Troubleshooting

PowerOps says it is working offline

Why PowerOps can show a banner saying it cannot connect, what each message means, and how to fix it on Windows, step by step.

Guide · 6 min read

When PowerOps cannot reach its service it keeps your profiles and browsers working, and it turns off what needs the connection: sync, your team's profiles and your workspace list. The banner under the header says why. Find your message below and follow its steps.

Check these first, in this order

1. 1Open any website, for example google.com, in a normal browser on the same computer. If it does not load, the problem is the internet connection, not PowerOps.
2. 2Look at the clock and the time zone. A wrong time is the most common cause: see The date and time on this computer are wrong, just below.
3. 3Close PowerOps completely: click the X in the corner of its window and choose Exit in the box that appears (or choose File, then Exit). Then open PowerOps again from the Start menu.

The date and time on this computer are wrong

This is the most common cause on a computer that was just set up or reset. PowerOps proves who you are with a signature that includes the time, and the PowerOps service refuses a signature that is more than five minutes away from the real time. Your internet works, websites load, and PowerOps still says it cannot connect.

From version 1.1.2 PowerOps copes with a wrong clock by itself. If you are on an older version, or other programs on the computer misbehave too, fix the clock:

1. 1Check the real time: open time.is in your browser and compare it with the clock in the corner of the screen. Also compare the time zone. A difference of whole hours means the time zone is wrong; a difference of minutes means the clock is not being synchronised.
2. 2Open Settings, then Time & language, then Date & time. Turn on Set time automatically and Set time zone automatically. If Set time zone automatically is greyed out, turn on Location services in Settings, Privacy & security, Location, or choose your time zone by hand in the Time zone list.
3. 3Under Additional settings press the Sync button. If it says it failed, Windows Time is switched off. Right-click the Start button, choose Terminal (Admin) or Windows PowerShell (Admin), and run these three lines, one at a time: Set-Service w32time -StartupType Automatic, then Start-Service w32time, then w32tm /resync /rediscover.
4. 4To check it worked, run: w32tm /query /status. The line Last Successful Sync Time must show the current time. You can also run (Get-Date).ToUniversalTime() and compare it with the UTC time on time.is: they must agree to within a minute.
5. 5Close PowerOps completely: click the X in the corner of its window and choose Exit. Open it again from the Start menu. The banner goes away within a couple of minutes.

Close PowerOps?

You clicked “X” button, you want to

MinimizeExit5

Remember my choice

The banner says it cannot connect

This computer's name lookup (DNS) did not answer.

1. 1Open Command Prompt and run: nslookup google.com
2. 2If it fails, change the computer's DNS to a public one: Settings, Network & internet, your connection, DNS server assignment, Edit, Manual, turn on IPv4, and enter 1.1.1.1 and 8.8.8.8.
3. 3Run the command again, then restart PowerOps.

The banner says your firewall or antivirus is blocking PowerOps

Something between this computer and the internet is closing PowerOps' connection: Windows Firewall, an antivirus, or the network itself.

1. 1Open Windows Security, Firewall & network protection, Allow an app through firewall. Choose Change settings, then Allow another app, and add powerops-core.exe from %LOCALAPPDATA%\PowerOps. Tick Private and Public.
2. 2If you use a third-party antivirus (Kaspersky, ESET, Avast, Bitdefender and others), add %LOCALAPPDATA%\PowerOps\powerops-core.exe and powerops.exe to its exclusions and to its web-protection exclusions.
3. 3On a work or school network, give your administrator the addresses in For network administrators, below.

The banner says your network or antivirus is intercepting the connection

An antivirus that scans encrypted traffic, or a company proxy, is answering with its own certificate. Your browser accepts it because Windows does; PowerOps does not.

1. 1In your antivirus, turn off HTTPS scanning (it is called Scan encrypted connections, SSL scanning or Web shield, depending on the product) or add PowerOps' addresses (see For network administrators) to its exceptions.
2. 2On a company network, ask the administrator to exempt PowerOps' addresses from HTTPS inspection.
3. 3Restart PowerOps.

The banner says the date and time may be wrong, or the computer needs to sign in again

The service answered and did not accept this computer. Two causes account for almost all of it.

1. 1The clock. Fix it as described in Check these first. This is the most common cause on a computer that was just reset or set up.
2. 2The computer is not recognised any more. In PowerOps open Settings, choose Account, then Sign out, and sign in again. Signing in again registers this computer afresh.

The banner says this computer needs to sign in again

PowerOps keeps what identifies this computer in Windows' protected storage, which it reaches through PowerShell. If PowerShell is blocked, very slow or restricted by policy, that cannot be read.

1. 1Sign out in Settings, Account, and sign in again. The sign-in tells you the reason if Windows cannot keep the key.
2. 2Check that PowerShell starts: open the Start menu, type powershell, and open Windows PowerShell. If it is blocked by your organisation, ask the administrator to allow powershell.exe for your user.
3. 3If your antivirus asks whether to allow powershell.exe started by PowerOps, allow it.

Sign-in says You are not a member of that workspace

You chose a workspace you do not belong to. Choose another one in the list, or ask an organisation owner or admin to add you to it (Team). Only an organisation owner can open every workspace in the organisation.

For network administrators

PowerOps needs outbound HTTPS (port 443), without HTTPS inspection, to these two addresses:

• articleops.com
• ufpvmrfjrghottjatakh.supabase.co

The program that connects is powerops-core.exe, in %LOCALAPPDATA%\PowerOps. To test from PowerShell: Test-NetConnection articleops.com -Port 443, and check that TcpTestSucceeded says True.

Still stuck: what to send us

From 1.1.2, PowerOps sends one short report to us when sign-in or the connection fails, with the reason and the type of computer, and no passwords or profile data. If it is still not working after the steps above, send us these two things:

• The banner text, exactly as it appears.
• The file %LOCALAPPDATA%\PowerOps\logs\core.log (the last few hundred lines are enough). Open the folder by pasting %LOCALAPPDATA%\PowerOps\logs into the File Explorer address bar.

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