You are staring at a sign-in box and you never made a password.
There is no password anywhere in Better Together Diabetes. You never made one, and you never need to remember one.
- You type the email your BTD newsletter arrives at.
- We send you a link.
- You tap it once. You are in.
Four things about that link, because they explain nearly everything people write to me about:
The link lasts about 3 days. Find it in your inbox the following week and it will have quietly expired. Ask for another. It takes ten seconds and it is always free.
Once you tap it, that device stays signed in for 30 days. You will not be asked again for a month.
Any tool or app link from a BTD newsletter signs you in on its own. No typing, no waiting. If a recent issue is sitting in your inbox, that is the quickest way back in.
The email comes from noreply@notify.cloudflare.com. That is our sending service. Add it to your contacts now and you will never wonder about it again. Hotmail and Outlook are the usual culprits for filing it somewhere you will not look, so check junk and the Other tab there first.
If you see one of these messages
"This tool is part of Better Together Diabetes. Subscribers get access to the interactive tools included with their tier."
What it means: this device does not know you yet. It says nothing about your subscription.
What to do: enter the email your BTD newsletter arrives at, then tap Send my link. If you have ever used two addresses, it is the one the newsletter lands in.
Not subscribed? Subscribe free. Free is genuinely free and genuinely large: the newsletter, every published article, all the interactives, and the Aquarium as your free gift with code WELCOMETOBTD.
"The 30-day sign-in on this browser has ended."
What it means: your month ran out. That is all. A clock finished.
What to do: enter your email, tap the new link. Your next 30 days start right then. You did not lose anything and you did not get downgraded.
"You need an internet connection the first time you open a tool on a device."
What it means: the app could not reach our server. Your internet is very possibly fine. Hotel wifi, school networks, clinic wifi, and guest networks that make you tap Agree first will all cause this.
What to do:
- Reload the page.
- If you are on wifi that made you accept terms, open any other website first so that screen clears, then come back.
- If you are on a school or work network, try your phone on cellular. If it works there, the network was the problem.
One thing worth knowing, especially before you travel: this only happens on a device's first load. After you are signed in, it runs offline. Open it at home before you leave and it works in the car, on the plane, and at the campsite.
"That access link didn't check out."
What it means: the link is past its 3 days, or something broke it in transit. Email apps and text messages sometimes cut a long link in half, and only half arrives.
What to do: let that one go and get a new one. Then tap the link directly from your email rather than copying it. If you do have to paste it, paste all of it, including everything after the question mark.
"This tool is included with a higher Better Together Diabetes tier than your current subscription."
What it means: we know you and your subscription is fine. This one thing sits outside what you have right now.
The message does not say which tier, so here it is: worlds you own are yours forever, and the rotating collection is BTD Community. See "What do I need for this?" below.
If you bought or upgraded minutes ago and still see this, your device is holding the older sign-in. Tap "Use a different email," enter your email, and the fresh link will carry what you just bought.
New device or browser
This is the one that surprises almost everyone, so it gets its own section.
Being signed in belongs to a browser, not to you. Your phone signing in does not sign in the tablet on the kitchen counter. Chrome on the laptop does not sign in Safari on the same laptop. A private window remembers nothing and forgets everything when you close it.
There is no device limit. Sign in on the kitchen tablet, the living room TV, both phones, and grandma's laptop across town. That is the point of this thing.
Fastest way to add a device: open a tool or app link from a BTD newsletter on that device. It signs in immediately.
Otherwise: enter your email on that device, then open the email and tap the link on that same device. The link signs in whatever opens it. Requesting a link on your laptop and tapping it on your phone signs in the phone and leaves the laptop untouched.
Clearing history or cookies signs you out. Get a new link and you are back.
You bought a world and now it is a tab you have to keep finding.
The worlds are made to live on a screen in a shared room, not buried in a menu. Five minutes.
- Open your world. After you buy, your confirmation email has your access link. Tap it once and the world opens. There is no file to hunt for and no software to install.
- Put it on the screen you actually want. Any TV with a browser will run it, or you can cast a tab from a phone or laptop. Tablets make wonderful kitchen counter worlds. It fills the screen on its own, portrait or landscape.
- Add it to your home screen. See the section below. This is the step that turns it from a website you have to find into something your family just opens.
- Pick your rooms. You do not have to run the same world everywhere. One in the living room and a different one in the bedroom is a completely reasonable way to live.
