Settings & Troubleshooting

Settings runs top to bottom as: network, identity, downloads, appearance, notifications, updates, language, account, data, wallet, help.

• Network — node ID, connected peers, connection state.
• Identity — create, restore, unlock, export the recovery phrase, devices.
• Downloads — default path and maximum concurrency.
• Appearance — dark, light or follow the system.
• Notifications — chat notifications and media autoload.
• Language — interface language.
• Account — the optional Poter account.
• Data — a note about local storage, plus the Iroh blob storage size readout.
• Help — version, platform, P2P engine, data directory (read-only), this user guide, and reporting a problem.

This device has never created or restored an identity. Click Open Settings, then under Identity click Create identity (new users) or Restore (you already have a phrase). Open Chats again after that.

If the identity is only locked this session and already exists on disk, this card does not appear on the chat page.

1. Go to Settings → Identity and confirm it says unlocked. If not, click Unlock.
2. Confirm both devices use the same recovery phrase — not "the same account", the same phrase.
3. Confirm both show P2P connected in the network section.
4. Click sync once in the identity device list, then give it a few minutes.

Devices discover each other through heartbeats, so a freshly opened device does not appear in the other's list immediately. Wait a moment, then sync again.

If it stays invisible for a long time: check that both use the same phrase, both have the identity unlocked, both have P2P connected, and that neither system clock is badly off.

While P2P is offline, chat, file sharing, deWeb and note sync are all unavailable — and nothing reports an error, so it looks like "clicking does nothing".

Check your network connection and restart the app if needed. Plain HTTP and BitTorrent downloads are unaffected.

This appears when the built-in engine binary is missing or damaged; reinstall Poter. Your data lives in the data directory and reinstalling will not delete it.

The full path to the data directory is shown under Settings → Help (read-only — this version has no "open folder" button):

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Poter
• Linux: ~/.local/share/Poter
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Poter

Notes, the download session, chat history and P2P blobs all live there, entirely on this machine. A complete backup needs two things:

• The recovery phrase — without it, the backed-up data cannot be opened.
• The data directory — just copy the whole thing.

Remote node deployment is deliberately hidden in this beta — no entry appears in the sidebar, and visiting the route directly bounces you back to the home page. To run your own node, deploy from the command line as described in "deWeb Sites → Keeping a site online".