Support — WIP Notes

App won't open or quits immediately

Bounces in the Dock, shows a blank window, or crashes on launch

Restart your Mac and try launching WIP Notes again — this clears most launch-time conflicts.
Make sure you're running macOS 13 Ventura or later. WIP Notes requires Ventura as a minimum.
If you downloaded the app from outside the Mac App Store, open System Settings → Privacy & Security and look for a prompt to allow WIP Notes to run.
Delete the app and re-download the latest version from the WIP Notes website. Your notes are stored separately and won't be affected.

Changes disappear after closing the app or switching notes

WIP Notes saves automatically as you type. If changes are being lost, check that you have write permission to your home directory — this is almost always the cause.
Open Finder → Go → Go to Folder and navigate to ~/Library/Application Support/WIP Notes/. If this folder doesn't exist, the app may not have been able to create its database — try launching WIP Notes once with full disk access granted.
In System Settings → Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access, check whether WIP Notes is listed. It doesn't require full disk access normally, but adding it temporarily can help diagnose permission issues.
Quit and relaunch the app. If notes now appear, the app was running in a degraded state — this is usually resolved by restarting.

Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini shows an error or can't find the MCP tools

Open WIP Notes first. The MCP server reads from the WIP Notes database — if the app has never been launched, the database won't exist yet.
Confirm Node.js is installed by opening Terminal and running node --version. If you get "command not found," install Node.js from nodejs.org and restart your AI app.
Double-check your config file for typos. The server name in your config must be exactly wip-notes-mcp. See the AI Setup guide for the correct format per platform.
Restart the AI app after saving any config change — most AI desktop apps don't pick up config changes without a full restart.
If you're on Claude Desktop, look for a hammer icon in the chat toolbar. If it's missing, the MCP server didn't load — re-check the config file path and JSON syntax.

App updated and notes appear to be gone

Your notes are never deleted by an update. They live in ~/Library/Application Support/WIP Notes/, separate from the app itself.
Open Finder, press ⌘⇧G, and paste ~/Library/Application Support/WIP Notes/ to navigate there directly. You should see a .db file — that file contains all your notes.
If the folder exists but the app is showing empty, quit WIP Notes, wait a few seconds, and relaunch. In rare cases the app opens before the database is fully accessible.
If the folder is missing entirely, check whether you're logged into the same Mac user account you were using before. Each macOS user account has a separate notes database.

Activation fails or the app keeps showing as unlicensed

Copy the license key directly from your purchase confirmation email — don't retype it manually, as a single character difference will cause it to fail.
Make sure you're entering the key on the same Mac you intend to use WIP Notes on. Licenses are per-machine.
If activation still fails, your Mac may be blocking the license check. Temporarily disable any VPN or firewall, then try again.
If you've lost your license key, email us at dev@intiquesoftware.com with your purchase email address and we'll resend it.