Troubleshooting
Messages you might see, what they mean, and what to do.
“Not available on this Mac yet”
A sync service has listed the file but not downloaded it. Bakspace opens it as soon as it arrives and never treats it as deleted; until then it is left out of word counts, search and export. Word counts and search say how many they left out, and export names them. To stop it happening, set the project folder to stay downloaded; see On your other computers.
A conflict copy appeared
Something else changed a document while you had unsaved words in it, often the same scene edited on two computers at once. Bakspace never writes over the other version: yours is saved beside it as …conflict-….md and listed under Conflict copies in the binder. Open the copy in any text editor, take what you want into the document, then delete the copy.
Entries under “Lost their file”
The synopsis, label and status of a document whose file Bakspace could not find, usually because it was moved or renamed while Bakspace was closed. Nothing of the text is lost: the file is wherever it was moved to. Copy what you need across, then remove the entry.
“Saved by a newer version of Bakspace”
The project was last saved by a newer Bakspace on another computer, so this one opens it read-only rather than risk getting it wrong. Update Bakspace and it opens as normal.
A project on Home says “Missing”
The folder has been moved, renamed or deleted since you last opened it. Open it from its new place with Open folder, and Forget the old entry.
“Your trial starts once you are online”
The trial clock is kept by the licence server, so it needs one connection to begin. Everything works in the meantime.
No red underlines
Check Settings > Editor > Spellcheck. Names of characters and places, and words added to the project's dictionary, are never underlined; see Spelling and readability.
Readability marks do not show
Readability help is off until you switch it on, each of its checks has its own switch, and Focus mode hides the marks. A sentence of under fourteen words is never marked as hard.
Something else
Help > Report a Problem starts an email to support@bakspace.app. Say what you did and what happened.