Troubleshooting and FAQ

The other people on my call are not in the transcript. You are missing system audio. Grant Screen Recording permission under System Settings, then Privacy and Security, then Screen Recording, and restart Perchnote. macOS routes loopback audio through that permission, and without it system audio is silent rather than erroring out.

My microphone is not being recorded. Check System Settings, then Privacy and Security, then Microphone, and make sure Perchnote is allowed. You can also re-run the setup guide from Settings.

Transcription is slow or low quality. Switch models under Settings, then Audio. large-v3-turbo-q8_0 (the recommended one) is the best balance of speed and accuracy for most Macs. If you are on macOS 26 or later, try the Apple Speech engine. If the language is being guessed wrong, pin it explicitly instead of using auto-detect.

Enhance or Ask AI does nothing. You need an AI provider configured. Go to Settings, then AI, and set up Anthropic (with an API key), Ollama (installed and running), or Apple Intelligence (macOS 26 or later). If you picked Anthropic and it fails, double check the API key.

Speakers are all labeled "Speaker 1, 2, 3" and never get names. Open the transcript drawer with Cmd+T and rename them. Perchnote learns the voice once you do. Turning on stereo recording (Settings, then Audio) improves how well speakers get separated in the first place.

Will my meeting audio be sent to the cloud? Only if you choose the Anthropic provider, and even then only the transcript text needed to generate notes or answer a question, not the audio. With Ollama or Apple Intelligence, nothing leaves your Mac. Recording and transcription are always local.

Where are my recordings so I can back them up myself? ~/Library/Application Support/com.perchnote.app/recordings/. There is also a one-click backup export under Settings, then Data.

Can I run Perchnote fully offline? Yes for recording and transcription, both are local. For AI notes, use Ollama or Apple Intelligence to stay offline. The Anthropic provider needs a connection.

Does Perchnote work on Windows? No. It is macOS only, version 14 or newer, and some features need macOS 26.