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Troubleshooting

Resolve common issues by yourself with the Troubleshooting Tool.

Focus Firewall comes with a built-in troubleshooting tool to help figure out what might not be working with the network setup.

To open the tool, go to Settings > Advanced > Open troubleshooting as shown below.

Common issues

Most common issues reported by our users.

Unable to start – Focus Firewall attempts to start but changes back to stopped
Permissions – the network extension is waiting for your permission. This is typically done during onboarding but sometimes people skip it.

Solutions

Common solutions for everyday issues.

Restart your computer

Sometimes your Mac may need to be restarted to complete the network extension installation. We automatically detect this scenario, and we'll show you a message if that's the case.

Reset onboarding

Go to Settings > Advanced > Reset and select Reset onboarding, open Focus Firewall main window and do the onboarding from scratch again.

In the Network Setup step, make sure to follow the instructions and grant permissions when asked by the system

Review permissions

Focus Firewall uses a network extension in order to filter distracting websites and you need to grant it permissions in your Mac for it to work properly.

This is typically done during onboarding – you are asked to start Focus Firewall for the first time. Your Mac should show the following popup, which you should click on Open System Settings.

Once you are in the system settings, you must click on "Allow" as shown below:

Once that's done, your Mac presents you with yet another popup to grant the network extension permission to filter network content. We need this permission in order to identify which websites are being accessed and block them in case they are distractions. Please click "Allow" to continue.

PS: Focus Firewall needs these permissions in order to identify which websites are being visited and decide whether they should be blocked. This happens entirely in your computer and data is never sent to the cloud. Please check our Privacy Policy for a complete overview.

Force reactivation

In rare scenarios, the network extension installation gets to a stuck state and stops working. If you tried everything else, this is the last resort and should be able to fix any issues.

Open the troubleshooting tool on Settings > Advanced > Open troubleshooting.
In the tool, scroll down and click on Manage > Force extensio deactivation, which forces the extension to be uninstalled.
Restart your computer.
Open the troubleshooting tool again, and now click on Manage > Force extension activation, to install the network extension from scratch again. You may be asked for permissions again, which you need to grant both in the Privacy & Security and on the pop-up.

Get in touch

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