Troubleshooting

At log-in

• "That key wasn't recognised." — a typo, or the key was mistyped as something else. Copy it again from the Licenses tab.
• "That isn't a license key." — the shape is wrong. Keys look like PREFIX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX.
• "This key isn't linked to a Discord account yet." — redeem it in your dashboard's Licenses tab first.
• "This key is locked to another PC." — the key is used on a different machine. Ask in Discord for a device reset. If you never used it elsewhere, mention that too.
• "This key has expired." — the plan's time ran out. A new plan starts fresh.
• "This key has been revoked." — refunded or revoked for misuse; support can say which.
• "This account can't use Chessware." — the account is suspended; ask support.
• "Too many attempts." — wait a few minutes after several wrong keys.
• "Close your debugger first." — Chessware refuses to run under a debugger. Close it and try again.
• "Chessware's files look modified." — the app failed its self-check. Re-download it from your dashboard.

At inject

• "No Chrome or Edge found." — install Chrome or Edge, then press Inject again.
• "No chess.com/lichess.org tab found." — the site wasn't open in the Chessware browser window. Press Inject again; it opens the site for you and attaches when the tab is up.
• "Attach failed..." — the tab was closing or navigating at that exact moment. Press Inject again.
• The menu doesn't appear on the page. — press Inject once more; if the toast shows but the menu is closed, click the knight at the bottom-right of the page.
• No arrows on the board. — make sure a game is actually running and it's your move; check that Arrows (and Dots/Boxes) are enabled in the menu's Main tab.
• Nothing happens on auto play. — it only plays on your turn in a live game; check Engine play is on and the timing range isn't huge.

Engine messages

• "Setting up" sticks for minutes. — the first unpack after sign-in writes ~500 MB; after that it's instant.
• "An engine bundled in Chessware.exe didn't match." — the exe is corrupted or was modified. Re-download from your dashboard.

Updates

• A checksum mismatch — try again; if it repeats, tell support.
• SmartScreen warnings — press "More info" → "Run anyway" on a fresh download; code signing will quiet this fully.

Can't connect at all

Check the internet, your firewall (HTTPS to our host, plus the local browser connection), try another network, turn your VPN off, and make sure the PC's date and time are right (TLS needs them).

Asking for help

Include: the exact message, your Chessware version (title bar), the last 5 characters of your key, and your Windows version.