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Troubleshooting

"Poof!" Not Opened, or "Poof! can't be opened"

This is macOS's one-time check on apps that aren't signed with a paid Apple developer account. Press Done (or OK), then follow The first time: Apple's warning for your macOS version: on macOS 15 and 26 you press Open Anyway in System Settings → Privacy & Security; on macOS 14 you right-click Poof! in Applications and choose Open.

"Move Poof! to Applications first"

You opened Poof! straight from the downloaded disk, or macOS hasn't let it out of Downloads yet. Press OK. Open the downloaded Poof-<version>.dmg again, drag Poof! onto Applications, eject the Poof! disk (⏏ in the Finder sidebar) and open Poof! from your Applications folder.

"Open Anyway" is missing

The Open Anyway line in System Settings → Privacy & Security appears only after you have tried to open Poof! once, and stays for about an hour. Open Poof! from Applications again, press Done, then go back to Privacy & Security and scroll down to the Security section.

"Poof! couldn't start"

The setup window shows this, or Poof! could not be set up, with the last lines of what happened.

  • Setup stopped part way: check that your Mac is online (the first open downloads about 130 MB), then press Try again. Nothing is left half-installed.
  • Other programs are using its connections: quit apps you started recently, then press Try again.
  • Show log opens the full record. If it keeps failing, keep that file: it says what went wrong.

"Poof! is not responding"

Poof! itself isn't running. Your unsaved changes are still in the page. Open Poof! from your Applications folder again, then try again. If the ✨ icon is in the menu bar, choose Open Poof! from it.

The page won't open at all

Make sure Poof! is running: the ✨ icon is in the menu bar. Choose Open Poof! from it rather than typing an address, because Poof! may be using a different connection (see If another program uses Poof!'s connection). Only one copy of Poof! can run at a time.

A marketplace "didn't let Poof! read this listing"

The marketplace refused the read. Nothing was changed in Poof!. Try again later, or paste the listing's text into the import window instead. A listing that can't be read is never taken as sold.

A button is greyed out

Most greyed-out buttons say why beside them. Common reasons:

  • an AI button while AI processing is Local only — no OpenAI;
  • a photo action while nothing is selected;
  • a save while another save is still finishing.

My photos look small or blurry

They were probably dragged out of the Photos app, which hands over small previews. See the FAQ.

The cut-out removed part of my item

Use Fix the cut-out › Keep to paint the missing part back. See Edit photos.

"Prepare background on this computer" is not available

The free cut-out isn't installed, or its model isn't downloaded yet. Open Folder & settings, press Add-ons, press Install under Free cut-out, then quit Poof! and open it again. Then press Download under Cut-out model. See Add-ons.

Poof!'s own message may name a command instead. You don't need it; the buttons do the same. If you do run it in Terminal, run it from inside Poof!'s backend folder.

The free cut-out needs an Apple-silicon Mac for now.

AI says it isn't connected

Check that OpenAI's Codex tool is installed and signed in with ChatGPT (see Add-ons), and that AI processing is set to ChatGPT.