Common Rubik's Cube Mistakes and How to Fix Them

Mistakes at every step

Before going step by step, here are four mistakes that don't belong to any one step but cause most of the times a solve "goes wrong".

Reading the turn direction the wrong way. The apostrophe (R') means turn anticlockwise when you look straight at that face, not as seen from where you are. It's easy with the right face, but beginners often turn the left (L) and bottom (D) faces the wrong way. Tip: imagine you are standing in front of the face you need to turn, then decide which way to go.

Turning the whole cube in the middle of an algorithm. An algorithm only works if you hold the cube the same way from the first move to the last. If your hand flips the cube halfway through, the "R" face after that is a different face. Ruwix stresses this too at the step for turning the yellow corners: between algorithms, turn only the top face, not the whole cube (Ruwix).

Forgetting that the centres never move. The six centres always stay in the same place relative to each other, so the colour of a centre is the colour of that whole face once the cube is solved (Wikipedia). When you check colours, always compare with the centre, not with the stickers around it.

Making a wrong move and carrying on. If you know you just made a wrong move, stop and go back: redo the moves you just made in reverse order, turning each one the other way. For example, if you did R U R', undo it with R U' R'. The picture below shows the familiar R U R' from step 2. Go back the right way and the cube returns exactly to how it was before.

Step 1, white cross: all 4 edges, but the colours don't match

This is the most common mistake of the whole solve. You have a nice white plus sign on the top face, but when you look at the sides, the other sticker on an edge isn't the same colour as the centre just below it.

Ruwix calls this a wrong cross: the white cross is only right when the side colour of each edge matches the centre of that face (Ruwix). Don't move on with a cross whose colours don't match, because step 2 can't be finished.

How to fix each wrong edge: keep the white centre on top, bring the wrong edge down to the bottom layer, turn the bottom face until it sits right under the centre of the same colour, then flip it up. Example in the picture: the white and green edge is on the right of the top face, next to the right centre (not the same colour). Do R2 D' F2: R2 takes it down, D' brings it to the front, right under the green centre, and F2 flips it up into place.

1. You start with (input)
3. After the formula

Note: R2 also pulls down any white edge that was already in that spot. That's fine, put it back the same way. Another mistake at this step is an edge in the right place but with its white sticker on the front instead of the top. The guide fixes that with F U' R U:

Step 2, first layer corners: in place but twisted

By now the cube has been flipped over: yellow centre on top, white cross on the bottom. A common mistake is a white corner that is already in place, between the two centres of its colours, but with its white sticker on a side face. Looking from the side, the bottom row of that face has a white sticker squeezed in.

Another mistake at the same step: putting a corner between two centres that don't match its colours. Before doing the algorithm, check the corner's two stickers that aren't white: they must match the two centres on the front and right faces.

Both kinds are fixed the same way, as Ruwix also suggests: push the corner up to the top layer, then put it in again. Turn the whole cube so the wrong corner is at the bottom, front right, then do R U R' U' to push it up, followed by R U R' to put it back in.

1. You start with (input)
3. After the formula

Before: the corner is in place but its white sticker faces a side. After: the white face has all nine stickers, and the bottom row of each side matches its centre.

Step 3, middle layer edges: picking the wrong direction

This step has two algorithms, one to insert to the right and one to insert to the left. The most common mistake is choosing the direction from the edge's side sticker. The side sticker is only used to make a T shape with the front centre. The direction always comes from the edge's top sticker: if it matches the right centre, insert to the right; if it matches the left centre, insert to the left. The post How to solve the middle layer explains both algorithms in detail.

Two other mistakes at this step:

• Picking an edge with a yellow sticker. That edge belongs to the top layer. The algorithm still works, but you have just put the wrong piece into the middle layer.
• Inserting to the left an edge that needs to go right (or the other way round). The edge ends up in the wrong spot.

Flipped edge

The edge is in the right spot, but its two stickers are the wrong way round. Push it out and put it back in: do the right algorithm, turn U2, then do the right algorithm again. Ruwix describes the same idea: if an edge is flipped, do the algorithm twice, the first time to put another edge into its spot (Ruwix).

U R U' R' U' F' U F U2 U R U' R' U' F' U F

1. You start with (input)
3. After the formula

Edge stuck in the wrong spot

The edge is in the middle layer, but in another edge's spot. In the picture, the edge is stuck in the front left spot. Push it out with the left algorithm, turn U2 to bring it round to the front, then insert it to the right:

U' L' U L U F U' F' U2 U R U' R' U' F' U F

1. You start with (input)
3. After the formula

On a real cube, the edge you pushed up may end up somewhere else, so you may need a different number of U turns than U2. Just keep turning U until the edge makes a T shape with the front centre, then read the top sticker as usual.

