If Breath Lock is unavailable or scoring lower than expected, first check microphone access and then check how clearly the iPhone can detect your breathing.
Breath Lock is unavailable, or your score has no Breath Lock component
Check that Spiral Breath+ has microphone access:
Settings → Spiral Breath+ → Microphone
If microphone access is off, sessions still work normally. Breath Lock is unavailable and your coherence score is calculated using Timing and Completion instead.
The microphone permission button doesn't seem to do anything
Spiral Breath+ asks for microphone permission once, when Breath Lock is first set up.
If you declined microphone permission, iOS may not show the original permission prompt again.
Enable it manually under:
Settings → Spiral Breath+ → Microphone
Once enabled, return to Spiral Breath+ and start another session.
Breath Lock is low even though the session felt good
Breath Lock depends on the microphone being able to distinguish your breathing pattern from holds and background sound.
Try these steps:
Make your breathing audible. Breath Lock measures changes in audio loudness over time. Very quiet breathing may be difficult to detect.
Try exhaling through your mouth. This can provide a clearer audio signal for Breath Lock.
Practise somewhere quiet. Background noise can make your breathing pattern harder to distinguish.
Remain quiet during hold phases. Breath Lock uses the contrast between breathing phases and holds as part of the detected pattern.
Try your iPhone's built-in microphone or wired earphones. Some Bluetooth devices can provide a weaker or less useful signal for Breath Lock.
Keep your iPhone reasonably close. If the microphone is too far away, your breathing may be harder to detect.
Why scores can vary between similar sessions
Breath Lock may use a simpler or less certain measurement when:
• The exercise has phases of equal duration, such as 6·6·6·6
• The microphone signal is weak
• There is no usable audio signal
For exercises with inhale or exhale phases longer than 8 seconds, the scoring system can credit some Timing information toward Breath Lock.
This adjustment is part of the Breath Lock score shown in your Session Summary.
If a call or Siri interrupts your session
If a call or Siri interrupts a session, Spiral Breath+ restarts breath detection when you return to the app.
Continue the session normally once you're back.
When to contact support
If Breath Lock still doesn't work after you've confirmed microphone access and tried a session in a quiet environment, contact: support@spiralbreath.app
Please include:
• Your iPhone model
• Your iOS version
• Your Spiral Breath+ app version
• Whether you're using Free or Spiral Breath+
• Whether you're using the iPhone microphone, wired earphones or Bluetooth audio
• The exact wording of any message shown on screen
• A short description of what happened
Using About → Feedback automatically includes your app and iOS version.