Your child signs in with their PIN or pictures on a device that you have set up. When that does not work, the words on their screen usually say why.
| What the screen says | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| "A grown-up needs to set this device up" | This device is not set up for your account. |
| "Ask a grown-up to set this device up first." | The same. |
| "That is not quite right. Try again." | The PIN or pictures were wrong. |
| "Too many tries. Ask a grown-up to help." | Too many tries in a short time. |
| "That reader could not be found." | The reader was removed, or this device may not sign them in. |
| "This account is paused. Ask a grown-up to help." | The account has been suspended. |
| "Time for a rest. Your books will be here later." | Your child is signed in, but has reached their daily limit. |
The device is not set up
A child can only sign in on a device a grown-up has set up. It stays set up for 180 days, and then needs doing again.
- Sign in to your own account on the device, and stay signed in: "Who is reading today?" only opens while you are.
- Press "Set this device up" on the "Who is reading today?" screen, or "Trust this device" in the "Reading on this device" card on your Safety page. On a phone, it is also under More, in "This device".
- Hand the device to your child, who taps their name and then their PIN or pictures.
Things that undo it:
- A device is set up in one browser, so another browser on the same device needs setting up too.
- A private browsing window forgets it when it closes, and clearing the browser's data for our site removes it.
- A device is set up for one account at a time. If another grown-up sets it up for their own account, your readers cannot sign in there until you set it up again, unless you made that grown-up a guardian (see below).
- "Forget this device" removes it on purpose, along with any books kept on the device.
See also Setting up a device.
Wrong tries and the lock
After five wrong tries in a row, your child's sign-in is locked for 15 minutes. Your home page then says they are locked out, with a button such as "Let Mia try again", with your child's name in it, that unlocks them straight away. The same button is in the "How Mia signs in" card on your child's Safety tab.
Only wrong tries are counted, so children swapping quickly on one device never reach a limit by signing in. Wrong ones add up in two places: five in 15 minutes for one reader, and 20 in 15 minutes on one device between everybody using it. Waiting 15 minutes clears both, and so do "Let Mia try again" and "Change how they sign in" on your child's Safety tab.
If your child has forgotten their PIN or pictures, press "Change how they sign in" on the Safety tab. Saving a new one signs them out on every device. See PINs and picture passwords.
A daily limit
Once your child has read for their "Daily limit in minutes", Pip says "Time for a rest. Your books will be here later." on their home screen. To let them carry on, raise or clear the limit on their Safety tab, under "Time and bedtime". Bedtime never stops them. See Time limits and bedtime.
The reader or the account has changed
- A removed reader no longer appears on "Who is reading today?". Their books are deleted after 30 days, and until then you can ask us to undo it. See Removing a reader.
- An account that is closing signs every reader out, and they cannot sign back in. To have them back, sign in yourself within the 30 days and choose "Keep my account" on the page you land on. See Closing your account.
- A suspended account shows "This account is paused. Ask a grown-up to help." See Suspended accounts.
Reading on another grown-up's device
Another grown-up can sign your readers in on their own device only if you invited them with "Look, and sign readers in on their device", or later set them to "Can look and sign readers in", in Sharing with other grown-ups. They also need to set that device up while signed in to their own account. If you remove them or change them to "Can look", or they leave, your readers are signed out on their device the next time it is used. See Trusted devices.
Signed out after a while
With our current settings, a child's sign-in lasts up to four hours from when they signed in, even if they are reading at the time. It also ends when you sign out of your own account on that device, when you press a button such as "Sign Mia out everywhere" on their Safety tab, when you change how they sign in, and sometimes when the browser updates itself. Your child signs in again from "Who is reading today?".
If none of this explains it, tell us the device, the browser and the message on the screen. Signed in, use Help in your dashboard; otherwise, write to support@taletykes.com.