Troubleshooting

Fix a page that misbehaves or freezes, an extension that fails, an incomplete import, a missing update or an agent that cannot connect.

Find your symptom below and follow its fix. If none helps, collect diagnostics and report the bug.

A site does not work as in another browser

Lilo runs on WebKit, the engine of Safari, and sites see it as Safari. A site that breaks in Lilo often breaks in Safari too. Try these in order:

1. Reload without the content blocker. Point at the address bar and click the shield beside the address (its tooltip reads Disable blocking on this site, or the number of trackers it blocked on the page), then reload the page (⌘R). The site is then listed in Settings > Privacy > Sites without blocking. To turn blocking back on, click the shield again (Re-enable blocking on this site).
2. Reload without the cache: ⇧⌘R.
3. Check the site’s permissions. Settings > Privacy > Settings by site shows the permissions, zoom and stored data of each site.
4. Embedded sign-ins and widgets. If an embedded site you use stops working (a sign-in in a frame, a comment widget), turn off Prevent cross-site tracking in Settings > Privacy, then turn it back on when you are done.
5. Check the known limits. Some features cannot work in any WebKit browser other than Safari: Web Push, Apple Pay on the web, and the iCloud Passwords extension among them. Web compatibility lists each one with its cause.

More about these controls in Privacy controls.

A page stops responding

When a page freezes, Lilo shows “example.com isn’t responding” over it. Your other tabs keep working. Choose Wait, Reload or Close Tab.

If the same site freezes again, the card offers Reload Without Blocker: on some sites the content blocker causes the freeze. Report a problem opens a bug report about the frozen page, filled in with a title naming the page’s host, the page’s origin (its scheme and host, no path), the names of your enabled extensions, and the versions of Lilo, WebKit and macOS. The form’s address carries them, so github.com receives them when the tab opens; you review the form before you submit it.

A page cannot be loaded

The error page names the problem, such as Server Not Found, Connection Timed Out or No Internet Connection, and offers Try Again. When the connection fails or you are offline, Show Saved Copy shows the copy of the page in Lilo’s cache, if it has one.

Connection Not Secure means the site’s certificate is invalid or expired. Go Back unless you know why the certificate fails.

An extension does not work

1. Check Extension compatibility: it lists what differs from Chrome and the extensions tested, with their results. Manifest V2 extensions do not run.
2. Open the extension in Settings > Extensions and check that it is Enabled and that Site access includes the site. In a Private Space, it needs Allow in private Spaces.
3. If its details read “Couldn’t load this extension.”, click Retry. If they read “Background stopped: some features may not work.”, turn it off and on again with Enabled, or quit and reopen Lilo.
4. Open Help > Diagnostics and choose Log, then Extensions, to see the extension’s errors. Copy copies them for a report.

To report an extension that fails, use the extension compatibility form in GitHub Issues.

An import from another browser is incomplete

When an import ends, Lilo says what it brought and names what it could not, with the browser, the kind of data and, when it knows it, the cause: for example “Some data could not be imported: Chrome (Stay signed in: Keychain access was denied). You can retry later from Settings.” To run the import again, open Settings > General, find Import from another browser and click Import….

Passwords are never imported, from any browser; Import sources lists what each browser brings.

Lilo does not update

With Install updates automatically on (Settings > General), the default, Lilo checks for updates every hour and downloads them in the background. Turned off, Lilo neither checks nor downloads on its own: only Check for Updates… and Check Now look for a new version. When an update is ready, the sidebar shows Ready to install: click Restart to install it now, or Later.

• To check now, choose Lilo > Check for Updates…, or click Check Now in Settings > General, next to your Lilo version.
• If Lilo runs from the disk image, it cannot update itself. Lilo offers to move itself to Applications (“Move Lilo to Applications?”): choose Move to Applications. If the move fails, drag Lilo to the Applications folder in the Finder, then open it from there.
• If Settings > General reads “This build does not update itself.”, you are running a build that does not update itself, such as one built from source. Install the release from Install.

An agent cannot connect

1. Turn on agent control. It is off on a new installation unless you answered With my agents or For developing in the setup, and it is one setting for all your profiles. In Settings > Agents, turn on Let agents use Lilo. Until you do, every tool call fails with [needs_user] Lilo is not accepting agents: in Lilo, turn on Settings > AI agents > Let agents use Lilo, then reconnect the lilo MCP server. (the Settings section is named Agents).
2. Reconnect the server. After turning it on, restart your agent or reconnect its lilo MCP server: an agent started before keeps the earlier answer.
3. Answer the prompt. The first connection waits for you to choose Allow in Lilo. If you chose Don’t Allow, reconnect the server to be asked again.
4. Check where Lilo is. Agents start /Applications/Lilo.app/Contents/MacOS/lilo-mcp. If you moved Lilo, Lilo fixes the configuration of Claude Desktop, Cursor and Codex at its next launch. For Claude Code, click Connect again in Settings > Agents.
5. Lilo not responding. If the agent reports Lilo is not responding, quit and reopen Lilo, then reconnect.

The full setup is in AI agents.

Lilo feels slow or uses too much memory

• Help > Diagnostics shows Startup, how long launch took with the slowest step highlighted, and Memory, how many pages are loaded and sleeping. Run Trim applies the automatic sleep policy now.
• Process manager, in Settings > Advanced under Developer tools, shows the memory and CPU used by each tab and process.
• Help > Record Performance Session records what Lilo does, for up to 10 minutes, until you choose it again. The recording is saved to your Downloads folder, ready to attach to a report. Nothing is recorded outside a session.

Report a bug

Never report a security vulnerability in public: follow the security policy to report it privately.