- Name your creature. This sounds like a small thing. It is not. The day your kid asks how Shelly is doing instead of what your number is, this app has done its whole job.
Sound is off until you turn it on. The speaker button turns on a soft chime for high and a low hum for low. Only people in the room hear it. It notifies no one, anywhere, ever.
Putting it on your home screen, and what your device will ask
Adding a world to your home screen gives it its own icon and opens it full screen with no browser bar. It is worth the thirty seconds.
On iPhone or iPad: open the world in Safari, tap the Share button (the square with the arrow going up), scroll down, tap "Add to Home Screen," then tap Add. The icon appears with your other apps.
On Android: open the world in Chrome, tap the three dots menu, tap "Add to Home screen" or "Install app," then confirm.
What your device may ask you, and what to say:
- Sound. The first time you tap the speaker button, your browser may want a tap on the page before it will play anything. Tap anywhere on the world, then the speaker. This is a browser rule, not a bug.
- Location, camera, microphone, contacts. The worlds have no reason to ask for any of these. If something asks, say no and tell me, because I want to know about it.
What to expect once it is on your home screen:
- It opens full screen, with no address bar.
- Your device may put it to sleep if the screen is on for hours. If the creature looks frozen, tap the screen or reopen the app. Smart TV browsers pause background tabs and bringing the tab forward fixes it.
What do I need for this?
| Lane | What you get | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Free | The newsletter, every published article, all the interactives, and the Aquarium free with code WELCOMETOBTD | $0 |
| Bring the Aquarium home | The starter world, yours forever, works offline, whatever else the Collection is doing | free with code WELCOMETOBTD |
| BTD Community | The room, all 9 channels, every world we have built so far live on your own Dexcom, and the per-device scheduler | $25/month or $249/year |
| Glucose DJ | A download, not a world. One file that turns a day of your own CGM data into a piece of music, on your own computer, offline. Two devices. | $20 |
| Story Pattern | A download, not a world. One file that turns a day of your own CGM data into an illustrated story, on your own computer, offline. Two devices. | $20 |
What a week in the room actually looks like →
The Aquarium is the path I would point every new family toward first: it is yours forever, and it costs nothing with the welcome code.
BTD Community is a collection that changes, the way a streaming catalog changes. Worlds rotate in, worlds rotate out. If there is one your kid is attached to, buying it outright is the only way to keep it forever.
Glucose DJ and Story Pattern: the two apps you download
These two work nothing like the worlds, so almost everything above does not apply to them. There is no sign-in, no email link, no 30 days, and no server. You download one file, you double-click it, and it runs on your own computer. You bring in your own CGM export and it turns that day into music, or into a story.
Nothing you import ever leaves your computer. There is no upload in either app. Not a slow one, not an optional one, not one behind a setting. So everything below is about your file and your browser, never about your account, because you do not have one.
If an import will not go
"Could not read that file."
What it means: your browser could not open the file at all. This is almost always a file that is not really a spreadsheet. A PDF report, a screenshot, or a zip that never got unzipped will all land here.
What to do: go back to your export screen and choose the CSV or spreadsheet option instead of the report. Most export screens offer both, and the report is the one that looks nicer and is useless here. If the file arrived inside a zip, unzip it first and drop in the CSV from inside.
The app opened your file but says it found no readings in it.
What it means: the file is readable, but there were no glucose values where the app expected them. Usually the export was a summary rather than the raw readings, or the date range came out empty.
What to do:
- Open the file in a spreadsheet program and look at it. If you see thousands of rows with times a few minutes apart, it is the right file and something else is wrong. If you see a dozen rows of averages, it is a summary export and you need the raw one.
- Export again with the longest date range offered. Ninety days beats fourteen, and fourteen beats one.
- Check that the range you picked actually has sensor data in it. A gap while you were between sensors will export as nothing at all.
The exact wording on your screen may differ slightly from the heading above. Any message about not finding readings is this one.
The app is asking you which column is the time and which is the glucose.
What it means: your file is fine. The app just did not recognize the headings at the top of it, so it is asking you rather than guessing. Every CGM company names its columns differently and some of them never published what those names are.
What to do: answer the two or three questions it asks. It shows you your own column headings and a few rows underneath them. Point at the column with the times in it, point at the column with the glucose numbers in it, and say whether those numbers are mg/dL or mmol/L. Then it reads the file.
