Skip to main content
All CollectionsTroubleshootingMac Troubleshooting
Ensuring Freedom is active on your Mac
Ensuring Freedom is active on your Mac

This article explains what to do if Freedom doesn’t seem to be active on your Mac device.

Freedom avatar
Written by Freedom
Updated over a week ago

If the Freedom app doesn't seem to be active on your Mac, please follow the steps below to help resolve the issue.


Check Freedom dashboard to see device status

We've made it easy to ensure that Freedom is running on your devices from the online dashboard! Just log in at https://freedom.to/dashboard and take a look at your devices.

A green status light indicates that Freedom is active on the device. A gray status light and alert symbol indicate that Freedom is not active on the device:

Check your Mac menu bar for the butterfly icon

Another way to determine whether the Freedom app is launched on your Mac is to look for the butterfly icon in your menu bar. It looks like this:

If you don’t see the butterfly, try launching Freedom again from your Applications folder. The butterfly should then appear.

Tip: Apple limits the number of icons in the menu bar to 8-15 depending on factors like the device resolution and font size. This can prevent Freedom's icon from showing up even when the app is active.

If you have a lot of pinned apps on your menu bar, please try unpinning some of those, then launch Freedom from your applications folder again and see if the icon appears.

Check to see if a manual sync starts your session

When Freedom is active, it should be automatically syncing on a regular basis. If it doesn't seem to be doing so, you can manually sync from the Freedom menu:

This is especially helpful if you have made a change via your Freedom dashboard and you want to make sure it's reflected in the app right away.

If you notice that scheduled sessions often don’t start on time until you manually sync the app, please confirm the following:

  • Your computer is connected to the Internet via a stable connection when the session is supposed to start.

  • You are not using anything on your computer that could be interfering with the app's ability to poll (check in with our servers) consistently. This could be an antivirus program, a VPN, or another blocking/filtering software. If you are using any of those programs, try disabling them and observe whether the issue persists. (Tip: a list of common VPNs you might be using can be found here: Freedom Troubleshooting for Mac).

Tip: a list of common VPNs you might be using can be found here: Freedom Troubleshooting for Mac

Note: If you continue to notice that you need to manually sync the app to get sessions to start, please contact us and we'll be happy to investigate the issue!

Check to see if you are logged in to the app

If you see the butterfly icon in your menu bar, but your device is still showing as inactive, you may need to log in to the app. Select Log In from the Freedom menu and enter your username and password.

If you have multiple Freedom accounts, make sure you are logging in with the same email that is logged into the browser dashboard.

Tip: You can see the email you are logged into the app with at the top of the Freedom desktop app menu on your Mac.


Having trouble?

For more Mac troubleshooting tips, please see Freedom Troubleshooting for Mac. If you're having any difficulty, please feel free to contact us. We're happy to help!

Did this answer your question?