Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting

OpenShaker guide › Help

Symptoms and messages, their likely cause, and the fix.

Symptom or message	Likely cause	Fix
"Windows protected your PC" when installing	The installer isn't code-signed	Click More info, then Run anyway
"output device '...' is not connected - pick your shaker under Output > Device"	The named device isn't there, or Windows hasn't found it yet after boot	Pick your shaker under Device. OpenShaker also retries every 15 s.
"... is only offered on an exclusive host API right now ... probably still waking up"	The shaker was only just plugged in or switched on	Wait. The next retry picks it up.
"... stopped playing - unplugged or switched off?"	The shaker was unplugged or powered off	Plug it back in or switch it on. OpenShaker retries every 3 s for a minute, then every 15 s. Restart haptics tries now.
Grey tray icon, nothing plays, "Haptics off"	Haptics on is unticked (remembered across restarts), or --no-start was used	Tick Haptics on or press Restart haptics
"Running" but the shaker is quiet	Wrong channel, Windows volume low, amplifier off, or no game data	Press Test tone. Try Advanced > Output channel Right or Both. Check the Windows volume and the amp. Press Restart haptics.
"cannot bind UDP 5555 ... is HaptiConnect or another tool using it?" (or 4444, also naming SimHub)	Another program has the game's port	Close the other program, then press Restart haptics (OpenShaker doesn't retry the port by itself). Or move the port in the game and in Advanced...
"no game detected (waiting for telemetry)" while driving	Data Out off in the game, wrong IP or port, or the game is on another machine	Check Setting up your games. For an Xbox or another PC, set the Forza listen address to 0.0.0.0.
BeamNG: "OutGauge only: tick Motion Sim ..." or "Motion Sim only: tick OutGauge ..."	One of BeamNG's two protocols is off or on a different port	Tick both in Options > Other, or set the Motion Sim port in Advanced...
BeamNG: collisions never or always trigger	BeamNG's g-force scale doesn't suit your car	Adjust sources.beamng.accel_scale in the settings file
Forza Motorsport: no gear shifts or wheel lock	Data Out format is "Sled"	Set the format to Car Dash
Forza Horizon: kerbs do nothing	Horizon never reports kerbs	Expected
ABS pulse never plays	No game gives it data with the shipped presets	Expected. See ABS pulse.
A slider does nothing	The preset ships that effect at zero, or the game has no data for it	Expected. See the table.
Wrong Horizon preset (5 vs 6)	The game runs on another machine, or its program name is different	Pick the right strengths in the right preset, or edit game_processes in the settings file
Assetto Corsa EVO: "waiting for Assetto Corsa EVO"	The game isn't running, or hasn't updated for 5 s	Start a session. It re-attaches by itself.
Trackmania: "waiting for Openplanet Data Sender on 127.0.0.1:28765 ..."	Openplanet or Data Sender isn't running	Start Trackmania with Openplanet and the Data Sender plugin
Trackmania: "... refuses control commands: tick Allow external control commands (TCP Server tab), or press Start and tick Start service on plugin load (General tab)"	Data Sender won't take commands	Do either of those in Data Sender's settings
Trackmania: "Data Sender is full: raise TCP max clients ..."	All the plugin's client slots are in use (8 by default)	Raise TCP max clients in Data Sender (TCP Server tab)
Everything ducks under big hits; Level near 0 dB	The limiter is at work	Lower Master or the loudest effect's strength
"... saved; they apply when the haptics are switched on"	You changed a setting while the haptics were off	Switch them on
"Could not save settings: ..." or the Haptics on switch "could not be saved"	The settings folder isn't writable	Fix the permissions on %APPDATA%\OpenShaker
The window won't open, or "another copy seems to be running but does not answer, or another program is using its local port 49731"	A stuck copy, or a port clash	Quit OpenShaker from the tray or Task Manager. Read %APPDATA%\OpenShaker\logs\gui_error.log. To reset to defaults, delete config.json.
"Update to X.Y.Z failed: ... Nothing was installed; Update now tries again."	No internet, GitHub not reachable, the download did not match the size or SHA-256 GitHub lists for it (it was deleted), GitHub listed no SHA-256 for it, or the installer ended early	Try Update now again later, or download the installer from the release page (What's new). logs\update.log in the settings folder says what happened.
"The update to X.Y.Z did not install, so OpenShaker X was started again."	The installer could not finish (a file was locked, or OpenShaker did not close in time) and put the old version back	Nothing to repair; the update is offered again at the next check. After an automatic update, that version is not installed automatically again: use Update now
Can't find the window	Closing it only hides it	Left-click the tray icon, or start OpenShaker from the Start menu
"(no tray icon: ...)" (source copies)	The tray packages aren't installed	Install the requirements
A console window opens at sign-in (source copies)	The Python used at sign-in is a launcher stub	Run python -m openshaker.autostart repair from the source copy's environment

Still stuck? Use tray > Send feedback / report a bug.

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See also: Is it working?