You are not debugging anything. You are reading your own spreadsheet out loud, and it takes about fifteen seconds. Dexcom Clarity files are the ones tested against a real export, so they rarely ask. Medtronic CareLink, Glooko, and xDrip+ are the three most likely to ask, because those companies do not publish their export format, so our reading of it is a best guess worked from partial information.
You picked a file and nothing happened at all.
What it means: most likely the file never actually got selected. The file picker filters for spreadsheets, so a PDF may look greyed out or simply refuse to be chosen, and it can look like a broken button rather than a filtered list.
What to do: try dragging the file onto the drop area instead of clicking. If a drag does nothing either, the file is not a CSV. Rename nothing and change nothing about it. Go back and export the CSV version.
Your days landed in strange places, or one day holds a whole month.
What it means: a date written as 05/08 is the fifth of August in most of the world and the eighth of May in the United States, and a file that never happens to reach the 13th of a month gives the app no way to tell which one you meant. This is the one thing about imports that can go quietly wrong instead of loudly wrong.
What to do: export a longer range. Once your file covers more than about two weeks, it almost certainly contains a date past the 13th, and that single date tells the app how every other date in the file is written. A 90-day export fixes this on its own.
The song, the video, or the image would not save.
What it means: rendering a whole day into a file asks a lot of a browser in one go, and a tired browser gives up rather than crashing.
What to do:
- Close other tabs, reload the app, import again, and export before you do anything else.
- Try one day rather than the whole week. A week is many times the work.
- If video keeps failing, try a different browser. If audio keeps failing, save the still image instead and send that. It is a real share, not a consolation prize.
Nothing you imported is at risk when an export fails. Your file is untouched on your own disk, exactly where it was.
The video saved, but an iPhone will not open it.
What it means: videos save as MP4, which is the format iPhones, Android phones, and computers all already play, so this one is rare now. If the file in your Downloads folder ends in .webm instead of .mp4, it came out of Firefox or an older browser. Android and computers open a WebM file without complaint. iPhones do not.
What to do: open the app in Chrome, Edge, or Safari and export the video again. That one hands you an .mp4. The app also says so the moment it starts recording if the browser you are in saves WebM, so you find out then rather than after the file is already sitting on somebody else's phone.
There is no sound.
What it means: browsers refuse to make noise until you have touched the page. It is a rule they all follow, and it is not a bug in the app.
What to do: press Play once more. That second press is usually the one that works. Then check your computer's own volume, and check the drum volume slider in the app, which can be sitting at zero.
Questions about Glucose DJ and Story Pattern
Does it work without internet?
Glucose DJ and Story Pattern work offline always, including the very first time you open them. This is different from the worlds, which need one connection on a device before they can run offline. These two never need one at all. Download the file, unplug your internet, double-click it, and it works. On a plane, at a campsite, in a clinic waiting room with hostile wifi. It is one file on your own machine.
Is my data uploaded?
No. There is no upload in either app. Not a slow one, not an optional one, not one behind a setting. There is no server to send it to and no account to attach it to. Your file is read inside the browser tab on your own computer, turned into music or a story, and that is where it stops. Close the tab and it is gone from memory.
You can prove this in ten seconds without trusting me: turn your wifi off entirely, then import a file and play it. Nothing changes, because nothing was ever going anywhere. What you save out (a song, a video, an image) has no name on it, no account behind it, and no readings hidden inside the file. It is still a picture of your day, so send it on purpose. But it carries nothing you did not intend.
Which CGMs work?
Dexcom Clarity, FreeStyle LibreView, Nightscout, Medtronic CareLink, Glooko, Tidepool, and xDrip+. And in practice, anything else that can export a spreadsheet with a time column and a glucose column, because the app reads the headings on your file rather than working from a fixed list.
How well I know each one differs, and you deserve to know which is which. Dexcom Clarity is tested against a real export. LibreView, Nightscout, and Tidepool match their publishers' documented formats. Medtronic CareLink, Glooko, and xDrip+ are our best reading of a shape those three companies never published. If the app cannot place your columns it will ask you to point at them, which takes about fifteen seconds and works regardless of who made your sensor.
mmol/L is detected and converted for you. You never have to set a country or do the math.
Can I put it on two devices?
Yes. Your purchase covers two devices: a computer, and a phone or tablet. On the computer, the device is the file you downloaded. On the phone or tablet, it is the hosted install link, because phones will not open a downloaded file like this one. Those two together are your two devices, and the install steps for each are on the download page.
