Frequently Asked Questions

Please read this

Here's a good article on the gizchina website.

Important Note: this topic is regarding Google Play purchases. Amazon Appstore purchases use a separate licensing system.

Other Notes:

• If your new device does not have Google Play (i.e. Play Store app) pre-installed then you will not be able to use Hanping paid apps

• Please make sure you have backed up your starred items, history etc using the Backup/Restore feature (see Hanping menu)

• If you are in China then please read this.

• For general information about retrieving previously purchased application please read this

In short, when you purchase a paid app, it is tied to your Google Account. Therefore, if your Android device is logged on to that account (through Google Play) it will be able to use the app.

You may uninstall the app (maybe to free up space) and reinstall later without having to pay again.

If you have multiple devices (and are signed into all those devices using the same Google account) then you only need to pay once for all those devices.

If you change your Google Account then you will need to purchase the app again. In which case, please email us to request a refund for the original purchase (quoting the original and new Google Play order numbers). Whether such a refund is granted depends on how much the price has changed and how long ago the original purchase was.

If you are having problems, please check that the Play Store app is using the correct Google Account. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Launch the Play Store app and then tap the profile icon in the top-right

2. At the top of the next screen, make sure the correct Google account is selected (which should be the same account you used to make the purchase)

3. Tap Payments and subscription

4. Tap Budget and history where you should be able to locate your purchases

5. If not, then you most likely have not purchased with that Google account.

Note: When you install the app on your new device, Google Play will attempt to restore your user data from your Google Play account and so your starred words, history etc should automatically be restored. However, it's a good idea to create a manual backup (via Hanping Pro's Backup/Restore screen) from your old device just in case (don't forget to keep the backup ZIP file somewhere safe - for example email it to yourself). You can later restore from this ZIP file if necessary.

Please read this

Please read this

Please read this

Please read this

The search box hint starts with 汉字 in Simplified mode, or 漢字 in Traditional mode. Note, regardless of the mode, searching can be done with either Simplified or Traditional characters.

In the Nav Drawer: Settings / Chinese Settings tap the first item and select either simplified, simp [trad], traditional, or trad [simp]

For Chinese handwriting recognition, tap the paintbrush icon in the search box. To find the character by radical, tap the 部 icon. Alternatively, for Pinyin/Jyutping-based input, try Gboard – the Google Keyboard

Tap the 部 icon in the search box

Tap the microphone icon in Hanping's search box. Long-press on this icon to show the configuration dialog. From here you can choose whether to recognize Chinese (Mandarin), English or simply use the System Default. If you click on the System Default you will be taken to the System Settings screen for Voice Recognition. The next time you click on the microphone icon, the latest configuration will be used.

Arrow buttons: The up/down arrow buttons at the top-right of the screen are used to navigate through the results (usually the results of a search in the main screen). To return to the search screen you can either click Back through the Word Details screens, or just click the top-left app icon to jump straight to the Search screen

Gestures: Try swiping your finger quickly left or right. This will step through the dictionary. For example, if 你好 (nǐhǎo, hello) is currently showing, then use swipe from the right to show the next dictionary entry 你好吗 (nǐhǎoma, how are you?). This is very useful for finding related words that might not have come up when searching by English (for example, hello would not bring up 你好吗 (nǐhǎoma, how are you?) Swiping your finger quickly up or down will have the same effect as using the up/down arrow buttons (i.e. step through the search results)

The colouring represents the tone of each character. There are different colouring-schemes available. To cycle through them: Menu (within app) > Settings > Colouring by Tones

If you enter a long phrase (which is not in the dictionary) then Hanping will break down the phrase into words. This works really well when combined with voice recognition in Chinese mode!

However, sometimes its useful to do so. For example, searching for xi an will not include any of the xian results

Hanping supports these wildcard characters:

* - Multiple syllables (Hanzi & Pinyin). For example, 中*国 & zhong*guo (matches 中立国 zhong1li4guo2 & 中华民国 zhong1hua2min2guo2 etc)

@ - Single syllable (Hanzi & Pinyin). For example, 中@国 & zhong@guo (matches 中立国 zhong1li4guo2 only)

# - Tone number (Pinyin only). For example,. xi#an will match xi1an1 & xi1an4 but not xian1 etc

Long-tap on any history item (or any date label). This will bring up an Action Menu at the top of the screen where you will see three icons on the right hand side:

1. Select All
2. Delete

Hanping Chinese Dictionary and Hanping Cantonese Dictionary automatically backup your starred/tagged words to your local device. To enable this, all you need to do is go to the Backup/Restore screen (left Navigation drawer) and specify the Location for new backups. You should not specify a folder under /Android/data because that may be deleted when you uninstall apps. If the local device storage does not appear then tap on the three-dots icon in the top-right and tap Show internal storage.

