Troubleshooting the Bark Phone

This article aims to help you troubleshoot and fix any technical issues you may encounter on the Bark Phone.

Take care of it with this guide: Stuck During Bark Phone Setup

To manage Play Store access from your dashboard, check out this guide.

If you enable the App Store access for your child, Google will require your child to sign in with a Google account to be able to download apps. Make sure you're not blocking Google in your screen time rules for the Google Workspace, Collaboration, and App Stores categories.

Even with the above checked, some Google accounts will run into trouble signing into the Bark Phone. Learn more: Unable to sign into Google Play Store or Google services

Sounds like you have enabled additional parental control settings on the Google Play app. Take care of it with this guide: "Parental controls restrict downloading of this app"

You may have accidentally blocked Google Play, which hides it from the device. Take care of it with our guide: Google Play Store is missing from the Bark Phone

Bark's tamper protections have kicked in most likely. Let's fix it: Apps are Grayed Out

If you've adjusted a rule and haven't yet seen it apply on your child's device, there's a couple of reasons this may be happening: Rule Changes Taking a Long Time

You may have accidentally blocked the Camera app, which hides it from the device. Take care of it with our guide: Troubleshooting the Camera App

You may have accidentally blocked the orange Messages app. When blocked, it becomes grayed out and inaccessible. Take care of it with our guide: Troubleshooting the Texting App

You may be in an area with low reception, or you may need to make some settings adjustments. Take care of it with our guide: Troubleshooting Calls

Bark goes beyond blocking access — it analyzes content on texts, photos, videos, and more. If it detects instances of depression, bullying, drug use, suicidal thoughts, or anything else that may be alarming, it will alert you.

If you are feeling like most alerts you receive are too mild, re-evaluate your alert sensitivity settings for that child.

If you've received an alert that you believe to be a false positive, or if you're unsure whether an issue actually exists, don't hesitate to contact us. We understand the importance of accurate and reliable alerts, and your feedback helps us improve our accuracy.

We've put together a guide that can help you troubleshoot Location Alerts. Please note that you may need to allow the Settings app temporarily to adjust some of the settings discussed in this guide: Calibrate Location

We're sorry to hear that! If your kid forgot their lock screen PIN, password, or pattern for the Bark Phone, please contact us for next steps.

You have a few options to address this! If your kid used up most of their internal phone storage, you can...