Nothing is checking, and nothing could be. Counting your devices would mean the app quietly contacting me every time you opened it, and that is the one thing these apps will never do. So it is an honor system, and I would rather tell you the number in plain sight than bury it in a license nobody reads. If your family genuinely needs it on more screens than that, write to me and we will work it out like people.
Is this a medical device?
No. This is a creative, artistic representation of data. It is not an accurate medical chart, diagnostic tool, or clinical record. No healthcare oversight is provided, and this asset must never be used for medical assessment or treatment purposes.
Your CGM app, your meter, and your care team own every decision about insulin, food, and treatment. These two apps own none of them. They never alarm and they never notify anyone, on purpose. Keep every alert your care team set exactly where it is.
Do I need a Dexcom to use these?
No, and this is where they differ most from the worlds. The worlds run on a live Dexcom Share connection. These two read a file, from any of the systems above, and never connect to anything. If your family is on Libre, on a pump with CareLink, or running Nightscout, these two are for you.
You also do not need current data. A file from last spring makes a song and a story exactly the same way.
Where do I get my export file?
Sign in to the account where your CGM reports already live: clarity.dexcom.com for Dexcom, libreview.com for Libre, carelink.minimed.com for Medtronic, my.glooko.com for Glooko, app.tidepool.org for Tidepool, your own site for Nightscout, or the app's own settings for xDrip+. Look for the export or download option, usually near the reports or under your account name.
Three things matter wherever you land. Choose CSV, not PDF, because a PDF is a picture of your data. Choose the longest date range offered. And save it somewhere you can find it again. The full walkthrough ships in the README-FIRST page inside your download.
Before you do any of that, open the app and press Try a sample day. It loads a made-up day that lives inside the app, so you can hear it or read it before you spend twenty minutes on an export website.
Questions people actually ask
Is this a medical device?
No, and I want to be direct about it. It is a wellness display. It never replaces the Dexcom app, its alarms, or your care team. Keep every CGM alert exactly the way your care team set it.
Will it alarm or notify anyone?
Never. That is the entire point. The Dexcom app does alarms. The worlds do togetherness. If sugars run low, friendly helpers swim or wander in on screen, and that is as loud as it ever gets.
What do the colors mean?
Blue is low. Green is just right. Amber is a little high. Red is high. Same in every world. The creature also changes size, posture, and expression, so you can read it from across the room without reading anything at all.
Why is there no password?
Because passwords are the part that breaks, usually at the worst moment. Your email is your account.
The email never came.
Check junk and spam, and on Outlook or Hotmail check the Other tab. The sender is noreply@notify.cloudflare.com. Wait a full ten minutes before asking for another, because fast repeat requests can slow down sending. If ten minutes pass with nothing anywhere, the address you typed is probably not the one your subscription is under. Use the address your newsletter arrives at.
How long does the link last, and how long do I stay signed in?
The link works about 3 days. Once you tap it, that device stays signed in 30 days. Renewing is free, every time, on every lane including free.
Does it work on my TV?
If your TV has a browser, or you can cast a browser tab to it, yes. It also runs on tablets, laptops, and phones, portrait or landscape.
Can grandparents open it from their house?
Yes. Anyone you share it with signs in with their own email and sees the same world. Awareness without surveillance works across town too.
Does it work without internet?
After the first load on that device, yes. Sign in at home before a trip and it runs in the car, on the plane, and anywhere the signal drops.
Can I buy just one world?
The Aquarium is the one world you can bring home on its own, free with code WELCOMETOBTD. Every other world comes through BTD Community membership, not an individual purchase.
Can I get a refund?
Yes. If BTD Community does not make your home calmer within 30 days, write me and I will refund it. No quiz, no hard feelings.
I bought it and it still says I need a higher tier.
Your device is holding the older sign-in. Tap "Use a different email," enter your email, and the new link carries your purchase.
Nothing here fixed it.
Then it is mine to fix, not yours. See below.
Still stuck
Write me at bettertogetherdiabetes@stemsaic.com.
Two things to put in the email, and they will save us a round trip:
- The exact words on your screen.
- What you were using: phone, tablet, TV, or computer, and whether you were on home, work, or public wifi.
You are not bothering me. A family that cannot open the thing they bought is the only kind of email I actually want to get.