Troubleshooting

Start with the section that matches what you see. If nothing here helps, send diagnostics and write to support@lonelyduck.io.

License and Pro#

Every Mac on my license is in use. Activating says "This license is on all its Macs" and lists them. Release one, then press Activate again. With a 1-Mac license and the old Mac gone, sign in at lonelyduck.io with the email you bought with and release it from Account › Canto › Your Macs. See Moving Pro to a new Mac.

"Connect once to keep Pro." Pro works offline for 30 days at a time, and this Mac has fewer than 5 days left. Connect to the internet once, or press Check now in Settings › Account. If the 30 days ran out, the Mac is on Free until it connects; Pro comes back by itself.

"… came out after this license's new features ended", a Renew button, or "Dec 31, 9999". Every Canto Pro license is now for life, at no cost, and an older beta may still show the old wording. Update Canto, then press Check now in Settings › Account; it then says "Every new Pro feature, for life." See For life.

"This license covers one Mac. … needs Pro · 3 Macs." Sync and moving Pro between Macs need a 3-Mac license. Upgrading is $10 and keeps your license, still for life.

"Canto Pro was released from this Mac", "turned off", "refunded" or "disputed". The Mac is on Free and nothing was deleted. Press Activate again (if the license has a free place) or Contact support.

"Pro is paused." If it says the clock is behind, set your Mac's date and time and press Check now. If it says the license belongs to another Mac (after restoring a backup from another Mac), activate this Mac with your license.

I can't find my license email. In Canto, Settings › Account › Lost your license?, or lonelyduck.io/canto/activate › Email my license. Check your spam folder too.

The free tries are used. Each Pro feature with tries can be tried three times on each Mac. After that its sheet offers to buy Pro. See Free and Pro.

Models and memory#

A model won't load. Look at its memory dot in Settings › Models:

• Amber (not right now): it fits your Mac but not with the memory free now. Quit a few apps and try again.
• Red (won't fit): it needs more than the graphics memory macOS allows on this Mac. Choose the recommended model instead.

Settings › Models › Advanced › Load models with less free memory lets a model load anyway, but it may be slow or unstable. On an 8 or 16 GB Mac, Settings › Advanced › Performance › Low Memory Mode unloads models sooner and keeps smaller caches.

A download fails or stops. Canto checks free disk space before a download; free some space and press Get again. Downloads come from Hugging Face, so your Mac needs to reach it.

The first answer takes a long time. The model loads when you send, and the chat says so. After a minute of thinking on your Mac, Canto offers Write now to end the reasoning and start the answer, and when a model reads slowly it offers a faster one. Turning Think off (⇧⌘R in the composer) also helps. With a model on your Mac, each follow-up reads the whole chat again in this beta, so long chats take longer to start.

"This chat is full." The chat and an answer no longer fit in the model's memory, even after Canto condensed older messages. Nothing was lost. Choose Compact older messages or New chat. After research, Continue in a fresh chat keeps the research's sources.

My model server wasn't running when Canto opened. Canto keeps your choice, uses a built-in model until the server is back, and says so. A server on your Mac or your network gets at least two minutes to read a long prompt before its first word.

OpenRouter stopped answering this month. Canto stops at your monthly limit, which is kept on your Mac ($10 unless you change it). Change it in Settings › Models › Cloud.

Safe Mode#

Safe Mode starts Canto without the parts that load models and background work, so you can get to your notes. It only starts when:

• the last launch didn't finish (a crash, or Canto was forced to quit): "Canto didn't finish starting last time, so AI waits until you load it."
• the Mac had almost no memory free at launch (under 1.5 GB): quit a few apps first.
• Canto stopped twice while starting in Safe Mode: it then starts with nothing optional running.

The banner offers to load your chat model (or a recommended one that fits), Restart normally, and Why?. If it keeps happening, Help › Send Diagnostics… tells the team what went wrong.

