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Common issues

Things that go wrong and what they usually mean, grouped by where you meet them.

Installing and updating​

Windows SmartScreen warns about the installer​

The .exe installer is not code-signed yet. Choose More info, then Run anyway. You only do this once. Installing from the Microsoft Store avoids the warning. See installation.

macOS says the app is damaged or cannot be opened​

The macOS build is signed and notarised, so this should not happen with a download from the download page. Download it again from there — a copy that was modified, repackaged or only partly downloaded fails Apple's check.

It will not install on an Intel Mac​

This version runs on Apple silicon (M1 or newer) only.

The update says it has to be installed by hand​

This install could not replace itself. Download the new version from the download page and install it over the old one. Your knowledge bases and settings are kept.

Getting the AI to answer​

"AI is not set up yet"​

The AI needs a MindMax account or an API key of your own. Sign in (the free plan includes weekly credits), or Use my own key — see using your own API key. Reading, highlighting, writing and searching work without either.

"You've used this week's credits"​

Weekly credits ran out. A running job pauses with its progress kept; it says when credits come back, and saying "continue" after that resumes it. You can also top up or upgrade in settings, or point the work at your own API key. Settings → Usage shows where the credits went.

A large job asks about quota before starting​

It estimated more than your balance. Start it anyway (it pauses at a checkpoint when credits run out), schedule it for after the next grant, or run it in economy mode — about half the cost, but it can take up to a day.

"Your session has expired"​

Sign in again. A job that was running is paused with progress kept; say "continue" afterwards.

My own API key will not connect​

Use Test on the provider card in Settings → Models → LLM providers — it sends one real request and reports what went wrong. The usual causes and fixes are in using your own API key.

Search and questions​

Search finds nothing in a document I can see​

Almost always one of two things.

The document is a scan with no text layer. Nothing in it is text yet. See recognising scanned PDFs.

It has not been read in yet. PDFs, books and Office files are read in the background the first time a folder is opened. The search panel says how many files are not ready.

A file is listed as "couldn't be read"​

It took too long or may be damaged. Settings → Knowledge base lists these with Retry. They are not retried automatically until the file changes or MindMax restarts. You can still open them.

A large library says only part of it was searched​

Past a certain size, only part of the folder is examined in depth per query, and the results say so. Use more specific wording, add path: to narrow it, or exclude folders that are not source material in Settings → Knowledge base.

Images become searchable once they have been read. Settings → Knowledge base → Read these N reads the rest in one go.

The AI never uses a particular file​

Check whether it — or a folder above it — is marked Hidden from AI in the file tree. Hidden files stay visible to you; the AI skips them unless you add them to a conversation yourself.

An AI answer is confident and wrong​

Check the quotes. That is what they are for — a quote that cannot be matched to the source is flagged at the end of the answer, but a real quote can still be attached to a conclusion it supports less well than it appears to.

If a whole answer is off-target, the usual cause is scope: too broad a folder, or a question the documents do not actually address. Narrow it with @ and These N only.

Reading and citations​

A citation takes me to the wrong place​

Most common in multi-column PDFs with figures interleaved, and in recognised scans. Extraction gets the characters right and the reading order wrong.

If it happens in a recognised scan, check that page in the quality report — it may be one of the flagged ones.

A citation says the sentence is no longer in the document​

The document changed after the answer was written. The citation still opens the document; the exact sentence has gone.

I cannot highlight on a scanned PDF​

Annotations on a scan live in text mode, which shows the recognised text. Switch to it to see and add them.

A Kindle book will not open​

Books bought from the Kindle store carry DRM and cannot be opened. Ordinary .mobi and .azw3 files are converted to EPUB the first time.

Long jobs and revisions​

A long job stopped partway​

Translation, writing and recognition keep their progress. Reopen the app and press Resume or say "continue" — completed work is kept and not redone. Jobs run on your machine, so closing the app or sleeping the laptop stops them.

A revision will not open: unsaved changes​

Save or discard your edits first, so the review is against what is on disk.

A revision says the document changed after it was generated​

Your edits moved the text underneath. Generate the revision again.

Word files and reviews​

"… is open in Word. Close it in Word first"​

Word locks a file while it is open, so MindMax will not write to it. Close the document in Word, then apply the changes again.

"The pre-write self-check failed"​

Before writing a Word file, MindMax checks the edited file against what you accepted. It did not match, so the original was left untouched (for a reviewed copy, no copy was created). Generate the revision again; if one spot keeps failing, edit that part in Word.

Some of my edits were left out of the Word file​

A change inside a page-number or table-of-contents field, inside a content control, or one that would add or remove a table column cannot be made safely, so it is skipped and listed in the result. Headers, footers, footnotes and text boxes are not revised at all.

The document already has someone else's tracked changes​

The bar at the top of the document says how many and whose. Before revising, accept them all and then revise, so the AI's edits are not mixed in with the old ones — or keep them and revise anyway. Open in Word handles them one by one.

A comment was not included in the reviewed copy​

Its quoted words could not be placed in the Word file with confidence — they appear more than once, or the quote is too short. The export lists each one with the reason; add those by hand in Word.

Voice​

Nothing happens when I press the voice shortcut​

Another app may own the combination. Change it in Settings → Hotkeys. If MindMax was closed, turn on Keep running in the tray in Settings → General so the shortcut works without a window.

"Microphone access was denied"​

Allow MindMax to use the microphone in your system's privacy settings, then try again.

It keeps listening after I stop talking​

Steady background noise can read as speech. Press Enter to finish instead of waiting.

Quick notes​

The AI changed a name or a term to the wrong spelling​

Quick notes fix spelling as they file a thought, and a name or term the AI has not seen can be "corrected" the wrong way. Corrections it was unsure of are listed above Accept revision as old → new — check those first. Reject the change, or accept it and fix the word yourself. To keep a line exactly as typed, start it with "write it down exactly".

"Couldn't tell which text this instruction is about"​

You pressed ⌘Enter with an instruction like "turn the above into an email", and the AI could not work out which part of the note you meant. Select the text in the note, then press ⌘Enter again.

"This note is already tidy — nothing to change"​

Tidy whole note found nothing worth changing. It only regroups and corrects; it never adds content, so a short or already orderly note can come back untouched.

"The document changed while generating; this revision is stale"​

You typed in the note while the AI was filing the quick note, so its change no longer fits the text. Nothing was written. Send the quick note again.

Obsidian​

An Obsidian plugin does not work​

This version of MindMax does not load Obsidian plugins at all. Nothing is removed from your vault — the plugins keep working in Obsidian, which reads the same folder — so do plugin-dependent work there.

Something else​

Nothing here matching? The FAQ covers product-level questions, and the glossary explains the vocabulary.

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