Known Issues

This page lists known issues with Groupthink and any available workarounds. We update this page as issues are resolved.

The Notetaker Is Waiting to Be Let In

Issue: The Groupthink notetaker usually joins right as your meeting begins. If your meeting has a waiting room, it waits outside until someone admits it, and it cannot record until then.

Workaround: Admit Groupthink from the waiting room. If it is still waiting about a minute in, we message the meeting and email the host so someone can let it in. Groupthink keeps waiting up to 25 minutes, or until your meeting was scheduled to end, whichever comes first, and it captures everything from the moment it is admitted. If it never gets in, you will get an email explaining why, and you can still add your notes by opening the recap and clicking Log Interaction. See The Notetaker Was Not Admitted to Your Meeting.

Private Desktop Recording on macOS: silent or one-sided recording

Issue: A private desktop recording on macOS comes back silent, or captures your own voice but not the other participants.

Workaround: Groupthink needs two macOS permissions for a complete recording. Both live in System Settings > Privacy & Security. (If your live transcript is empty but audio is being captured, that is a different problem — see Live Transcript Isn't Coming Through During a Meeting below. These steps will not help with it.)

1. Open System Settings > Privacy & Security > Screen & System Audio Recording. That pane has two groups. In the lower group, System Audio Recording Only, turn on both entries: Groupthink and GroupthinkAudio. This is what captures the other participants.

   Groupthink adds two entries here because a small helper does the audio capture and macOS lists it separately. They can appear at different times, so check back for the second one if you only see one today. If GroupthinkAudio is off, recordings come back silent even when Groupthink is on.

2. Open System Settings > Privacy & Security > Microphone and make sure Groupthink is turned on. This is what captures your own voice.

3. Stop the recording and start it again. Neither permission needs an app restart.

See Troubleshooting Private Meeting Recording for more detail.

Note: You do not need to turn on the upper Screen & System Audio Recording toggle for audio. Turning it on does work, because it includes system audio, but it also gives Groupthink access to your screen, which audio capture does not need. Full screen access is only required for Capturing On-Screen Content.

Live Transcript Isn't Coming Through During a Meeting

Issue: During a meeting, the live transcript panel stops saying "Transcript of your discussion will appear soon" and instead reads:

Live transcript isn't coming through We're still capturing audio for this meeting, but no transcribed text has come back. Don't rely on this pane during the call — take notes as if it weren't here.

What it means: The recording is fine. Groupthink can see audible audio going in — that is the only reason this panel appears at all — so the meeting is not at risk. What has stopped is the live transcription service, which is the pane on screen during the call, not the recap afterwards.

This is not a permissions problem. The macOS Privacy & Security steps in Private Desktop Recording on macOS: silent or one-sided recording above will not help here, and following them will only cost you time: this panel cannot appear unless audio is already being captured. Tell the two apart by what you see — a silent recording is permissions; an empty live transcript while audio is flowing is not.

Workaround: Keep the meeting going and take your own notes for the rest of the call. Do not rely on the panel.

A stalled live pane does not automatically mean an empty recap — the recap is built from a separate pass after the meeting, so it is worth checking before assuming the meeting is lost. If the recap is also empty, use Log Interaction on the recap page to paste in notes from any source. See Recover a Meeting Recap When the Notetaker Fails.

You do not need to report it. The app tells us whenever this happens.

The Desktop App Doesn't Update on a Mac

Issue: You click the Update Available banner at the top of the Groupthink window. The app closes and opens again, but it's still on the old version, and the banner comes back.

Workaround: Install the latest version by hand. Quit Groupthink with Quit Groupthink Completely from the menu bar menu, download the latest Mac version (or the Intel version if your Mac has an Intel processor), and drag it into your Applications folder, choosing Replace. Full steps are in Troubleshooting updates.

Granting Full Disk Access Quits Groupthink

Issue: When you turn on Groupthink under System Settings > Privacy & Security > Full Disk Access, macOS immediately quits the app. This happens while setting up Messages import on a Mac.

Workaround: None needed. This is macOS applying the permission change, not a crash, and macOS gives no app a way to avoid it. Reopen Groupthink and go back to Settings > Capture. The Messages on this Mac card rechecks the permission on its own when you return, and confirms with "Full Disk Access granted" once it can read Messages. If it still shows the warning, use Check again. The card also has an Open Privacy & Security button that takes you straight to the right pane, and a Restart Groupthink button if macOS did not quit the app for you.

Activity Capture Records Blank Window Titles

Issue: Activity capture is running and recording app names and durations, but every window title is empty.

Workaround: Window titles need a second macOS permission. Turn on Groupthink under System Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility. Titles start appearing within a few seconds, on the next sample. You do not need to restart the app. The Activity on this Mac card in Settings > Capture also detects this and offers an Open Accessibility settings button that takes you to the right pane. Automation and Accessibility sit next to each other in that list, so it is easy to grant one and think you granted both. Until Accessibility is on, your time is still counted per app, just without the window detail.

Notetaker Didn't Capture the Meeting

Issue: The Groupthink bot failed to join, captured nothing, or you used a different notetaker for the call, so the recap is empty.

Workaround: You don't lose the meeting. Open its recap page, click Log Interaction, and paste in a transcript, summary, or notes from any source. Groupthink builds the recap from what you paste. See Recover a Meeting Recap When the Notetaker Fails.

The most common single cause is that the notetaker reached the call but was never admitted from the waiting room. See The Notetaker Was Not Admitted to Your Meeting for how to prevent it next time.

Calendar Events Are Slow to Appear

Issue: Calendar changes normally reach Groupthink within seconds. If your calendar connection has expired, or you are making a large number of edits in a short window, new and changed events can be slower to appear.

Workaround: Click Re-sync at the top of your Groupthink calendar, or open Settings > Meetings and click Sync Now. If a red Reconnect prompt is showing, your calendar connection has expired and reconnecting is the fix. See Reconnect your Google Calendar.

Transcript Accuracy

Issue: Transcription accuracy may decrease with heavy accents, background noise, or overlapping speakers.

Workaround: Use a headset or a dedicated microphone. Without headphones, your laptop mic picks up the other participants through your speakers, and those words get transcribed twice, once clearly and once poorly. A headset removes that entirely. Groupthink transcribes English meetings; other languages are not supported yet.

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If you encounter an issue not listed here, contact us at support@groupthink.com.