Troubleshooting

Start with the menu bar panel: its status line and cards usually say what’s going on.

Windows aren’t being tiled

• The status says “Needs Accessibility access”. Turn Shoji on in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility, or click Grant Access in the panel. See Allow Accessibility access.
• Shoji is already switched on in Accessibility, but it keeps waiting for access. The entry probably belongs to an earlier copy of Shoji. Remove every Shoji row with −, reopen Shoji and turn on the fresh entry. See Switched on, but Shoji keeps waiting.
• The status says “Waiting for setup to finish”. Finish the welcome tour and press Tidy My Workspace. Shoji doesn’t move anything before that.
• The status says “Paused while Stage Manager is on”. Turn Stage Manager off in Control Center. See Pausing and Stage Manager.
• The status says “Automatic tiling is off”. Turn the switch at the top of the panel back on.

One window isn’t tiled

That window is probably one Shoji leaves alone on purpose:

• A dialog, sheet, panel or pop-up.
• A minimized window, or one in full-screen mode.
• A window that can’t be resized.
• A window from an app you’ve excluded. Check Tile app name in the panel with that app in front, and Settings → Apps.
• A window you floated with ⌃⌥F. Press it again to tile it.
• A window beyond the screen’s count, if Settings → Layout → When a screen is full is set to Float in the middle. You’ll have seen a This Space is full notice. (By default it would join a stack instead, waiting behind a tiled window.) Raise the count in the panel or with ⌃⌥⌘4, or close a window. See How tiling works.
• A window whose app won’t shrink enough to fit. See Apps that won’t shrink.

Keyboard shortcuts don’t work

• Another app already uses the shortcut. Settings → Keyboard lists the ones Shoji can’t use, and the panel’s Keyboard shortcuts row shows a warning. Change the shortcut in the other app to free it.
• “macOS couldn’t set up Shoji’s keyboard shortcuts”. Quit Shoji from the panel and open it again.
• Secure Input is on. While a password field or a secure terminal has focus, macOS blocks shortcuts for every app. The panel shows a card while this is happening; shortcuts come back when it ends.
• Shortcuts are turned off in Settings → Keyboard.
• The active window isn’t tiled. Shortcuts only act on tiled windows.

⌃⌥ and an arrow switches desktops instead

macOS uses ⌃ with an arrow to move between Spaces. Shoji’s shortcuts use ⌃⌥ with an arrow, which macOS doesn’t use by default. If you’ve added a ⌃⌥ shortcut of your own in System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts, it takes priority.

A window keeps floating in the middle

Its app probably refuses to get small enough for its place in the layout. Make it the primary window with ⌃⌥↩ to give it the most room, or tile fewer windows on that screen. See Apps that won’t shrink.

Hover focus switches windows while I type

It shouldn’t: after a key press, the pointer has to move before hovering activates windows again. If it’s still getting in the way, turn off Hover focus in the panel.

“This key is already active on another Mac”

A license works on one Mac at a time (two with the two-Mac license). Deactivate it on the other Mac in Settings › License, then try again. If you can’t reach that Mac any more, write to support.shoji.mac@gmail.com from the address you bought with. See Buy and activate.

I lost my license key

It’s in the email Dodo Payments sent with your receipt (search your mail for “Shoji”). Can’t find it? Write to support.shoji.mac@gmail.com from the address you bought with.

Shoji says it needs a license

Shoji doesn’t tile until a license is active on this Mac. Click Activate in the menu bar panel and paste your key. If Shoji was working before, the key may have been refunded or deactivated on this Mac; Settings › License says which.

Report a problem or suggest an idea

Click Send Feedback at the bottom of the menu bar panel, or Report a Problem… in Settings → About. Describe what happened, keep Include diagnostics on for a bug, and click Email…. You can read everything that’s included before sending. Not using Apple Mail? Click the arrow next to Email… and choose Gmail or Outlook.com: a new message opens in your browser with a summary of the diagnostics, and Finder opens with the full report selected so you can drag it into the email. Shoji remembers your choice for next time. With another email app set as your default, Shoji opens it the same way. Or click Copy Report and paste it anywhere.

Start over

• Sizes: press ⌃⌥0 to give the windows on a screen equal sizes again.
• Learned app sizes: Settings → Apps → Apps that can’t shrink → Forget All.
• The tour: open Settings → General and click Open Tour.