Let's suppose you choose a new folder hanping-backups at the top level of your device's storage. Your automatic backups will be placed here. However, should you remove this directory/wipe your storage/reset your device/lose your device etc, you will also lose your backups. So you need to, er, backup these backups to a remote location. Hanping periodically prompts you to do this, allowing you to, for example, email a copy of your backup to yourself.

However, there is a better way!

Google Drive provides you with plenty of storage in the cloud. Unfortunately, the Android app does not allow you to specify folders on your device to sync. Luckily, there are apps that unlock that functionality for you. The downside is that you have to grant such apps authorisation to read/modify your Google Drive storage. If you are happy to do that, then here are some instructions for how to do this with FolderSync.

• Install FolderSync on your Android device (it's free), launch it and complete the setup
• In Accounts, add your Google Drive account (might be good to check the Use Chrome custom tab if you are using a device purchased in China) and grant authorisation
• From the left Navigation drawer, select Folderpairs - sync type = To remote folder, and specify the Remote folder and Local folder (for simplicity I use hanping-backups at the top-level of the local device and Google Drive storage. You can create these folders within the app
• For Scheduling, select something appropriate for your uses, for example Daily
• For If conflicting modifications, select Use local file
• Have a look at the other options and check any that are appropriate (for example whether to sync on wifi only)
• Tap Save and then Sync to check

And that should be it!

Your starrings and custom tags appear as labels above every headword and next to every word in all search results.

However, some people also want to know if a word is in a Predefined List like HSK 1? No problem! Just import the Predefined List as a new Custom Tag!

If you want to import all HSK levels as Custom Tags then do this:

1. Tap on the Tags tab so that you can see all Predefined Lists
2. Long-tap on HSK 2.0 exam... or HSK 3.0 exam... (according to which version of the exam you want) and this will show a dialog giving a brief description of the exam
3. Tap on IMPORT TAGS. You will then see a dialog to create a new Custom Tag category
4. Tap OK (you may also edit the category name if you wish). The import will then proceed and may take several seconds to complete. When done, you should see a new hsk... category in the Custom Tags section (in the Tags tab)

That's it!

For this, you need to edit the AnkiDroid template. The easiest way to do this is when viewing a flashcard in AnkiDroid:

• Tap the three vertical dots icon in the top-right / Edit Note

• Scroll to the bottom and tap the last item to bring up the 'Card Types' editor

• Make sure the correct template is selected in the tab (probably Hanzi Question)

• Make sure the Front side is selected in the bottom bar

• Scroll to the bottom and enter the following just before the </script> tag:

document.querySelector('.play_button').click();

• Tap the tick button in the top bar and again in the Edit note screen

Sometimes Hanping is unable to reset the Anki card templates directly. This is because Anki does not allow third party apps to make changes that would force the user to do a full sync.

The most common situation here is that the Hanping Chinese Type (Note Type) does not have all of the expected Card Templates. For example, if the only card type is Hanzi Question then that will be the only type of card that can be exported. To see the Card Templates, (in AnkiDroid) go to Manage Note Types, long tap on Hanping Chinese Type and tap Edit Cards.

How to recover from this (assumes you have an Ankiweb account and have already synced the problematic note type):

WARNING - you will probably lose your study progress if you do this.

• Delete the Hanping Chinese Deck from https://ankiweb.net/decks/

• Install Anki Desktop (Windows, MacOS, Linux)

• Launch Anki Desktop

• Delete Hanping Chinese Type (Browse / right click on Note Types / Manage Note Types)

• Back on the main Anki Desktop screen, tap Sync, and select "Upload to AnkiWeb"

• Now that AnkiWeb no longer has the corrupt note type, launch AnkiDroid and tap the Sync icon. Select AnkiWeb as the collection you want to keep

Sometimes Hanping is unable to export words to AnkiDroid. This only affects Android 13+ devices (predominantly Samsung and Xiaomi) and it looks like it's an AnkiDroid bug. Please let us know if the solution here helps you.

TLDR: Use the Quick Settings Tile to show/hide the Popup Cursor.

Android 14 places extra restrictions on screen reading, so as a consequence we've had to remove the hide/show functionality from the persistent notification.

