pod docs

Troubleshooting

When something looks broken, it almost never is — here is every common hiccup, what actually happened, and the gentle fix.

Tip: The single most useful command in this whole page is doctor. It re-checks your entire setup and renders two free local test clips. When in doubt, run it first.

"command not found" after installing (Mac)

Symptom: You just ran the installer, you type pod, and Terminal replies command not found.

Cause: The Terminal window you already had open doesn't know about the new program yet — it made its list of commands when it opened, before pod existed.

Fix: Close the Terminal window completely, open a fresh one (press Cmd-Space, type Terminal, press Enter), and type pod again. That's the whole fix. More install detail lives on the Mac install page.

Your computer warns about an "unidentified developer"

Symptom: macOS says the app is from an unidentified developer, or Windows SmartScreen shows a blue warning screen.

Cause: Pod is unsigned — your computer is being cautious about a program it hasn't seen before. Unsigned is not the same as unsafe.

Fix:

You only have to do this once. See the Windows install page for the full walkthrough.

Titles or visuals look wrong

Symptom: Title cards render oddly, or something visual on your machine looks off.

Cause: Usually a piece of pod's local toolchain (the video engine or the graphics renderer it downloaded on first run) needs a health check.

Fix: Run the studio's own physician.

❯ doctor
  (checks the whole setup, self-heals the toolchain,
   and renders two free local test clips to prove it)

Those test clips cost nothing and never touch the internet — they exist purely to show you everything works.

A generation timed out

Symptom: A clip was rendering, the wait ran long, and it seemed to give up.

Cause: The cloud render sometimes takes longer than the studio waits. The work isn't gone — it finishes on the generation side.

Fix: Nothing dramatic. Type resume and pod collects the paid result automatically. Work you've already paid for is never lost and never paid for twice.

Pod stopped mid-film

Symptom: You pressed Ctrl-C, the laptop lid closed, the power went, or the app crashed — mid-production.

Cause: Life. Pod expects it: progress is checkpointed continuously.

Fix:

❯ resume
picking up where we left off…
  (approved work is never redone; paid renders are collected, not re-bought)

You can even change how hands-on you want to be on the way back in — resume my-teaser --auto hands pod the rest, --steer puts you back at every gate. See the modes page.

Wrong voice, language, or accent

Symptom: Your telugu vertical came back with the wrong language, or a voice with an accent you didn't want.

Cause: The language wasn't stated in the brief, so pod had to guess.

Fix: Say the language up front — "90-second telugu teaser, vertical" — or use --language telugu on the command. Indian-accent voices are the house default cast, so you rarely need more than naming the language. For a finished film, localize <name> --language hindi makes a dubbed version, and vo <name> regenerates the voice-over.

"It keeps asking me questions"

Symptom: You want a film, not an interview.

Cause: By default pod is careful: it fills in the blanks (duration, language, look, shape) once, upfront, and waits for your OK before spending anything.

Fix: Two comfortable options:

And after a couple of productions pod remembers your habits anyway — the blanks start offering "your usual" (e.g. telugu · 9:16), so the questions get shorter on their own.

Credits ran out mid-shoot

Symptom: The shoot pauses because the generation balance hit zero.

Cause: Video is priced per second, and a longer film simply used up the balance.

Fix: Top up, then resume — the film continues from its exact checkpoint.

Check where you stand any time with credits (your balance) or estimate --runtime 120 (a cost preview). More on this at the money page.

"My film disappeared"

Symptom: You made something last week and can't find it.

Cause: It didn't go anywhere — everything pod makes lives in an episodes folder on your own computer. That is the only copy; pod's makers never store your footage or scripts, and cannot recover it for you.

Fix: Inside the studio, type episodes to see what's on the lot. Each film sits under episodes/<name>/, with the finished MP4 in its 07-final/ folder. At any gate, pressing o opens the files being reviewed.

Back it up: because the episodes folder is the only copy of your work, include it in whatever backup you already use. See privacy & your files.

Something else is broken

Fix: Tell the makers directly from inside the studio.

❯ report
  (sends a bug report with context so the makers can see what happened)

feedback works the same way for suggestions rather than bugs. Fixes ship frequently — often the same week feedback is given — and update fetches the latest version, cryptographically verified so pod refuses anything tampered with. For repairing an individual film (a bad shot, a re-cut, a dub), head to the fixing page.