Meta AI not working? Start here.
This is a public beta, and almost every failure comes down to one of five things a shortcut another app already owns, a permission macOS quietly withheld, an expired sign-in, a blocked connection, or a free-tier limit. Two minutes of checking usually beats an hour of reinstalling.
Independent guide not affiliated with Meta. If a fix here involves downloading anything, it comes from Meta’s official site and nowhere else.
The 60-second checklist
In order, and genuinely quick. Most people are fixed by step four, and everything below this section assumes you have already run it.
Quit it properly
Press ⌘Q, or choose Quit from the menu bar icon. Closing the window leaves the app running, so nothing is actually restarted.
Reopen and wait
Launch it again and give it a few seconds to sign in before deciding it is broken. A cold start on a busy Mac is not instant.
Check you are online
Every reply comes from Meta’s servers. Load any web page, and if a VPN is running, turn it off for a minute and try again.
Re-check the permissions
System Settings → Privacy & Security. Confirm Meta AI is enabled where it needs to be, then quit and reopen. Which ones matter.
Test the shortcut
Press ⌥Space. Nothing? The app is probably fine and another launcher owns those keys. Sort out the conflict.
Sign out and back in
If the account looks wrong or replies fail, sign out in the app and back in. Still looping? Login problems.
Still misbehaving after all six? Work through the symptom table next, and keep the clean reinstall as a last resort rather than a first move.
What it is doing, and what usually causes it
Find the row that matches what you are seeing. The cause column is what it turns out to be most of the time not the only possibility, but the one to test first.
| Symptom | Usual cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| ⌥ Space does nothing | Shortcut conflict | Raycast, Alfred or a Spotlight replacement claimed the keys first. Change one of them shortcuts guide. |
| “Meta AI cannot be opened” | Gatekeeper prompt | Normal for an app from outside the App Store. System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway. Install guide. |
| “The file is damaged” | Broken download | The transfer failed, often behind a VPN. Delete the .dmg and fetch a fresh copy from Meta. |
| Window picker empty or previews blank | Screen Recording | Enable it, then quit with ⌘Q and reopen granting it mid-session is not enough. Full fix. |
| Dictation records but nothing is typed | Accessibility | Typing into other apps needs Accessibility, separately from the microphone. Dictation fixes. |
| Dictation hears nothing at all | Microphone or input | Check microphone permission, then that the right input device is selected in Sound settings. |
| Sign-in loops back to the browser | Stale session | Sign out in the browser, clear the Meta cookies, then start the app sign-in again. Login problems. |
| Spinner forever, no reply | Connection or service | Test the same account at meta.ai in a browser. If that fails too, it is not your Mac how to tell. |
| “Limit reached” on images or video | Free-tier cap | Working as designed. Wait for the window to reset or raise it with Meta One what meters. |
| Menu bar icon has disappeared | Hidden or not running | It can be switched off in settings, and a full menu bar hides overflow items. Reopen from Applications to check. |
| Quits on launch, every time | Bad install or beta bug | Reinstall cleanly rather than reopening repeatedly. Steps below. |
| Nothing installs at all | Unsupported Mac | Apple silicon and macOS 15 are hard requirements. Check yours · on Intel. |
Permissions fail silently, which is why they fool everyone
When a macOS permission is missing, the app does not usually complain. The button is there, the click registers, and then nothing happens which reads like a bug rather than a setting. That is the single most common reason people conclude the beta is broken.
Granting a permission while the app is running is not enough. Quit with ⌘Q and open it again, or the app keeps behaving exactly as though you had said no.
All three live in System Settings → Privacy & Security, each under its own heading. Toggling Meta AI off and on again there is a real fix, not superstition it forces macOS to re-issue the grant, which clears the cases where the entry exists but is not being honoured.
Worth remembering: none of them are required for chat. If a permission makes you uneasy, leave it off and use the app as a chat window permissions and privacy sets out exactly what each one exposes.
| Permission | What breaks without it | Where it lives |
|---|---|---|
| Screen Recording | Window picker is empty, previews are blank, or the attached window comes back as nothing. | Privacy & Security → Screen & System Audio Recording |
| Accessibility | Dictation records but no text lands in other apps; generated text cannot be inserted. | Privacy & Security → Accessibility |
| Microphone | Dictation shows no waveform and transcribes silence. | Privacy & Security → Microphone |
| Notifications | No alert when a long generation finishes in the background. | Notifications → Meta AI |
Granted everything and it still does nothing? That is the one case where a clean reinstall genuinely helps, because the permission entry itself can end up stale.
When replies never arrive
Nothing is generated on your Mac. Every question travels to Meta’s servers and the answer comes back, so a spinner that never resolves is a network story, not an app story.