Instead, please use the Quick Settings Tile.

Another side-effect is that the permission dialog will show whenever you rotate the device or enter full screen mode.

Note - From Android 14, we've removed the 'Trigger On System Startup' functionality because the Quick Settings Tile is a more convenient way to control the cursor.

All permissions are optional for core functionality. However some non-core features will not work properly (or not at all) if the appropriate permissions are not granted.

• Read and write to the AnkiDroid database - exporting words as flashcards to AnkiDroid

• Google Play license check - check whether the user has purchased the app. Note: even though Hanping Chinese Dictionary is free, it used to be paid and so this permission is needed for checking old purchases.

• Google Play billing service - in-app purchases

• run foreground service - Voice Playback from 3rd party apps (e.g. AnkiDroid)

• show notifications - When running foreground services, Android requires apps to show a notification (see run foreground service above)

• view network connections, have full network access & prevent phone from sleeping - Analytics (this can be opted-in/opted-out in the Settings)

• Advertising ID permission - Analytics only. Note: there are no Ads in any Hanping apps

• Play Install Referrer API - Analytics to track where the installs originate from

• take pictures and videos - using the camera in Live mode

• Google Play license check - check at least one Google account (added to the device) has purchased the app

• view network connections, have full network access & prevent phone from sleeping - Analytics (this can be opted-in/opted-out in the Settings)

• Advertising ID permission - Analytics only. Note: there are no Ads in any Hanping apps

• Play Install Referrer API - Analytics to track where the installs originate from

• Display over other apps - Show the cursor on top of all other apps

• Start recording or casting with Hanping Popup? - Allow the app to read your screen. Note, the app only reads your screen as you move the cursor, even though the status bar icon shows for as long as the cursor is visible. This is because it is faster to hold on to the screen recording ability than to reestablish each time you touch the cursor

• Google Play license check - check at least one Google account (added to the device) has purchased the app

• run foreground service & ask to ignore battery optimisations - for the cursor to appear while other apps are running, we need to tell Android not to kill our app

• show notifications (Android 13+) - Persistent notification allowing you to start/stop the app. Note: the app should still work if you Deny this permission, in which case you can control start/stop using the Quick Settings Tile

• run at startup - app settings allow you to choose whether to launch the app on system startup

• view network connections, have full network access & prevent phone from sleeping - Analytics (this can be opted-in/opted-out in the Settings)

• Advertising ID permission - Analytics only. Note: there are no Ads in any Hanping apps

• Play Install Referrer API - Analytics to track where the installs originate from

• Display over other apps - Show the cursor on top of all other apps

• Start recording or casting with Pixolor? - Allow the app to read your screen. Note, the app only reads your screen as you move the wheel, even though the status bar icon shows for as long as the cursor is visible. This is because it is faster to hold on to the screen recording ability than to reestablish each time you touch the wheel

• Google Play billing service - in-app purchases

• run foreground service & ask to ignore battery optimisations - for the wheel to appear while other apps are running, we need to tell Android not to kill our app

• show notifications (Android 13+) - Persistent notification allowing you to start/stop the app. Note: the app should still work if you Deny this permission, in which case you can control start/stop using the Quick Settings Tile

• view network connections, have full network access & prevent phone from sleeping - Analytics (this can be opted-in/opted-out in the Settings)

• Advertising ID permission - Analytics & Ads

• Play Install Referrer API - Analytics to track where the installs originate from

Please read this

Blog & Forum (Archived 2022)

Google, Facebook, YouTube etc are unavailable from within mainland China. Nor can you purchase apps (or in-app purchases) from Google Play Store. To overcome this, sign up to a VPN provider (preferably before) you travel, and for that we currently (as of mid 2023) suggest trying ExpressVPN (affiliate link) and LetsVPN (non-affiliate).

Note: VPN provider quality is often changing and it's often a game of cat-and-mouse, so please check before leaving for China.

First, please make sure you are running the latest version of the Hanping app you are having problems with.

Hanping apps use Google Play Store to check the current installation has a valid license. If Hanping discovers there is no valid license, the Pro-only features are automatically disabled and you may be unable to use the app.

Please note - if you DO NOT currently have an internet connection, the license check will be performed later and you can use the full version in the meantime. This means that you don't need to worry about being locked out of the paid features when offline (for example, on holiday).