Safe Mode is not Small Mac mode. Small Mac mode is how Macs with 12 GB or less run normally; see Models on your Mac.

The Apple services helper#

Canto reads images, scanned PDFs and speech, and talks to Apple Intelligence, through a small helper program called canto-native. Settings › Advanced › Helpers shows whether it's running, how much memory it uses, and whether it stopped on its own this session. Restart starts a fresh one without quitting Canto; if a meeting recording or a transcription is running, Canto asks first. If the helper stops more than 5 times in 5 minutes, Canto waits for you to press Restart.

A second Canto icon bouncing in the Dock was this helper. Beta 2 fixed it; update if you still see it.

Search by meaning#

Search by meaning's status shows in the status dot's panel, on Home when it needs you, and in Settings › Memory & privacy › Search by meaning. It's off, starting, indexing, up to date, or Needs attention, with Turn on or Try again.

• It says Needs attention. Press Try again. It runs entirely on your Mac and needs nothing from the web.
• Korean notes aren't found by meaning. In this beta, search by meaning understands English only; Korean is found by its words. Attachments, canvases and projects are found by words too.
• A note never shows up in related notes. If Canto's window crashed repeatedly while indexing a note, Canto skips that note. Settings › Advanced › Diagnostics lists the skipped notes with Try again, and each new version of Canto tries them again.
• Catch up. Settings › Memory & privacy › Search by meaning › Index every note now indexes the notes it hasn't reached yet.

Saving and finding notes#

"Not saved · Retry" on a note. Canto couldn't save the note. Your edits are kept in the open note until it can. Press Retry. If it keeps failing, copy the text somewhere safe and send diagnostics.

A note is missing. Stop editing, then look in this order:

1. The Trash, in the sidebar's Library. Deleted notes, canvases and chats stay there for 30 days by default (Settings › Sync & storage › Trash). A deleted folder isn't listed, but its notes are, and they restore to the nearest folder that still exists.
2. Search: ⇧⌘F searches notes, chats and files.
3. Note history: ⇧⌘Y on a note shows its earlier versions.
4. Backups, if you turned them on: Settings › Sync & storage › Backups.
5. The pre-upgrade copy Canto made before updating from 0.10: see Going back to 0.10.3.

Still missing? Write to support@lonelyduck.io before you change anything else.

Sync#

A change takes a few minutes to arrive. In this beta, Canto checks for changes when you switch to it, when your Mac wakes and every 5 minutes.

Sync says Needs attention. It says why, for example "Enter your sync passphrase to see notes from your other Macs" on a new Mac, or that you're signed in to a different iCloud account. Your notes stay on the Mac either way. Open Settings › Sync & storage.

Two Macs changed the same note. Canto keeps both versions.

Other apps (MCP)#

An app that used to work can't reach Canto. Since 1.0, Canto's MCP server always asks for its access key, also from apps on your Mac. Copy the setup for each app again from Settings › Connections › Other apps. Changing notes from another app needs Pro.

After upgrading from 0.10#

• macOS asks about the Keychain. Canto 1.0 is a new app to macOS. Choose Always Allow.
• macOS asks for the microphone or Automation again. Same reason; allow them again.
• A notebook looks different. Notebooks became notes. See Notebooks.
• I want 0.10.3 back. See Going back to 0.10.3.

Sending diagnostics#

Help › Send Diagnostics… (also in Settings › About › Help) shows you everything in the report before anything is sent. After it's sent, it gives you a reference: "LonelyDuck's support has it. Quote the reference if you write to them." Use Copy reference and include it in your email.

Canto's log is in ~/Library/Logs/Canto/. Help › Open Data Folder opens the folder your vault is in.

Still stuck?#

Use Help › Contact Support…, or write to support@lonelyduck.io, with what you expected, what happened and the diagnostics reference. Contact Support fills in your Canto and macOS versions and your Mac's model; in an email, add them yourself. One person answers, usually within two working days.