What to do when DepCut cannot reach the Mac app

A red bar across the top of the page reads "This project is stored on this Mac, and DepCut can't reach the DepCut app." It carries one link, How to fix this. This post explains why the bar appears and walks through each version of the dialog behind that link.

Why the banner appears

Projects on your Mac are stored on your Mac's disk and opened through the DepCut Mac app, which sits in your menu bar and runs a local engine for storage, encoding and on-device speech. The web page talks to that engine. If the app is closed, or your browser will not let the page reach it, the page cannot open those files.

The banner shows up when you reach for something that needs the app, such as opening a project stored on your Mac or clicking a Library item that lives there. It only appears in a browser that has connected to the app before. Cloud projects never raise it.

Fix it

1. Click How to fix this to open the dialog.
2. Follow the version of the dialog you see, listed below.
3. Keep the page open. Once the app answers, the banner clears and the project loads without a refresh.

The dialog versions

This project is stored on this Mac. This is the common one. The app is not running or not installed. Open the DepCut app, or click Download for Mac to install it. The page checks for the app every few seconds and connects by itself, and Try again checks right away. From the app's menu bar menu, Go to App opens DepCut in your browser.

Connect to the DepCut app. Your browser wants your permission before a web page can talk to apps on your device. Click Connect, then choose Allow in the browser's prompt.

Connection blocked. The permission was denied earlier. In Chrome, open the site settings from the icon next to the address bar, turn on Apps on device, and click Try again. The dialog includes a screenshot of that panel.

What keeps working

• Cloud projects open and save as usual, since they do not need the app.
• Projects on your Mac stay in the Projects list. Their cards show a laptop icon, and hovering it reads "This is a local project — open the DepCut app to edit it". You can still open them to see the banner, but renaming, duplicating, moving and deleting are unavailable until the app is back.
• Library items stored on your Mac stay listed as read-only cards.
• The Library in the editor lists only what it can reach right now, so Mac items return when the app does.

If you want a project out of the Mac

Moving a project between homes needs both sides reachable. Once the app is running again, open the project's menu on the Projects page and choose Move to Cloud. After the move, the project opens from any browser without the app.

Put it to work

Close the Mac app, open the Projects page in DepCut, and note which cards keep their menus. Then reopen the app and watch the page reconnect.