In rare circumstances, Hanping may mistakenly think a licensed installation does not have a valid license. The most common reason for this is that you are not logged into (on Android) the same Google account you used to purchase the app. The easiest way to verify this is to:

• Launch the Play Store app on your Android device

• Tap on the profile icon in the top-right of the screen

• Payments and subscriptions

• Budget and history

• Check if the Hanping app is included in the list

If the Hanping app (the one which is showing the license problem) is not included in the list then you probably need to add whichever account you used to purchase the app.
You can also try finding your Google Play Order Number.

If the Hanping app is included in the list, then it is possible that Google Play is incorrectly reporting the license as missing. In this case, please do the following...

First, try restarting your device (because sometimes this is enough). If that doesn't help, then:

• Clear Data on the Play Store app. Then run the Play Store app and accept Terms and Conditions

• Check the Play Store app is using correct Google Account (Menu > Accounts) - this must be the same Google Account you used to purchase the app

• Clear Data on Hanping Pro

• Restart Hanping Pro

• If asked to restore user data, DO NOT do so (you can always restore later through the Backup/Restore dialog)

If you still have the same problem, then please RESTART your device.

If you have LuckyPatcher installed, then that may also cause problems, so please try uninstalling that.

Please send us an email (including your Google Play Store purchase details and the Google account you used to make the purchase) if you are still having problems contact us.

Now and again, Google Play Store doesn't quite work as it is supposed to. General Google Play Store technical support can be found here and the official page of Known Issues can be found here.

If the problem is regarding payment, try here.

In particular, worth mentioning:

Hanping Chinese Dictionary could not be downloaded due to an error. (403)

From the Android Homescreen, press the Menu button and go to Settings > Manage Applications. On that screen, locate the Play Store app and click on it. Then, Clear data.

Then try again.

Hanping Chinese Dictionary could not be downloaded due to an error. (-101)

Try removing your gmail account (from your Android device!) and then adding it back again:

Settings > Accounts & sync > [select Google account] > Menu button/icon > Remove account (you may want to sync everything first)

Please email us your purchase details so we can check your license.

If you are having problems purchasing the app or making an in-app payment (e.g. payment declined), please have a look here.

Please post here any solutions you have to Google Play Store problems.

There are a few ways to find details of your previous Google Play Store purchases:

• Launch Play Store app / Tap on your profile icon (top-right of screen) / Payments and subscriptions / Budget and history

• Check your old emails. The confirmation email probably has a subject starting with Your Google Play Order Receipt from. In this email you should see the Order Number which starts with GPA.

Notes:

• If you are not signed into your Hanping account, then your Google Play Store account will be used to determine your purchases (as before).

• If you have trouble installing the Hanping app (purchased on an old account) or you no longer have access to the Google account used to make the purchase, then please find the order numbers of your Play Store Purchases and email us.

• Sometimes, the wrong Google account is assigned to your app installation (for example, if you side-load the Hanping app). When this happens, the Google Play Store Account will not show your purchases. There are a few things you can try, like reinstalling the Hanping app, ensuring that the default Google account in the Play Store app is the correct account. Otherwise, please email us.

• Hanping Camera and Hanping Popup app purchases are not currently recorded (because those apps have not yet been updated to support Hanping Accounts)

• Currently, only purchases are supported. Your history, word lists, notes and settings are not currently supported, so in the meantime you will need to continue to use the Backup/Restore screen to keep your Hanping data safe.

A Hanping Account is a single place to keep a record of all your Hanping Dictionary purchases.

Definitions of some terms:

• Hanping Account: a user account maintained for you by Hanping. You would have only one Hanping Account and this is a single place to keep a record of your purchases.

• Google Play Store Account: You have one or more Google accounts added to your Android device. When you purchase an app through Google Play Store, the installation is tied to the Google account used to make the purchase. This Google account is referred to as the Google Play Store Account for that app installation.

Currently, the only way to sign in to (or register a new) Hanping Account, is through Google Sign In. Therefore, for most people, the Google Play Store Account and the Hanping Account will be associated with the same Google account.
However, this is not necessary. Suppose you start making purchases with a new Google account, you can just install Hanping through that and then sign in to your Hanping account which should already have the purchases linked to your old Google account.

When you register a new account, it is automatically linked to your Google Play Store account.

Notes:

• If you are not signed into your Hanping account, then your Google Play Store account will be used to determine your purchases (as before).

• If you have trouble installing the Hanping app (purchased on an old account) or you no longer have access to the Google account used to make the purchase, then please find the order numbers of your Play Store Purchases and email us.