Frequently Asked Questions

Q. How do the Quick Puzzles, Advanced Puzzles, Pro Puzzles and Expert Puzzles work?
A. These are single puzzle collections tailored for different users:
Q. How do I move pieces and groups?
A. Touch and drag the piece or group to the new location. If you drag near the edge of the screen, the board will automatically scroll.

Q. How can I rotate pieces and groups?
A. To rotate a piece left, tap the left side of the piece. To rotate a piece right, tap its right side. To rotate a group, tap the point you'd like it to rotate around (it will always rotate right).

Q. Where is the button to get me back to the title screen and the main menu?
A. Press the 'Show top menu' button and the 'Home' button will become visible on the top left of the screen. Press this to return to the main menu (the current puzzle is saved automatically).

'Show top menu' buttonShow top menu
      button 'Home' buttonHome button

Q. I want to display the boxtop, so I can see what the completed puzzle looks like - how do I do this?
A. Press the 'Show top menu' button and the 'Show boxtop' button will become visible on the top right of the screen. Press this to show the boxtop. Rotate the screen to make the image larger, if it's a wide picture.

'Show boxtop' buttonBoxtop button

Q. How often are new collections released?
A. We release new collections every Thursday, to provide players with fresh puzzles to play over the weekend. Also, at the start of each month we release a free sample collection.

Q. Can you notify me when new collections are released?
A. Yes. When you first launched Lava Jigsaw, it asked if you'd like to receive notifications and badges (the red number at the top right of an App icon which shows new content is available). If you declined this initial request, you can switch this on by going into Settings->Notifications->Lava Jigsaw HD and changing the settings.

Q. Why can't I see all the collections in the puzzle library on my iPad 1?
A. Collections with larger puzzles (ie. more than 200 pieces) are not shown in the store on the iPad 1, due to memory limitations on this device.

Q. How do I use the Tray?
A. The tray holds all the unused pieces that you haven't yet placed on the board. To show the tray, press the 'Show tray' button. Pressing this button again will hide the tray. Pieces shown on the tray can be dragged directly onto the board. Pieces can also be dragged back on to the Tray, if you don't want them on the board anymore (groups cannot be dragged onto the Tray). You can also rotate pieces in the tray.

To show the next set of pieces on the Tray, press the 'Next tray set' button. The end of all the pieces in the Tray is indicated by a partially empty set. The next set displayed after the end is the first set. To go to a previous tray set, hold the 'Next tray set' button for 1 second (this is usually only used if you accidentally dash past a set you wanted, and will go back one set only).

'Show tray' buttonShow tray button'Hide tray' buttonHide tray button'Next tray set' buttonNext tray set button

Q. I'd like to bookmark collections I like before actually buying them. How do I do that?
A. Next to the 'Buy' button, you'll see a 'Bookmark' button (a white bookmark ribbon). If you activate this, the collection will be bookmarked. To see all the collections you've bookmarked, press the 'Bookmarked' button under the 'Online Store' button. 

Bookmark a collectionBookmark a
      collectionDisplay bookmarked collectionsBookmarked
      collections button

Q. How can I move around my view of the board?
A. There are 4 ways to do this:
  1. Touch the board and drag it to move the view of the board directly. Swiping the board will move the view quickly.
  2. Drag your finger around on the touchpad (on the bottom left side of the screen) to quickly move around the entire board area.
  3. Tap a bookmarked position to move immediately to that position. Bookmarks can be set by moving the view to a desired location, and then holding down a bookmark button for 1 second. The screen will flash to indicate that the bookmark was captured. Up to 3 bookmarks are available when the screen is in portrait / vertical orientation, and 5 bookmarks when the screen is in landscape / horizontal orientation.
  4. Tap the 'Zoom' button to zoom out your view of the board (this button is only displayed when the screen is in the landscape / horizontal orientation). The 'Top-left zoom marker' on the board will be shown on the top left of the screen, enabling you to easily set up your puzzle pieces and groups for a quick overview. Pressing a point on the board will then zoom you back in, centred on that point. If you simply press the 'Zoom' button again (rather than pressing a point), the existing centre will be restored.
Example bookmark buttonExample 'Bookmark'
      button'Zoom' buttonZoom buttonTop-left zoom markerTop-left zoom marker

Q. What do the colored rectangles underneath each collection mean?
A. These show how many puzzles of different difficulty levels are included in the collection. The difficulty levels are:
Puzzle levels (the example shows a collection with 3 intermediate and 1 advanced puzzles) Puzzle Levels

Q. Why are the buttons different when the iPad is horizontal?
A. Horizontal orientation is probably the best way to play Lava Jigsaw, as it allows additional controls to be made available along the bottom edge of the screen, including 2 extra bookmark buttons and the zoom button. Also, most boxtop pictures are their maximum size and thus show the most detail when displayed horizontally.

Q. How does the category button work?
A. If you touch the top part of the button, the category filter will be selected and so only collections of a particular category type will be displayed. To select the category type, touch the bottom part of the button and a popdown menu (with items like 'Nature', 'Landscapes', 'Kids', etc) will be displayed. Tap the category you'd like.

Category button Category Button

Q. How do I delete a puzzle from the list shown on the title screen?
A. If you press and hold the puzzle you'd like to delete for 2 seconds, a delete confirmation will be displayed. Press the confirm button, and the puzzle will be deleted.
Note: If you don't hold it for long enough, or you move your finger during the process, the delete action won't occur (this ensures you don't accidentally delete a puzzle).

Q. How do I move a number of single pieces and groups around the board in one operation?
A. Touch the board with two fingers and a green selection rectangle will be displayed, which will enable you to surround single pieces and groups (enclosing any piece of a group will include it). Then scroll to another part of the board (using the touchpad, the bookmark buttons, or dragging the board) and touch any lifted piece to drop them all. If a number of pieces are already lifted, add additional pieces to the lifted group by touching them. If the centre of a piece is enclosed by the green selection rectangle, it will be included, so in the example below, all three pieces will be lifted.

Selecting a group
Selecting a group


Q. How are the points awarded for completion of a puzzle calculated?
A. The points value is calculated based on the size of the puzzle, as well as how much area of the picture is difficult to assemble (eg. a single color, blurring in photos due to close-ups having limited depth-of-field, etc). Piece counts up to 150, 400, 750, and above 750 each get increasing point values per piece, in addition to the difficulty bonus.

Q. I'm trying to rotate a large group, but it won't rotate when I tap it. Why not?
A. If a group is 30 pieces or larger in size, and is in the correct orientation (ie. upside up), rotation is disabled. This ensures you don't accidentally rotate very large groups (such as a completed puzzle frame) when you only intend to rotate a piece which happens to be placed close to the group.

Q. I just looked at a web page and then returned back to the play screen, but the text was all squashed up - how do I fix it?
A. Simply rotate the screen and the text should be redisplayed correctly.

Q. A piece seems to be part of a group, but is not positioned correctly in that group - how do I fix it?
A. If you exit out to the title screen and then select the puzzle again (ie. load it in again), any piece positioning errors should be corrected.


Last changed: 20Jun2013