Troubleshooting

Keychain password prompts (macOS)

If you see repeated password prompts asking for access to keychain items like com.hyprnote.Argmax.licenseToken or similar entries, this is typically caused by outdated or corrupted keychain entries from a previous version of Char.

How to fix

1. Open Keychain Access directly by searching "Keychain Access" in Spotlight and selecting the app (not the Passwords app that macOS may suggest). You can also find it at /System/Library/CoreServices/Applications/Keychain Access.app.
2. In the search bar, type hyprnote or argmax
3. Select and delete any Char or Argmax related entries
4. Quit Char completely and relaunch the app

The app will create fresh keychain entries on the next launch, and the password prompts should stop appearing.

If deletion doesn't work

Keychain Access may sometimes ignore delete attempts for application password entries due to access control settings. If clicking Delete does nothing or no confirmation dialog appears:

1. Quit both Keychain Access and Char completely
2. Reopen Keychain Access and try deleting the entries again
3. When working correctly, you should see a confirmation dialog asking "Are you sure you want to delete..."

If issues persist, you may need to restart your Mac to refresh the keychain state.

Why this happens

When Char updates, sometimes the code signing identity changes, which can cause macOS to treat the new version as a different application. This triggers keychain access prompts because macOS is protecting your stored credentials from unauthorized access.

Why does Char show network activity in Activity Monitor when I'm not using it?

Usually this is expected background traffic, not your meeting content being uploaded.

The biggest source is Char's connectivity check. The desktop app sends a bare HEAD request to https://www.google.com/generate_204 every 2 seconds so it can tell whether cloud-only features should be treated as online or offline.

In release builds, Char also checks for updates in the background every 30 minutes and automatically downloads an update when one is available. If you have analytics enabled, Char may also send anonymous usage events to PostHog and Outlit. Release builds also include Sentry for crash reporting.

If you are using local STT plus a local LLM like LM Studio or Ollama, your audio, transcripts, notes, and prompts still stay on your device. Local AI does not disable every background network request, but it does keep your meeting content local.

If you want the smallest possible network footprint:

1. Use a local STT model and a local LLM
2. Disable analytics in Settings
3. Stay signed out unless you need Pro or other cloud features
4. Avoid cloud sync, cloud transcription, and cloud LLM providers

For the complete data-flow breakdown, see AI Models & Data Privacy.