How can we help?

RetroDeck is a one-time purchase with every feature included, made and supported by one person. If something is not working, or you just have a question, the answers below cover most of it. When they do not, email is the fastest way to reach a human.

Getting started

Play your own music

RetroDeck plays the music already on your iPhone. On the Music menu, choose Connect Apple Music (it also lives in Settings › Apple Music) and allow access when iOS asks. Your whole library, every song, album, artist, genre, and playlist, with artwork, appears on the wheel. You only connect once. The choice is remembered, so later launches go straight to your music.

No music synced yet? A small bundled demo library plays right away, so the app works the moment you open it.

Use the click wheel

Glide your thumb around the wheel in a circle to scroll, and press the center button to select. The four edges are MENU (top, goes back a screen), Play and Pause (bottom), Next (right), and Previous (left). Every tick has a haptic tap and the clicker sound. Both can be turned off in Settings.

Playback

Now Playing

Open any song to reach Now Playing. Press the center button to switch the wheel between scrubbing, shuffle, and repeat. The bar shows elapsed and remaining time, with the X of Y track counter up top.

In the background and on the Lock Screen

Music keeps playing when you lock the screen, switch apps, or drop your phone in your pocket. Artwork, track details, scrubbing, and full transport controls appear on your Lock Screen and in Control Center.

Cover Flow, Photos, and Extras

Cover Flow (Music › Cover Flow) spins through your albums in 3D. Stop on a cover and press the center button to open its tracks. Photos shows your library on the device screen; access is optional and only requested when you open it. Extras holds Brick, Clock, Stopwatch, Notes, and a Games menu with Solitaire and Parachute. Videos plays your video clips full screen, with the wheel to scrub.

Settings and skins

Settings holds the equalizer (a real 10-band EQ), the backlight timer, the clicker toggle, shuffle and repeat, and the skin picker. Change skins, or switch between light and dark, live, with no restart. The equalizer is audible on the app's own playback path.

Purchases and reinstalling

RetroDeck is a one-time $2.99 purchase that includes every feature. There is no subscription, and there are no in-app purchases or ads.

If you reinstall the app, or set it up on a new iPhone, download it again from the App Store while signed in to the same Apple Account you bought it with, and there is no second charge. Because every feature is part of the single purchase, there is nothing else to unlock or restore.

Troubleshooting

My music is not showing up

Make sure you chose Connect Apple Music and allowed access. You can confirm in iOS Settings › Privacy & Security › Media & Apple Music, where RetroDeck should be switched on. A very large library can take a moment to load the first time. If you declined access, the demo library plays instead, and you can grant access later from Settings › Apple Music.

No sound

Check the volume and the silent switch, and confirm audio is going where you expect (iPhone speaker, headphones, or Bluetooth). If another app is holding audio, close it. If sound still does not start, fully quit RetroDeck and reopen it.

Photos are empty

Photos access is optional and is only requested when you open the Photos feature. Grant it in iOS Settings › Privacy & Security › Photos › RetroDeck. With no access, a set of demo photos is shown instead.

No haptics or clicker

Haptics need a supported iPhone with the system haptics setting on. The clicker sound can be toggled in Settings › Clicker, and it follows your ringer volume.

Privacy

RetroDeck has no account, no servers, and no tracking of any kind. It runs entirely on your iPhone and reads your music and photos read-only, never modifying or uploading anything. The full detail is in the Privacy Policy.

Still stuck?

Email support@retrodeck.app and a real person will read it. Feature ideas and bug reports are genuinely welcome, they shape what gets built next.

Independence and trademarks

RetroDeck is an independent application inspired by the classic click-wheel music player. RetroDeck is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Apple Inc. iPhone, Apple Music, and Apple are trademarks of Apple Inc., used here for descriptive reference only.