Troubleshooting

Fixes for the problems you're most likely to hit, organized by what you see on screen.

Wait out a slow first launch

A small window appears reading "Starting video engine…" and seems stuck. As time passes, it updates on its own:

• After about 20 seconds: "Still starting — the first launch can take a few minutes while Windows scans the new files."
• After about 90 seconds: "Still working on it… this only happens on the first launch."

This is expected the first time you start the app after installing or updating it. Windows scans the new files, and that takes a while. Wait it out. The main window opens as soon as the app is ready, and the next launch is fast.

Recover from "Solar Sailer could not start"

If startup actually fails, the small starting window closes and an error box appears titled "Solar Sailer could not start". It shows the error, then "Details were saved to the session log:" followed by a folder path. The app closes after that.

Copy the path from the box, open that folder in File Explorer, and send its files to support. See Still stuck? below.

Recover from "Solar Sailer is already running"

If you launch the app and get an error box titled "Solar Sailer is already running", a previous session is stuck and is holding the app open in the background. The box tells you what to do:

1. Open Task Manager.
2. End every process named Solar Sailer.
3. Launch Solar Sailer again.

Restarting your computer fixes it too. You won't see this box for a healthy app that's already open. In that case the existing window just comes to the front.

Find your log files

Every launch writes a fresh folder of log files. There is no menu item in the app that opens it, so navigate there yourself:

1. Open File Explorer.
2. Paste %APPDATA%\solar-sailer\logs into the address bar and press Enter. If there is no solar-sailer folder, look for one named Solar Sailer instead.
3. Each folder is named with the date and time of that launch, so the newest one is your most recent run.

When you ask for help, send the whole newest folder.

Relink offline media

A red OFFLINE badge on a media item, with a ! mark on its thumbnail, means the file moved or was renamed since you imported it. Right-click the item, choose Relink…, and pick the file in its new location.

Full steps are in Media Processing and Proxies.

Play a clip that says Proxy Required

A Proxy Required badge on a video means that camera format can't be played directly. When you import files like this, a warning lists them. Until a proxy exists, these clips show nothing during playback.

Right-click the item and choose Generate Proxy. When it finishes, the badge disappears and playback uses the proxy. See Media Processing and Proxies for details.

Read a yellow warning on a thumbnail

A yellow ! mark on a thumbnail means the import check flagged the file. Hover over the mark to read the message. The three messages you can see are:

• "File has zero duration"
• "Codec '…' is not supported for browser playback"
• "Missing video dimensions"

Get sound back when the app started without it

If the audio engine doesn't come up at launch, a red message stays on screen reading "The audio engine failed to start — playback will have no sound." The app already retried on its own a few times before showing it.

Click Restart audio on that message. It restarts audio without relaunching the app, and a green message confirms: "Audio engine restarted." If it fails again the red message comes back, and clicking again is safe.

This is a different problem from losing a device mid-session, covered next.

Restore audio after unplugging a device

If your headphones or audio interface disconnect, or Windows switches its default output device, playback stops and a message appears: "Playback paused — the audio output device was lost." If the app can't recover on its own, a second message appears: "Audio output device was lost." with a Reconnect audio button.

1. Reconnect the device, or pick a working output device in Windows.
2. Click Reconnect audio on the message.
3. Press play again.

Fix a failed AI tool run

The most common cause is a missing or invalid API key. Keys live in Preferences → API Keys, and a key you save applies to your next run without restarting the app. A missing key isn't treated as a failure: the run dialog stays open with a yellow notice and an Open API Keys… button. Error messages about a rejected key include an Open Preferences… button that jumps to the same place.

Failed footage classifications don't interrupt you with messages. They collect behind a warning triangle in the status bar reading 2 errors. Click it to see which files failed and why, then Clear all when you're done.

For the full failure flow, see Running a Tool.

Send more detail with a crash report

Preferences → Diagnostics holds a Contributor Mode checkbox, off by default. Turning it on adds your computer name, file paths, and project names to crash reports, so the Solar Sailer team can tell whose machine a problem came from and follow up with you. It needs Send crash reports turned on to do anything, and it applies fully the next time the editor starts.

Still stuck?

Email operations@proko.com. Include what you were doing, your newest log folder (see Find your log files), and the app version shown on the starting window when the app launches.

Help → Documentation in the app opens this docs site.