Step 4, yellow cross: shape held the wrong way

The algorithm for this step is F R U R' U' F'. A common mistake: doing the algorithm when the yellow L is not in the back left corner, or when the yellow line is going up and down instead of side to side. Hold the shape the wrong way and the algorithm won't make a cross.

Above: the L is in the back left corner, and doing the algorithm twice gives you the yellow cross. If you did it with the shape held the wrong way, don't worry: the algorithm doesn't touch the first and middle layers. Just look at the top face again and you will see a dot, an L or a line. Turn U to match the pattern and carry on.

See all the patterns in step 4 of the guide or the post How to solve the last layer.

Only 1 or 3 yellow edges on top

On a correctly put together cube, the number of edges with a yellow sticker on top is always 0, 2 or 4. The reason: every move flips an even number of edges, so you can never flip just one (Ruwix).

If you count 1 or 3, count again carefully. If it's still the same, the cube has come apart at some point and been put back together wrongly, or someone has peeled off and swapped the stickers. No algorithm can fix that. Ruwix suggests taking the cube apart and putting it back together in the solved state (Ruwix). According to Wikipedia, if you take the cube apart and put it back together at random, only about 1 in 12 ways can be solved (Wikipedia). A corner twisted on its own in place also makes the cube unsolvable in the same way.

Step 5, yellow face: turning the whole cube between algorithms

The algorithm for this step is R U R' U R U2 R', and you usually need to do it a few times, with a U turn in between. Common mistakes:

• Turning the whole cube instead of U between algorithms. The guide shows each U move between algorithms, so do exactly that.
• Holding the wrong corner before you start. When there is 1 yellow corner on the top face, that corner must be at the front left.
• Stopping halfway because the yellow face seems to "get messier the more you do". After one go, the top face can look worse than before. That's normal, just compare it with the pattern again.

Above is the easiest case: one yellow corner on the top face at the front left, and one go of the algorithm finishes it. This algorithm doesn't touch the first and middle layers. If the bottom two layers are messed up afterwards, a move was definitely made wrongly.

Step 6, yellow corners into place: can't find the right one

At this step, a corner is in place when its two side stickers match the two centres next to it. A common mistake is looking only once, seeing no corner in place, and getting confused.

Turn U and check again at all 4 positions. Out of those 4 positions, there is always at least one where at least one corner is in place. Once you find it, turn the whole cube so that corner is at the front left, as step 6 of the guide shows.

The second mistake: holding the in-place corner in the wrong spot when doing the algorithm. Then the corner that was in place gets moved away. This algorithm only swaps three corners around, keeping the front left corner where it is and keeping the yellow face.

Step 7, yellow edges: one go isn't enough

The last algorithm is R U' R U R U R U' R' U' R2. Hold the face with a whole top row of one colour at the back, then do it. The algorithm keeps the back edge where it is and moves the other three around. A common mistake is holding the finished face at the front: then the edge of the finished face gets moved away.

If one go doesn't finish it but the back face is still complete, just do it one more time, holding the cube the same way. The algorithm moves three edges around in a circle, so doing it three times in a row brings them back to where they started: within two goes you will hit the right direction. Ruwix also notes that you may need to do the edge swapping algorithm more than once (Ruwix).

Quick fix table

The full move sequences and pictures for each fix are in the sections above.

How to practise so you make fewer mistakes

• Go slowly and say each move quietly to yourself. Speed comes later. Most mistakes happen because your hands move faster than your eyes can follow.
• Check at the end of every step. Before moving on, compare your cube with the "goal of the step" picture in the guide.
• Practise each algorithm on its own. Take a solved cube, do an algorithm backwards to set up the case, then solve it again yourself.
• Don't be afraid to mess it up. If it goes wrong, solve again from the last step that was still right, no need to scramble.

Next steps

Once you can solve the cube reliably without mistakes, you can go deeper into each step: How to solve the middle layer, How to solve the last layer, or go back over the full How to solve a Rubik's Cube 3x3 for beginners.

Stuck and not sure where your cube is at? With the EasyRubic app, you can scan your real cube with the camera and see the solution step by step on a 3D cube.

Get EasyRubic and try solving again from the step where you got stuck.

Sources

• How To Solve The Rubik's Cube – Beginners Method (Ruwix)
• Unsolvable Rubik's Cube – Invalid Scramble (Ruwix)
• Rubik's Cube (Wikipedia)