A VPN or company proxy
The most common culprit on work Macs. Turn the VPN off for a minute and ask again; if that fixes it, the network is filtering Meta’s endpoints rather than the app failing.
A service outage
Betas wobble. If meta.ai fails in a browser on the same account, and other people are reporting it at the same time, there is nothing to fix on your end but waiting.
Where you are
The rollout is broad but not universal, and some features are switched off per market. Travelling can change what works. Check availability.
The clean reinstall, done properly
Only worth doing if the app crashes on launch, or if permissions are granted and still ignored. Your conversations are tied to your Meta account, not the app, so nothing is lost you will just sign in again.
Quit completely
⌘Q, and confirm the menu bar icon has gone. A running app cannot be replaced cleanly.
Sign out first, if you can
Optional but tidy, and it avoids the stale-session problems that send people to login problems afterwards.
Move the app to the Trash
From Applications. That is the whole app no installer package to hunt down. Full uninstall guide.
Clear its permission entries
System Settings → Privacy & Security. Remove Meta AI from Screen Recording, Accessibility and Microphone so the new copy asks fresh.
Download again from Meta
From Meta’s official page and nowhere else the copycats are real. Install walkthrough.
Install, sign in, re-grant
Drag to Applications, sign in, then grant permissions one at a time as you use each feature. Your history reappears.
If a fresh install still fails on a Mac that meets the requirements, it is a beta bug rather than your setup report it from the app’s help menu and use the web version meanwhile.
Some of this is just the beta
Version 1.0 shipped in August 2026 and has been moving quickly ever since a new model underneath on September 2, a subscription overhaul on the 16th, a sibling app on the 17th. Things that worked last week occasionally stop working this week, and the fix arrives in an update rather than in anything you do.
The app updates itself in the background, so the most useful habit is simply quitting and reopening every few days; a pending update applies on the next launch. If a specific feature has been broken for you since a particular date, it is worth checking what changed before dismantling your setup.
Before a reinstall, ask one question: did this ever work on this Mac? If yes, something changed a permission, a shortcut, an update. If no, check the requirements first.
And if the answer turns out to be “this is not what I thought it was” it reads a window, it does not act on your behalf that is Muse, a separate app. Muse vs Meta AI explains which one you actually wanted.
Troubleshooting questions people ask
Why is Meta AI not working on my Mac?
Nine times out of ten it is one of five things: another app owns ⌥Space, a permission is missing or needs the app restarted, the sign-in has expired, the connection is blocked, or you have hit a free-tier limit. The 60-second checklist tests all five.
Why does Option-Space do nothing?
Raycast, Alfred and several Spotlight replacements claim the same combination, and whichever registered it first wins. The app is working; the keys are not reaching it. Change the shortcut in one of the two shortcuts guide.
The window picker is empty. What now?
Screen Recording permission is either missing or was granted while the app was running. Enable Meta AI under System Settings → Privacy & Security → Screen & System Audio Recording, then quit with ⌘Q and reopen. More detail.
Why do replies never arrive?
Everything is generated on Meta’s servers, so an endless spinner usually means a blocked connection VPN, corporate proxy, filtered network or a service problem. Open meta.ai in a browser with the same account: if that fails too, it is not your Mac. The one-minute test.
macOS says the app cannot be opened. Is it broken?
No, that is the standard warning for an app downloaded outside the App Store. System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway. If it instead says the file is damaged, the download failed delete it and fetch a fresh copy from Meta.
Does reinstalling delete my conversations?
No. History lives with your Meta account, so it comes back when you sign in. A reinstall only clears local settings and the permission grants, which is exactly why it helps in the cases where those are stale.
Dictation records but nothing appears in my document.
That is Accessibility, not the microphone typing into other apps is a separate permission. Grant it, quit and reopen. If the waveform never moves either, the microphone permission or the input device is the problem. Dictation fixes.
It says I have reached a limit.
That is the free tier working as designed, and it bites first on image and video generation rather than chat. Wait for the window to reset, or raise the ceiling with Meta One. What actually meters.
The app will not install at all.
Check the Mac before anything else: Apple silicon and macOS 15 or later are hard requirements, with no Rosetta fallback. Requirements · Intel Macs.
How do I report a bug?
From the app’s help menu Meta reads beta reports, and a one-line description of what you did and what happened is worth more than a vague complaint. We are an independent guide and cannot fix anything in the app itself.
Quit it, reopen it, then check the permission.
That sequence fixes more Meta AI problems than everything else on this page put together. Reinstalling is the last resort, not the first.
Independent guide not affiliated with Meta. Specific problem? Try login problems, window sharing or dictation. Using the agent instead? Muse not working.