Support & troubleshooting

Swamp Dragon doesn't have Screen Recording permission (macOS).

1. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Screen & System Audio Recording.
2. Turn on Swamp Dragon. If it's already on, turn it off and on again.
3. Quit and reopen Swamp Dragon — macOS only applies this after a restart.

• On macOS this is also the Screen Recording permission — see above.
• Minimized windows can't be captured; restore the window first.
• Use the search box in the picker to find a window by app name or title.
• Windows with no title (some system overlays) aren't listed.

• macOS: System Settings → Privacy & Security → Camera / Microphone → turn on Swamp Dragon, then restart the app.
• Windows: Settings → Privacy & security → Camera / Microphone → turn on Let desktop apps access….
• Close other apps using the camera (video calls) and pick the device again from the dropdown on Home.
• For USB devices, unplug and reconnect, then reopen Home.

Settings → Recording → Permissions shows what macOS reports. "Not-determined" means macOS hasn't asked yet — start a recording to trigger the prompt. "Denied" must be changed in System Settings.

Open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down, and click Open Anyway next to the Swamp Dragon message. You only need to do this once per version.

• Make sure System audio was switched on before you started.
• On macOS, system audio uses the Screen & System Audio Recording permission — make sure it's granted, then restart the app.
• Check the System track in the editor's Media tab isn't muted.

• Watch the level meter on Home before recording; speak at your normal volume and aim for the meter to move steadily.
• Adjust the input level in your system's sound settings.
• Leave Noise reduction on for typical rooms; turn it off for music or if your voice sounds processed.
• After recording, set mic volume up to 200% in Media.

Cursor metadata was off, or the recording was made in Window mode, which doesn't capture cursor data. Record in Display or Region mode with Cursor metadata on.

Clicks weren't captured, so the skill used cursor pauses. On macOS, grant Accessibility permission (System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility → Swamp Dragon), restart the app and record again.

The bar is excluded from capture on systems that support it. If it shows up, your system doesn't support window exclusion for that capture mode — record a Region below the bar, or cut the bar's appearance at the start and end.

You reached your plan's length per recording. The recording was saved. The bar warns you 30 seconds before.

Reopen Swamp Dragon. Recordings are saved to disk every second, and the app rebuilds any interrupted recording on launch and tells you it was recovered. The last second or two may be missing.

• Another app may already use ⌘⇧R / CtrlShiftR. Quit it, or use the Start button.
• Check Settings → Countdown isn't set to Off.

• Camera background effects and the Sharpen, Soften and Blur sliders are the heaviest features. Switch them off while editing and back on before export.
• Close other GPU-heavy apps.
• Lower the preview size by making the editor window smaller.
• Export is unaffected: it renders every frame regardless of playback speed.

The Background section of Camera style (and the webcam inspector) shows a status:

• Loading background effects… — the segmentation model is starting; it takes a second or two.
• Background effects couldn’t start: … — followed by the reason. If it mentions graphics (WebGL), update your graphics drivers (Windows) or macOS, and make sure you're not running under remote desktop or a virtual machine. Otherwise click Try again, or restart the app.

Until the effect starts, the camera shows its original background. Your camera track is always recorded unchanged.

Tracks are kept in sync continuously during playback, and export uses exact timing. If an export is out of sync, please send us a report with the project.

That's expected — reversed clips play silently.

Its layer is probably locked (lock icon next to the layer name). Click the lock to unlock it.

• Its layer may be hidden (eye icon).
• Items only show while the playhead is inside their time range.
• Undo with ⌘Z — the last 200 steps are kept.

That skill needs a higher plan. See Compare plans.

The export dialog shows the reason. Common ones:

Click Try again after fixing the cause. A failed export never leaves a partial file behind.

• Expect about real time — a 5-minute video takes about 5 minutes — and longer with camera background effects or at 4K.
• HEVC, WebM and GIF need an extra conversion step after rendering.
• Keep Swamp Dragon in front, plugged in, and don't let your computer sleep.

Choose Quality → Standard or Small, a lower resolution, 30 fps instead of 60, or HEVC.

Free plan exports include a small watermark. Upgrade and re-export the same project to remove it.

Premiere's interchange format carries cuts and tracks. Effects it can't represent are listed in Compatibility report.txt in the package folder.

In the folder shown in Settings → Save recordings to — by default ~/Movies/Swamp Dragon (macOS) or Videos\Swamp Dragon (Windows). In Projects, use Show files.

An external drive works well — choose it in Settings. Cloud-synced folders work but can slow recording and playback while files upload; we recommend a local folder.

Copy the whole project folder into the recordings folder on the other computer and reopen Swamp Dragon.

Delete projects you no longer need from Projects. Exported videos are separate files and aren't affected.