Troubleshooting

What to do when something doesn’t work as it should.

Double-tap doesn’t open the panel

Open Settings › Activation. Under Double-tap a modifier key it should say Listening for double-tap.
If it says Needs Input Monitoring permission, click Open System Settings… and turn on Brink in Privacy & Security › Input Monitoring. If macOS offers Quit & Reopen, accept.
If it says Permission granted. Relaunch to finish., click Relaunch.
If the switch in Input Monitoring is on but nothing happens, select Brink there and remove it with −, then add it back (or turn it off and on), and relaunch Brink.

Still nothing? Check how you tap:

Press and release the key on its own, twice. A combination such as ⌘C, a ⌘-click, or another modifier held down cancels the double-tap.
The two presses have to be close together: 300 ms apart at most, unless you change Max time between taps. Holding the key down too long doesn’t count either.
Is Modifier set to the key you’re tapping?
macOS hides keys from every app while Secure Input is on: in a password field, or in Terminal with Secure Keyboard Entry. Double-tap can’t work there; a keyboard shortcut usually still does.

To see what Brink makes of each tap, turn on Debug logging in Settings › Troubleshooting and run this in Terminal (it logs timings, never which keys you type):

/usr/bin/log stream --level info --predicate 'subsystem == "tech.cynaptic.brink"'

Rather not give Brink Input Monitoring at all? Turn off double-tap and turn on Keyboard shortcut (⇧⌘N), which needs no permission.

A keyboard shortcut does nothing

Another app can claim a shortcut for all of macOS, and then the keys never reach Brink. If Settings says macOS refused the shortcut you recorded, another app (or macOS itself) has it: record a different one. For shortcuts inside the panel, such as ⇧⌘P to pin, check your other apps’ settings (a display or window utility, say), or use the button instead: the pin at the right of the status line.

If Settings says Waiting for your approval in Login Items, click Open Login Items… and allow Brink in System Settings › General › Login Items.

Calendar or Reminders says Brink doesn’t have access

Click Open Privacy Settings in the tab, and turn on Brink in System Settings › Privacy & Security › Calendars (or Reminders). macOS then asks to quit and reopen Brink; accept. If a tab says there are no calendars or lists, add your accounts in System Settings › Internet Accounts.

⌘C ⌘C doesn’t save

Is Save with ⌘C ⌘C on in Settings › Clipboard, saying Listening for ⌘C ⌘C? Like double-tap, it needs Input Monitoring (see above).
Clipboard tabs are part of Brink Pro. Without it, the notice says Not Saved for that reason.
Hold ⌘ down and press C twice quickly. The first ⌘C has to copy something: with nothing selected, there’s nothing to save.
Password managers mark the passwords they copy as private, and Brink skips those on purpose.
If the tab says macOS doesn’t let Brink read the clipboard, click Open Privacy & Security and allow Brink under Paste from Other Apps. ⌘V in the tab works either way.

Terminal tabs say the helper is missing

Terminal tabs need the free Brink Terminal Helper. Download it, move it to Applications, open it once, then click Try Again in the tab. If macOS asked you to allow it in the background and you chose Later, turn on Brink Terminal Helper in System Settings › General › Login Items, under Allow in the Background. If a tab says the helper or Brink needs updating, get the newer one. More in Terminal tabs.

A folder or image says there’s no access

Brink can only read folders you’ve picked in Open Folder…, and what’s in them. A folder tab that says Brink doesn’t have access to this folder. has Allow Access…: pick the folder there. For an image in a note, use its full path, in a folder you’ve opened in a folder tab (see Images). Images from the web always show as links.

A link says there’s no note by that name

Links between notes go by name: [[Plan]] opens the note named exactly Plan (ignoring case). Check the spelling, and whether the note is in Recently Deleted; restoring it makes the link work again.

Plugins don’t show up or update

Brink gets plugins from this site. In Settings › Plugins, click Check Now; the line beside it says when Brink last checked, or why it couldn’t. A plugin that needs a newer Brink waits until you update Brink in the App Store.

A Pro tab is locked

If you’ve bought Brink Pro, click Restore Purchases in the tab, with your Mac signed in to the App Store with the Apple Account you bought it with. If your trial has ended, Pro tabs open locked until you buy Brink Pro. See Brink Pro.

A note couldn’t be saved

When something can’t be done, Brink beeps and the status line says why, in red. If a save fails as you quit (a full disk, say), Brink asks first: Don’t Quit keeps it running so you can make room or copy your text; Quit Anyway loses the changes since the last save.

Brink couldn’t open your notes

If Brink can’t open its notes (damaged, or made by a newer Brink), it moves them into a new folder beside them, named like Notes that couldn’t open 2026-10-30 at 11.52, and starts with no notes. It says so, with Show in Finder. Nothing is deleted. To try the old notes again later (in a newer Brink, say), quit Brink and move the files from that folder back in place of the new ones. If you’re not sure what to do, write to brinkbar@cynaptic.tech before changing anything.

Getting notes back from Time Machine

Time Machine backs up Brink’s notes with the rest of your Mac. To go back to an earlier copy:

Quit Brink.
In Finder, go to ~/Library/Containers/, open Brink, then Data/Library/Application Support/Brink/.
Restore Notes.store and Local.store from the same backup, each with its -wal and -shm files: all six together.
Open Brink.

Still stuck?

Write to brinkbar@cynaptic.tech, with your macOS version, Brink’s version (About Brink in the menu bar icon’s menu) and what you saw. The Support page answers more questions.