mix old and new cells, and do not mix types.
Put the holder back, close the zip and watch the light: it should glow red briefly, then either go out (already set up) or blink blue (ready to pair).
The light pulses orange slowly
Why The batteries are too flat to run the Wi-Fi radio, so the toy has deliberately stopped trying to connect instead of draining them further.
What to do
Replace both batteries with fresh AA (LR6) alkaline ones. Replacing only one leaves you back here within days.
Put the holder back and close the zip. The toy retries by itself every few minutes and starts up normally once fresh cells are in.
If you were using rechargeable batteries, switch to alkaline: their lower voltage brings this state on much sooner.
The toy has become noticeably quieter
Why Weak batteries, or a low volume setting. As the cells weaken the toy turns its own volume down so they last longer, so quiet is usually the first symptom of a flat battery rather than a sound fault.
What to do
Check the battery level on the device card in the app.
Replace both batteries if the level is low, and listen again.
If the batteries are fine, open Profile settings and raise Answer volume.
Never hold the plush directly against a child's ear to hear it better: there is a loudspeaker inside.
The battery level in the app looks wrong or has not updated
Why The device card shows the level reported the last time the toy was awake and connected, not a live reading.
What to do
Press the button to wake the toy and give it a few seconds to report in.
Check that the toy is actually on your network: it glows red while it connects, and the light goes out when it is ready.
Pull the device list down to refresh it.
Fresh alkaline batteries give the most accurate reading. Rechargeable cells report a lower level than their real charge.
Setup and pairing
Everything between opening the app and the moment the plush joins your Wi-Fi.
The plush does not blink blue
Why Blinking blue is pairing mode. Either the toy has no power, or it has already been set up once and is no longer waiting to be paired.
What to do
Check that the switch on the battery holder is on and that the batteries are fresh and the right way round.
If the toy has been set up before, hold the button for about 5 seconds. It flashes red, restarts and returns to pairing mode.
Watch it start up: the light glows red briefly first, then begins to blink blue. If it goes straight to no light at all, it has already joined a network.
The app cannot find the plush
Why The app looks for the toy over Bluetooth, and the scan runs for about 15 seconds. Anything that blocks Bluetooth or the permissions around it stops the toy appearing.
What to do
Check that the plush is switched on and blinking blue.
Switch Bluetooth on on your phone.
On Android, allow location access for the Playnitive app as well: the system ties Bluetooth and Wi-Fi scanning to that permission, so without it the scan finds nothing.
Move within a couple of metres of the plush, ideally near your router, then tap Search for Playnitive device.
If another phone is already connected to the plush, close the app on that phone first: the toy pairs with one phone at a time.
The app asks for a button press and nothing happens
Why That press is a security check. It proves that whoever is setting the toy up is really in the room with it, so it has to be a short press on the toy itself, before the Wi-Fi password is handed over.
What to do
Press the button in the hand of the plush once, briefly. A long press does something different: it erases the Wi-Fi settings.
Stay close to the plush while the app is connected to it.
If the app has already timed out, go back to My devices and start New device again.
No Wi-Fi networks appear in the list
Why On Android the system needs location permission before it will list networks. On iPhone there is no list at all, by design.
What to do
On Android: allow location access for the Playnitive app, and check that the phone's own Wi-Fi is switched on.
On iPhone: type the network name (SSID) by hand, exactly as it is, matching upper and lower case.
Remember that only 2.4 GHz networks can be used, so a 5 GHz network will not appear even when everything is working.
Connection failed
Why Almost always a mistyped Wi-Fi password. The next most common cause is a 5 GHz network, which the plush cannot join.
What to do
Type the password again, carefully. It is case sensitive, and a trailing space is easy to add without noticing.
Check that the network really is a 2.4 GHz one. If your router broadcasts both bands under a single name, give the 2.4 GHz band its own name and use that.
Move the plush closer to the router for the setup. You can carry it away afterwards.
If the network name contains unusual characters, try connecting to a phone hotspot on 2.4 GHz to confirm the toy itself is fine.
If it keeps failing, hold the button for about 5 seconds to reset the toy to pairing mode, then start the setup again.
Setup finished but the plush does not appear in My devices
Why After the Wi-Fi handover the plush restarts and joins your network in the background, which takes a moment longer than the app does.
What to do
Give it two minutes. The light glows red while it connects and goes out when the toy is ready.
Pull the My devices list down to refresh it.
If it is still missing after a few minutes, check that your router and internet connection are working, then run Connect to internet again.
Wi-Fi and connection
The toy is set up but cannot reach the internet, or has stopped being able to.
