When something isn't right with Castellan

First, look at Needs you#

Castellan puts most things right by itself before you'd notice: it opens again an agent that stops answering, tries a failed update again, and moves the local AI to another accelerator when one fails. What it can't put right is in Needs you, across the top of its page, with a link to the button that settles it. Start there. See Needs you, notifications and quiet hours.

Castellan's page won't open#

Open Castellan from the Start menu or the desktop. It starts the page first if it's down, then opens it in your browser. Castellan's page is at http://castellan.localhost:18585/, unless you've given it another port.

If it still doesn't open:

• It says the page didn't answer. Castellan starts at sign-in from a task in Windows' Task Scheduler, named \Manor\Home page. Its History there says what went wrong. Signing out and back in, or restarting the PC, starts it again.
• Another program has taken its port. Castellan won't stop another program for you. Close the program that uses the port (a development server, say), then open Castellan again.
• It says Castellan isn't installed. Run Castellan's setup again: see below.

Run the setup again to repair it#

Running Castellan's setup again, the same version or a newer one, puts back whatever is missing and keeps your settings and your staff. On a PC that has Castellan already, Install again what's installed already reinstalls each part instead of skipping what looks fine. A setup that was interrupted carries on from where it stopped. See Install Castellan.

An agent won't start, or keeps stopping#

• Its card has Start. You (or an update) stopped it: choose Start. Castellan never starts an agent you stopped.
• It's in Needs you as not coming back. Castellan tried three times, five minutes apart, and keeps trying once an hour. Open on its card starts its page and shows what it says. If it still won't start, update it (a newer version may already be out), then write to us.
• A port two agents claim, or one another program has taken, shows in Needs you after a quarter of an hour. Close the other program, or with a developer agent hired, give one of them another port.
• Its settings file has a mistake. Castellan names it on its page and uses the default meanwhile: nothing breaks.

An update failed#

The old version keeps working: nothing is left half-installed. An automatic update is tried again after 30 minutes, up to three times for that release; then it waits for your Update click. Updates on Castellan's page shows the failed update's log. While the PC is offline, updates wait quietly and don't count it as a failure. See Updates.

If a new version misbehaves, restore the backup made just before it: see Backups.

Backups are failing#

A backup that fails is tried again an hour later. Two days of failures, or a backup folder Castellan can't reach, shows in Needs you, and Settings > Backups opens by itself to say why. Usually the drive or network share isn't there: plug it back in, or choose another folder under Back up to. See Backups.

The setup is blocked#

• Windows protected your PC: the setup isn't code-signed yet. Choose More info, then Run anyway.
• Smart App Control blocks unsigned setups outright, with no way to run them anyway. Try Castellan on another PC, or wait for the signed setup.
• A step failed: the setup says which, and Show the log has the details.

The local AI is slow, or the PC is busy#

An NPU, graphics card or processor that's busy for a moment, then quiet again, is one agent's turn on it. A PC that's new to the manor is busiest in its first hours, while the staff do their first scans one at a time. See Where the work runs. If it's too much, Settings > The manor > Background work set to Go easy on this PC runs scheduled work at low priority.

Still not right?#

Write to us at support@castellan-software.com, and say:

• which agent, or Castellan itself, and the version Settings shows;
• what you did, what you expected, and what happened instead, with a screenshot if there's one;
• the email your license is under. Never your license key: we don't need it.

We may ask for a log. It holds your Windows user name and file paths, so look it over before you send it. See Support.