Docs · Reference

Troubleshooting

What Sift's error messages mean and how to fix them.

Error panels in Sift say what happened, what it affects and how to fix it, with details behind a disclosure. This page covers the common ones. If you’re stuck, Settings → Diagnostics → Copy diagnostics makes a zip of logs and tool versions (never media or your key) to send with a report.

It won’t open

macOS says “sift” can’t be opened or Not Opened. The build is unsigned. Approve it once in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway, or clear the quarantine flag. See Install & first run.

“Sift is already running at …” Another copy is open. Sift opens that one in your browser instead. To start fresh, close the Terminal window running Sift and open it again.

“Sift is already running (pid N) but isn’t answering…” An earlier copy is stuck. Quit it (close its Terminal window, or end the process in Activity Monitor) and open Sift again.

“Sift could not start: …” The message names the cause. Details are in ~/Library/Application Support/Sift/logs/server.log.

“Sift’s local server is taking longer than expected to answer.” The app is busy starting up, often while unpacking tools on the first launch. Wait a moment and reload the page.

It’s an Intel Mac. Sift needs Apple silicon.

Setup and tools

“Some tools are missing: … Sift will start; jobs that need them will fail (see Settings).” Settings → Tools shows each tool with Found or Missing. The release build unpacks its own tools on launch. If one is missing, quit Sift and open it again so it can unpack them.

“<tool> is not installed (see Settings)” during a run: as above. The run resumes at that stage when you run it again.

yamnet is not installed. Sound cues (cheering, applause) are skipped. Everything else runs.

“The downloaded Whisper model failed its checksum. Try the download again.” The download was cut off or damaged. Press the download button again.

Profiles fail to download from YouTube. YouTube changes can break older yt-dlp builds. Press Update yt-dlp in Settings, then retry the downloads.

API key and spending

“That key was rejected by <provider>. Check it and paste it again.” The key is wrong, revoked, or for the other provider. Check Settings → Model provider, then paste the key again.

“Couldn’t reach <host>. Check your internet connection.” Sift couldn’t reach the provider. Local work carries on; labeling waits.

“Your OpenRouter balance or key limit is too low for these requests — add credits, then press Run to continue.” Add credits (or raise the key’s limit) on OpenRouter, then run again. The run resumes; finished work is kept.

“Budget cap reached; labeling stopped. See Needs review.” The event hit its cap. On the Run page, raise the cap and press Raise budget and resume.

Sync and placement

Didn’t sync. The clip’s audio didn’t match any device it overlaps: it may have no useful sound, or be far off. Use Listen to check it against another device, nudge it, or Place manually…. Clips with no audio are placed by clock only.

Clock looks wrong. A camera’s clock was set to the wrong time or time zone. Set each device’s time zone on the devices board before the run; after it, listen and nudge the clip, or place it manually.

Timecode disagrees with audio. The timecode and the sound put the clip in different places. Listen to decide which is right, then pin it.

Drift over one frame / Variable frame rate drift. The clip drifts against the reference over its length. Premiere conforms variable frame rate clips; check the sync near the end of the clip.

Footage

Missing from the media folder. Files were moved, renamed or are on a drive that isn’t mounted. Reconnect the drive or put them back, then re-scan. Until then they are left out of the XML.

Unsupported files. Camera RAW (BRAW, R3D, ARW, CR3 and others) isn’t supported. Transcode them to a supported format if you need them.

Unreadable files. The file is damaged or incomplete, often from a card pulled mid-write.

Duplicates. The same file was dumped twice. Sift flags the copy so it isn’t counted twice.

Export

“Not enough free space to copy the media …” The copy needs more room than the drive has. Free up space or choose another output folder.

“Couldn’t open Premiere Pro.” Open Premiere Pro yourself and choose File → Import, then pick the XML in the output folder.

Media offline in Premiere. The footage moved after export. Relink in Premiere, or export again with Copy media so the project and footage travel together.

Agents

“Agent access is off. Turn it on in Settings → Agent access.” Switch on Allow agents over MCP. See Agent access.