Most problems on this page have a fix that takes under a minute. Find your symptom, follow the steps, and if you are still stuck, come tell us in Discord. Real reports from real players are how this page gets shorter.

I press Play and nothing happens

Probably nothing is broken. The first launch after a restart does some quiet setup before any window appears, and it can take up to two minutes with no spinner.

Press Play once and wait a full two minutes. Try not to press Play again while you wait, because rapid retries can trip Steam’s connection limit (see the next question). If nothing appears after two minutes, restart your Mac, press Play once, and wait two minutes again. Still stuck? Send us your logs from the support panel in the app, or ask in Discord.

Steam is stuck on “connecting”

If Steam restarted several times in a row (force quits, crashes, rapid Play retries), Steam’s own servers pause your connection for 20 to 30 minutes. There is no way around it. Waiting is the fix. Close the app, leave it alone for half an hour, then press Play once and let it connect.

It says Steam is already running

Quit the regular Mac Steam app first. Pixel Port runs its own copy of Steam behind the scenes, and the two cannot run at the same time. Quit Steam from the menu bar (Steam, then Quit Steam), then press Play again.

The install fails, but I own the game on Steam

A few games hit an error in our one-click installer. Megabonk is the one we know about. The workaround: click Open Steam inside Pixel Port, sign in, and install the game from the Library in that Steam window. Once it finishes there, Play works normally. A proper in-app fix is in progress.

My Unreal Engine 5 game will not launch on macOS 14 (Sonoma)

That block is on purpose. On macOS 14, some Unreal Engine 5 games can crash the whole Mac and force a restart. Pixel Port blocks those launches to protect your machine. The fix is to update to macOS 15 or newer. The bug lives in macOS 14, not in your Mac and not in the game.

Cutscenes are a black screen, but I can hear the audio

This one is fixed. Update the app to 0.4.7 or newer. The fix applies automatically on the next launch, so update, relaunch the game, and replay the cutscene.

Skyrim Special Edition: music plays, but nobody speaks

A known issue with Skyrim’s voice audio. Update the app to 0.4.6 or newer, then press Play. The app repairs the install at launch, and you do not need to reinstall the game. The first launch after the update downloads an extra audio component (about 100 MB), so give it a few minutes. If dialogue is still silent after one full launch, please tell us. We want to confirm this fix with real players.

My controller is not detected

Controller support arrived in app 0.4.4. Update the app, then relaunch the game with the controller already connected. Most Xbox, PlayStation, and generic USB or Bluetooth pads work. If yours is still not seen after the update, ask in Discord with the game name and the controller model.

Voice chat cannot hear me

App 0.4.4 added microphone access. Update the app, then approve the macOS microphone prompt at the next launch. If you dismissed the prompt earlier, open System Settings, go to Privacy & Security, then Microphone, and turn on PixelPort. Then relaunch the game.

Some VPNs, hotel networks, and campus networks block the connections Steam needs. Turn the VPN off, or switch to a normal home network, and try again. If you must stay on that network, a phone hotspot usually works for the sign-in step.

The app said the launch failed while the game was still downloading

If you press Play during or right after a large install, the app can give up too early and report a failure while Steam is still downloading files in the background. Let the download reach 100% in the Steam window, then press Play again. A fix for the false alarm is planned.

Still stuck?

Join our Discord and tell us what happened. Your Mac model, the game, and what you saw on screen is usually enough for us to help.