Troubleshooting

The most common questions, each with the short answer and the section that explains the rest.

Format, F7 or F5 says the tool is missing. For many languages the formatter, the linter and the interpreter are external programs. LightNote opens an assistant with the tools for that type, says which are already installed and installs the one you choose with a click. If the program is installed somewhere LightNote does not find, point to it in Settings → Code tools → External programs. See Run code (F5).

The AI does not answer, or says the model was retired. The message says what happened and what to do: running out of credit does not go away by retrying, and when the provider asks for a wait it says how many seconds. If the model was discontinued, the message itself offers Change the model…, and in Settings → AI Assistants you can turn on automatic switching, which never picks a more expensive model. See Connecting a model.

I forgot the Passphrase. It cannot be recovered: it is the encryption key. If this computer still has it stored, the data keeps opening here, and Help → Set Up Passphrase… lets you replace it with a new one, re-encrypting everything. Without it, what was encrypted (connection passwords, .lne notes, password cells) does not open. Ordinary notes do not depend on it. See Security: Passphrase, PIN and Secure Markdown.

The tree does not show the Git colors. The colors only appear with versioning turned on for this folder, in Tools → Workspace → Workspace settings..., and with the Git program found. If it is installed somewhere LightNote does not find, point to it in Settings → Code tools → External programs. A file changed by another program gets its color within a second or two. See Version the open folder.

Search does not find what is in a PDF. A scanned PDF is a photo of each page, with no text, and the Search tab says how many there are. With Tesseract installed, the PDF's ⋯ menu has Recognize the text (OCR)…, which runs once per document. The first time you open a folder with many documents, extracting their text also takes a few minutes. See Searching files and documents.

Search by meaning does not appear or finds nothing. It depends on semantic boost (embeddings), turned on in Settings → General → Features, and on an AI provider that offers embeddings. The first time in each folder it asks to index, and when it fails the screen says why, such as an expired key or a provider that is down. See Activity and search by meaning.

The diagram shows up as a code block. When LightNote cannot read a diagram, it says why and on which line, right below the block. With no warning at all, the type is not drawn here yet. The list of types is in How it works, and the block's edit bar (Ctrl+Enter) can ask the AI to rewrite it.

The formula came out as text in Word. Exporting converts the formulas LightNote draws; whatever is left out comes out as text, and the end of the export lists each case with the reason. See Folding, sticky headings and export.