The light stays red and the toy does not answer
Why Red means the toy is trying to reach your Wi-Fi network. If it never goes out, it cannot get on the network or cannot reach the internet behind it.
What to do
Check that other devices in the house have internet.
Restart your router and wait for it to come fully back up.
Check that the network name or the password has not changed. If either has, hold the button for about 5 seconds and run Connect to internet again.
Move the plush closer to the router. Thick walls, a floor between, and long distances all cut the 2.4 GHz signal.
Replace the batteries: a weak radio and a weak battery look identical from the outside.
It worked yesterday and today it answers nothing
Why Something between the button and the answer has changed: the batteries, the network, or the subscription.
What to do
Look at the light first, because it names the problem: red means no network, a slow orange pulse means flat batteries, purple means play is blocked, no light at all means it is asleep or has no power.
If the light is off and a press does nothing, replace both batteries.
Check in the app that the trial or the subscription is still active.
Check that your Wi-Fi password has not changed, and that your router is not on a guest network with client isolation.
You want to move the plush to a different Wi-Fi network
Why The toy stores one network at a time, so the old settings have to be cleared before it will accept new ones.
What to do
Hold the button in the toy's hand for about 5 seconds. It flashes red, restarts and blinks blue.
Open the device in the app and run Connect to internet.
Pick the new 2.4 GHz network and enter its password.
Do this before you move house or change router, while the toy can still be reached, and it saves a step later.
Conversation
The toy is online but the conversation itself is not going the way you expected.
A button press only gives a purple light
Why Play is switched off, you are outside the daily time window, or a firmware update is running.
What to do
Open Profile settings and check Play enabled and the Daily time limit for today's weekday.
Remember the window is set per weekday, so a Saturday can look blocked while a Tuesday works.
If both settings look right, wait a few minutes: an update also shows purple, and the toy is usable again as soon as it finishes.
The conversation stops on its own
Why A session is limited to 20 turns or 10 minutes, whichever comes first. That is by design, not a fault.
What to do
Press the button again to start the next session. Nothing is lost.
If it stops much sooner than that, check the battery level and how far the toy is from the router.
The answers are too long or too complicated for your child
Why Vocabulary and answer length follow the age and the profile you set. With no age filled in, the toy has to guess.
What to do
Open Profile settings and set the child's age.
Switch Simple conversation on for shorter, simpler answers.
Add a line under About the child: answers land better when the toy knows what they are into.
Save, then start a new conversation. Changes apply from the first answer after saving.
The toy does not use your child's name
Why The child's name is an optional profile field, and changes only apply from the next answer.
What to do
Fill in Child's name in Profile settings and save.
Start a new conversation with a button press.
Check that you edited the profile of the right toy if you have more than one plush in the house.
The toy stops in the middle of an answer
Why A second button press interrupts an answer on purpose, so a child can cut in without waiting. It can also happen if the connection drops mid-answer.
What to do
Watch whether the child is pressing the button while the toy is speaking. That is what interrupts it.
If nobody touched it, check the Wi-Fi signal where they are playing and move closer to the router.
Replace weak batteries: the radio is the first thing to suffer as they run down.
The light goes green but the toy does not hear the question
Why The toy listens while the light is green, and decides the question is finished after a few seconds of silence. Anything said before the green light does not get recorded.
What to do
Wait for the green light, then speak.
Ask the child to speak towards the plush from close by, in a normal voice.
Turn down the background noise: a television, music or several people talking at once all make transcription harder.
Leave a clear pause at the end of the question so the toy knows it is finished.
App, account and subscription
Everything that happens on the phone rather than on the toy.
Registration will not go through
Why The password has to be at least 8 characters and typed twice, and both the Terms and Conditions and the Privacy Notice have to be accepted before registration continues.
What to do
Check that the two password fields match and that the password is at least 8 characters long.
Tick both acceptance boxes. Registration only continues once both are ticked.
If the email address is already in use, sign in instead of registering.
Try registering with a Google account instead.
The trial has ended and the toy no longer talks
Why AI conversation needs an active subscription once the 7-day free trial is over.
What to do
Open the subscription screen in the app and pick a monthly or yearly plan.
Stories can still be started free of charge from the phone, so the toy does not have to go silent while you decide.
Nothing helps and you want to start from scratch
Why A long press clears the stored Wi-Fi settings and puts the toy back where it was out of the box. Nothing else is needed, and the plush should never be opened beyond the battery pocket.
What to do
Hold the button for about 5 seconds. The toy flashes red, restarts and blinks blue.
Run the setup again from Connect to internet in the app.
If it still will not work, write to us and say which character you have, what the light is doing and what you have already tried.
Somewhere else to look
If your question is not a fault, these two pages probably cover it.
