If you don't know your exact time

Lots of people don't know the time they were born. The certificate leaves it out, memories blur, and Mom remembers "sometime after lunch". That's fine. A chart without a time is like a house with one room still dark. The other three rooms have the lights on, and you can live in them.

Tell the app how sure you are

Under How sure is the time? there are four choices:

• Exact: it's on paper, or you're certain.
• About ± 15 min: you know roughly. The app checks fifteen minutes on either side.
• Between… and…: you know a window, say from 2 to 5 in the afternoon. Enter the start, then the end under Until.
• I don't know: no time at all.

Be honest here. A guess dressed up as an exact time gives you a chart that looks certain and isn't.

If you don't know at all

You still get three of the four pillars: year, month and day. The Hour pillar is left empty and clearly marked. Your Day Master, the center of the whole reading, comes from the Day pillar. So the heart of your chart is all there.

A few things change:

• Your page shows a Birth time missing card. It tells you whether the Day pillar is the same at any hour, or whether it would be different for a birth in the first stretch after midnight.
• The app's model rates periods with the three pillars there are. If the hour would change the result, it still rates them with the chart's most likely version, and says so under the rating: Based on the chart's most likely version.
• Everything else is there: the decades, the years and months, the elements, the people around you.

If you know a window

Here the app is careful. It checks every possible moment inside your window and watches whether any pillar changes.

• If nothing changes, good news: the window doesn't matter, and your chart is as solid as an exact one.
• If something changes, the arch for that pillar is drawn split, with a 2 versions tag. Tap it to see the options and when each one holds.

You'll also see a card called Two versions of your chart (or more, if more pillars change). It shows each version, which part of the window it covers, and what else moves with it. If the Day pillar is one of them, your Day Master changes too, and the card says so.

Until you know more, the app shows the version that covers more of the window. The card also tells you whether the app's model comes out the same for each version. If it does, the ratings stay. If it doesn't, the app still rates with the most likely version, and says so under the rating.

Another kind of "two versions"

Even an exact time can sit on a border. If you were born close to the edge of an hour, the clock and the sun may give different Hour pillars. Then your page shows Compare conventions: one row by the sun, one by the clock, with the changed pillar outlined. You can keep the app's default or tap Use clock time for this chart only.

Ways to narrow it down

• Ask the family. "Was it before or after lunch?" "Was it still dark?" Even that helps.
• Look for papers: a hospital bracelet, a baptism record, a baby book, an old letter.
• Remember that BaZi hours are two hours long. If your whole window fits inside one of them, you don't need anything more precise.

Some people read both versions and notice which one sounds more like them. That's a lovely thing to think about. It isn't proof, though.

When you find out

Go to People, tap your name and choose Edit details. Or tap Add birth time or Add exact time right on the card. The app recalculates on your phone, and the marks disappear by themselves.