Troubleshooting

“That sign-in did not finish in the window it started in”

The round trip has to end in the browser it began in, because the check that stops somebody else’s sign-in being completed in your browser lives in a cookie there. Press Try again on the message and finish in one window. A few attempts may be open at once — clicking the button twice is fine, and so is an installed app sending you through its own browser view — but the one that comes back has to come back here, and within half an hour.

“Could not complete sign-in with GitHub”

GitHub did not complete the exchange. Try once more from the sign-in page; if it keeps happening, check whether you have revoked ForkLeaf’s access at GitHub → Applications.

“Your GitHub sign-in has expired”

The sign-in ended — the authorisation was revoked, the same account was signed in elsewhere at a different access level, or the browser has been away for longer than the session lasts. Press Sign in again; your notes and anything queued to push are on this device and are waiting for you. Signing in.

Signed in, but images in a note will not load

The same expired sign-in — a note’s pictures are fetched from your repository with the same credentials the rest of the app uses. Sign in again and they come back.

Stuck on “Saved locally · N to push”

Click it to force a push. If it stays, look at the right of the status bar for the actual error. Nothing is lost — the changes are on your device.

“Branch is protected” or a 422 from GitHub

The target branch requires reviews or status checks, so a direct push is refused. Point the workspace at an unprotected branch — see Repositories & workspaces.

“Rate limit exceeded”

5,000 authenticated requests per hour per user. Syncing pauses and resumes automatically when the window resets. Queued changes are kept.

A conflict I did not cause

Something else changed the file: another device, a collaborator, a GitHub Action, or you editing on github.com. See Conflicts.

The repository list is empty when connecting

ForkLeaf only offers repositories you can write to. Read-only access is filtered out, because showing you a repository it could never save to would be worse than hiding it.

Pressing / does nothing

The menu only opens at the start of a line or after a space — never mid-word, so URLs and file paths are left alone. Put the caret on an empty line and try again. If you would rather click, the Insert button on the toolbar has the same list.

A diagram shows “Empty diagram — click to edit”

The block exists but has no source yet. Click it to open the studio and pick a template.

A diagram renders in ForkLeaf but not on GitHub

GitHub supports a subset of Mermaid and a slightly older version. Newer diagram types — timelines, quadrant charts — may not render there yet. The file is still correct.

My notes vanished

Check the workspace switcher at the top of the sidebar. Notes written before signing in are in On this device, not in your repository — they are two separate workspaces and switching accounts does not move anything between them.

Export produced nothing

PDF export uses the browser’s print dialogue; a pop-up blocker can suppress it. For other formats, check that downloads are not being blocked for the site.