Troubleshooting

Most problems come down to files, folders or permissions. Because your notes are ordinary files, you can always check what is on disk.

Installing

Windows shows “Windows protected your PC”. Installers without a paid code-signing certificate trigger SmartScreen. Check the SHA-256 checksum from the download page, and if it matches choose More info, then Run anyway.

Android says it cannot install the app. Allow Install unknown apps for the app you opened the file with. If Play Protect warns about an unknown developer, choose More details, then Install anyway. If the install still fails, check that your phone runs Android 7.0 or newer and that a copy signed with a different key (for example a build you made yourself) is not installed; uninstall it first, after exporting a backup.

The checksum does not match. Delete the file and download it again. Do not install a file whose checksum differs.

Opening vaults

The vault will not open. Make sure the folder still exists and that Scaffold may read and write it. On Android, vaults live in the app’s own storage; they are gone if the app was uninstalled, so restore them from a backup.

A video or web image in a note does not load. Web embeds load only after you click to load them, and only from the video sites Scaffold allows. Anything else opens in your browser when you tap the link. Android versions 0.1.x have no internet access at all, so embeds never load there.

Reminders do not show on Android. They start switched off: turn them on in Settings, Reminders, and allow notifications when Android asks. If you said no earlier, allow notifications for Scaffold in Android’s app settings.

A note looks different or is missing. Check the file explorer for a similarly named file, then the trash view. Deleted files go to .scaffold/trash and can be restored. Excluded folders in the vault settings are not indexed.

Search, links and the graph

Search or backlinks seem out of date. The index is rebuilt from your files when you open a vault. Close and reopen the vault. If it persists, close Scaffold, delete .scaffold/index-cache.json, and open the vault again.

A link will not open. Muted links point at notes that do not exist yet. Click one to create the note, or check the spelling. See Linking notes.

The graph is empty or too small. The graph shows real links. Make sure the graph module is on, and check the filters: orphans, tags and attachments can each be hidden.

Edits, conflicts and recovery

I deleted or overwrote something. Open the trash view for deleted files and file recovery for earlier versions of a note. Both read from .scaffold. See Vaults.

Scaffold says a note changed on disk. Another program (often a sync tool) edited it. Scaffold kept both versions instead of overwriting. Compare them and keep what you want. See Sync your notes.

Plugins and themes

A plugin does nothing. The plugin system has a master switch that is off by default, and each plugin needs its permissions granted. See Plugins.

The interface looks broken after a theme or snippet. Turn off custom CSS in settings, or move the file out of .scaffold/themes or .scaffold/snippets. Your notes are never part of a theme.

Starting fresh

Closing Scaffold and renaming .scaffold to .scaffold-old resets the vault’s settings and caches without touching a single note. You lose snapshots and trash only if you delete the old folder, so keep it until you are sure.

Still stuck? See the FAQ or the contact page.