# Troubleshooting

> Fix common problems: a sleeping Thread, Microsoft 365 sign-in, stale mail, an unconfirmed send, a missing page, a microphone or an upload.

Source: https://docs.whorl.work/troubleshooting

Each entry gives what you see, the likely cause and what to do.

## A Thread will not start or says it is asleep

**You see** a **Wake** button, or "Whorl couldn't wake this Thread." or "The Thread's Environment could not start. Try again."

**Cause:** the Thread's Environment went to sleep after 30 minutes of inactivity, or it failed to start.

**Do:** choose **Wake**, wait for **Waking…** to finish, and send your message again. If it fails again, wait a moment and try once more. Your Thread and its files are not affected. See [Environments](/agents/environments).

## A file the agent made is missing

**Cause:** an agent saves only its working folder to Files. A file kept anywhere else in the Environment is lost when the Environment is replaced.

**Do:** ask the agent to save the result into the Thread's folder in Files. See [Environments](/agents/environments#what-is-saved).

## Mail, Calendar or Conversations are empty or out of date

**You see** **Needs sign-in**, **Sign in again**, **Authorization expired**, **Mail may be out of date**, **Calendar may be out of date**, or "Messages may be out of date".

**Cause:** your Microsoft sign-in expired, or Whorl could not refresh. Whorl keeps showing what it already has instead of an empty page.

**Do:**

1. Open **Settings → Company → Integrations**.
2. Choose **Sign in again**.
3. If the row says **Waiting for a Microsoft admin**, send the link from **Copy link for IT** to your Microsoft administrator.

See [Microsoft 365](/microsoft-365).

## "Send not confirmed" or "Needs review"

**Cause:** Whorl asked Microsoft to send or change something and could not confirm it worked.

**Do:** check Outlook or Teams first. If the message or change is there, you are done. If not, send it again. Whorl never retries an unknown result on its own, so you do not send twice. See [Microsoft 365](/microsoft-365#write-results).

## I cannot find Mail, Conversations or Calendar

**Cause:** Mail, Calendar and Conversations need Microsoft 365, or a company that has turned on Whorl's own. If your company runs Conversations and Calendar in Whorl without Microsoft 365, Mail is removed.

**Do:** ask an owner or admin whether Microsoft 365 is connected. See [Microsoft 365](/microsoft-365).

## I cannot find Voice, Transcription or Huddles in Settings

**Cause:** these appear only when their experimental feature is on. **Transcription** appears when Voice is on. **Huddles** appears when Huddle recordings is on.

**Do:** turn on Voice for yourself in **Settings → Experimental features**. Ask an owner or admin about Huddle recordings. See [Experimental features](/experimental-features).

## Dictate or a huddle cannot use my microphone

**Cause:** your browser blocked microphone access.

**Do:** allow the microphone for Whorl in your browser's site settings and try again. In the Mac desktop app, Whorl offers to open System Settings at the Microphone pane. See [Voice](/voice) and [Huddles and meetings](/huddles).

## A file will not upload

**Cause:** a file in Files can be up to 100 MiB. Only one large transfer runs at a time, and others wait for a free slot.

**Do:** shrink or split the file, or wait for the other transfer to finish. See [Files](/files).

## An agent did not use my skill

**Cause:** agents choose a skill by its description. If the description does not use the words people use, it does not match. Or a skill with the same name in a closer layer replaced it.

**Do:** rewrite the description with the words from a real request, and check that no closer layer has a skill of the same name. See [Skills](/agents/skills) and [Agents and setup](/agents/setup#when-layers-disagree).

## An MCP server shows "Needs a key" or "Needs your sign-in"

**Cause:** the server needs a key, or each person must sign in.

**Do:** open the server, paste the key or choose **Sign in**, and finish in the browser window that opens. If the sign-in does not finish, choose **Sign in** again. See [Tools, MCP servers and connectors](/agents/tools).

## An Automation stopped

**Cause:** after three failed runs in a row, an Automation pauses itself. It also pauses when its event source is deleted, when its owner leaves, or when the person it runs as loses access.

**Do:** open **Paused automations** in [Activity](/activity), check the last run, fix the cause and choose **Resume**. See [Automations](/automations).

## A Portal is not loading

**Cause:** the Thread's Environment is asleep, or the app stopped or failed.

**Do:** choose **Wake** if it is sleeping, **Start** if it is stopped, or **Restart** or **Try again** after a failure. See [Portals](/portals).

## Related

- [FAQ](/faq)
- [Settings](/reference/settings)