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iPhone, iPad and iPhone Duo, on iOS 27 or later. On iPhone Duo the hinge is the lid; everywhere else you open the lid by hand.

Swipe the closed lid to the left. To close it again, swipe right from the left edge of the screen, or on the header. Every feature works the same way.

Turn the crank on the right-hand gear clockwise (with VoiceOver, swipe up on the box). As the spring runs down, the tune slows and stops. If you’d rather it never ran down, switch the spring off in Settings.

• Check the volume and that the lid is open — the melody gets louder the wider the lid opens, and a closed lid is silent. (On a folded iPhone Duo, “play without opening” is intentionally muffled.)
• By default the box plays even when your phone is on Silent. If you switched on Respect Silent mode in Settings, it stays quiet in Silent mode and stops when the screen locks.
• Make sure another app isn’t holding the audio, then try again.

That happens only with Respect Silent mode turned on (Settings). Turn it off and the box keeps playing with the screen locked; the sleep timer will fade it out when you ask.

Tap the moon button on the closed lid, or use the “⋯” menu. Choose 15, 30, 45 or 60 minutes — the tune fades out gently on its own.

Open Settings with the gear icon at the top left of the closed lid (on iPhone Duo, fold the phone to see it on the outer screen). Choose walnut, cherry, maple or ebony, and a dancer, a songbird or a carousel horse.

When the box stands still, tap the tape to punch a hole, or fill it with the eraser. For bigger work, open the full tape editor: one column per tooth of the comb, one line per eighth note. You can listen as you go, undo, change the tempo and the length (up to 64 bars), and choose 4/4, 3/4 or 6/8 time with an 18-note or a 30-note comb.

Open the melody list and touch and hold one of My tapes: you can edit, rename, share or delete it. Sharing sends a small .mbtape file that opens straight in Music Box on a friend’s device; you can also record a 15-second video of the box playing it.

Yes. In the melody list choose Open tape or MIDI file; the melody is arranged for the comb.

Music Box has no account and no cloud, so your tapes live on your device. To keep one safe or move it to a new device, share it as a file and save it to Files or send it to yourself.

Music Box is a paid app with no in-app purchases, so there’s nothing to restore: everything is unlocked from the start. Purchases and refunds are handled by Apple — see reportaproblem.apple.com.

None. Read the privacy policy.

We only include public-domain melodies, newly arranged for the comb. Tell us what you’d like — and remember you can punch any tune yourself or import a MIDI file.