Frequently asked questions

Live updates need an internet connection. Phones and tablets can briefly lose it when moving between Wi-Fi and cellular service, locking, switching apps, or passing through a weak signal. Big Spinning Wheel will try to reconnect and catch up.

If the page still looks behind after a moment, refresh once your device has internet again.

If the spin was accepted, it is saved. Viewers usually catch up when their connection returns, and a refresh loads the current spin or result.

If you are unsure whether a tap went through, refresh before tapping Spin again.

Rapid reconnects, repeated taps, or many people joining at once can make the app ask for a short pause. Wait a moment, then try again or refresh. This keeps the live wheel responsive for everyone watching.

No. Whether you use the browser or installed app, saved account wheels, public links, imports, exports, and live spins all need internet access. If an offline page appears, reconnect and try again or refresh.

Your device or browser may be asking sites to reduce motion. Big Spinning Wheel respects that preference for live and practice spins, so the wheel may move directly to its final position and show a countdown. The result appears when the spin time finishes.

The setting is controlled by the device or browser, not Big Spinning Wheel. It can come from a computer, phone, tablet, Chromebook, browser setting, or a device setting managed by your organization. Signing in, signing out, or opening a different public link does not change it.

Turn off the reduced-motion setting for the device or browser, then refresh the wheel. The setting names differ by platform:

• Windows 11: Start menu > Settings > Accessibility > Visual effects > turn Animation effects on.
• Windows 10: Settings > Ease of Access > Display > turn Show animations in Windows on.
• macOS: Apple menu > System Settings > Accessibility > Motion > turn Reduce motion off. On older macOS versions, look under Accessibility > Display.
• iPhone or iPad: Settings > Accessibility > Motion > turn Reduce Motion off.
• Android: Settings > Accessibility > Color and motion > turn Remove animations off. Some devices place this under Display, Text and display, or Visibility enhancements.
• Chromebook: Settings > Accessibility > Display and magnification > turn Reduced animations off.

Usually, yes. Chrome, Edge, Safari, Firefox, and most mobile browsers follow the device's motion setting. Firefox and managed school or work browsers may also have their own setting. If the wheel animates in one browser but not another, check the device setting first, then that browser's accessibility, site, or managed settings.

When the animation is skipped, pointer ticks and spin music may be skipped too. Browsers may also wait until you use a control on the page before playing sound. If sound stays off, check the wheel's Sound switches and the browser's site sound setting.

No. If the owner enables a public link, anyone with that public page address can open it. Owner and collaborator pages are separate and may ask for an account or invite code.

• Live: visitors can spin the live wheel. Connected viewers update together, and viewers who briefly lose connection can catch up by reconnecting or refreshing.
• Practice: visitors can try the wheel without changing the live wheel or the recent spin recap. If a live spin starts while they are practicing, the public page switches back to the live wheel.
• View only: visitors can watch live updates and results, but they do not get a spin button on the public page.

Most of the time, the public page is set to Practice or View only, or you are viewing a private owner or collaborator page without spin access. The wheel also needs at least one enabled segment. A live spin can temporarily lock settings and some spin controls until it finishes.

If you are a visitor, ask the wheel owner to confirm the public link is enabled and the public spin mode is set the way they intended.

Use the public share page link from the Public links workspace. Owner and collaborator pages are separate, so a link that works while signed in may not be the right link for anonymous visitors.

It hides recent spin results on the public page only. Owners and collaborators keep their usual visibility in the signed-in wheel areas. If public visitors need to decide whether to disable a landed segment after a result, the result needs to be visible to them.

No. Public visitors can only use the public page according to the owner's public link settings. Collaborator invite codes are separate from public links; collaborators can get view or spin access, and invite codes expire after 36 hours unless revoked sooner.

A wheel can have up to 1,024 segments. Wheel names can be up to 120 characters, and each segment label can be up to 80 characters.

Only enabled segments are eligible to win. Disabled segments can remain on the wheel for editing and organization, but they are excluded from the winner selection.

You can enter chances as relative points, percentages, or degrees. Relative points are usually easiest: a segment with 2 points is twice as likely as a segment with 1 point. Percent values must total 100%, and degree values must total 360 degrees.

A small number of spins can still look uneven. Stats are better for comparing actual wins against expected chance over time.

This advanced setting is the app's elimination-style option. Disabled keeps landed segments available. Optional lets people with spin access disable the landed segment after a visible live result. Forced disables the landed segment automatically after live spins. The owner can decide whether public live spins and collaborator spins use that behavior.

Spin duration can be set from 5 to 60 seconds. Result display can be set to hide the result, keep it open until dismissed, or automatically dismiss it after a chosen delay up to 300 seconds.

Wheel entries are currently text labels with configurable colors and palettes. Uploaded graphics, image-based slices, custom background images, and logo overlays are not supported today.

No. Big Spinning Wheel is for entertainment and low-stakes use only. It is not a certified random-number generator, fairness tool, gambling system, raffle system, or compliance-grade selection tool.

• .bswheel: the native Big Spinning Wheel file format. It can include wheel name, spin settings, palette, segment labels, enabled states, probability weights, and colors.
• .txt: plain text segment labels, one entry per line.
• .csv: segment labels plus supported segment settings such as enabled state, probability weight, and color.

Importing replaces the current wheel setup according to the chosen format. It does not replace spin history. Imports are limited to supported files up to 1 MB and are blocked during a live spin because the wheel cannot be changed until the spin finishes.

Exports save the wheel setup, not the whole account. They do not include collaborators, invite codes, public links, favorites, owner identity, spin history, stats, selected sounds, or sound files. If an export does not appear, check the browser's downloads area or whether downloads are blocked for the site.

Signed-in wheels are saved to your account so they can be opened from My wheels. Public visitors using a shared link are not creating their own saved copy unless they sign in and create or import a wheel separately. Clearing browser data can sign you out or reset local sound choices, but it does not delete wheels saved to your account.

Check that a sound option is selected and that the browser allows audio after you interact with the page. Some browsers wait for a click or tap before playing sound, pause sound in background tabs, or remember site sound choices only while site data is kept. Reduced-motion spins can also skip pointer ticks and music because the animation is skipped.

The wheel does not need camera, microphone, location, or notification access. Share can open your device's share sheet when supported, and Copy may use clipboard access. If Share or Copy is blocked, select the link and copy it manually.

Stats update after the page refreshes. After a completed live spin, reload the Stats workspace if you do not see the newest result. Practice spins do not update live wheel history or stats.

Favorites help signed-in users keep track of wheels they own, wheels shared with them, and public wheels they want to revisit. Favorites do not preserve access if the owner disables sharing or deletes the wheel. Discover is the signed-in area for browsing available public and featured wheels.

The owner may have disabled the public link, deleted the wheel, changed share settings, revoked a collaborator, or let an invite code expire. If sharing changes while you are watching, the page may need a refresh. Ask the owner for a fresh public link or collaborator invite if you need access again.

Send enough detail to understand what happened: what you tried, whether you were signed in or using a public link, your device and browser, whether Live said reconnecting or unavailable, whether a refresh changed anything, whether reduced motion is enabled, and the approximate time it happened. Leave out passwords, recovery codes, invite codes, and other secrets.