macOS
"Scryglass can't be opened" or "is damaged and can't be opened"
Gatekeeper reacting to a downloaded app. Right-click (or Control-click) Scryglass.app in Applications, choose Open, then Open again in the dialog — once is enough. If the "damaged" message persists, clear the download quarantine flag in Terminal:
xattr -cr /Applications/Scryglass.app
Check your Mac's chip
Scryglass currently ships for Apple Silicon (M1 and later) only, and won't launch on an Intel Mac. Check under Apple menu → About This Mac.
Drag the app out of the disk image
Running Scryglass from the mounted .dmg window misbehaves. Drag it to Applications, eject the disk image, and launch from there.
The keychain prompt
On first launch macOS may ask to allow keychain access — that's where Scryglass keeps your licence. Denying it can prevent startup. If you dismissed it, quit, relaunch, and choose Always Allow.
Windows
Nothing happens at all — no window, no error
Usually a missing Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime, which Scryglass needs to draw its window. It's preinstalled on nearly every Windows 10 and 11 machine, but managed or freshly imaged PCs sometimes lack it. Install the Evergreen Bootstrapper from aka.ms/webview2 and launch again. The MSI installer checks for this; the .zip build can't, so nothing warned you.
"Windows protected your PC"
A blue SmartScreen dialog on a fresh download isn't an error. Click More info → Run anyway.
Antivirus quarantine
Some antivirus tools flag new, low-reputation executables. If Scryglass vanishes the instant you launch it, check the quarantine or history and add an exception for the install folder — C:\Program Files\Scryglass by default.
Unzip fully before running
On the .zip build, extract the whole archive first. Launching the .exe from inside the zip preview window fails.
Linux
Make the AppImage executable
Unzipping can lose the execute permission:
chmod +x Scryglass-*.AppImage
Missing WebKit libraries
Scryglass draws its window with WebKitGTK. On a libwebkit2gtk error, install libwebkit2gtk-4.1-0 or your distro's equivalent.
Run it from a terminal
If it still won't start, launching from a terminal usually prints the reason. Include that output if you write to us.
On any OS
Port 8443 is in use
The built-in server listens on port 8443. If another app — or a previous Scryglass that didn't fully exit — holds it, startup fails. Look for a leftover Scryglass process in Activity Monitor, Task Manager or ps, end it, and relaunch.
Try a clean data directory
A corrupted settings or cache file can block startup. Rename the data folder rather than deleting it — Scryglass starts fresh, and you can put it back afterwards. Where your files are kept →
Every launch writes a timestamped log to the logs folder inside that data directory. If none of the above helps, send us the newest log and your OS version — it almost always says exactly what happened.