Troubleshooting

The global hotkey doesn't respond

1. Check Settings → Service Status — if the background service isn't running, reinstalling or restarting it from that page usually fixes indexing-related issues, but the toggle hotkey itself is handled by the App process, not the service, so this is a secondary check.
2. If the foreground app is running elevated (as administrator) and SwiftList isn't, Windows blocks lower-privilege processes from sending it input. SwiftList's background hotkey-listener process is elevated automatically whenever your account is an administrator — no setting to enable, no UAC prompt. If hotkeys still don't reach an elevated window, check Settings → Service Status to confirm the background service is running, since it's what launches the elevated listener. If your account isn't an administrator, there's no workaround — Windows won't let a lower-privilege process signal a higher-privilege one.
3. Check the Process Blacklist — if the foreground app's executable name was added there (intentionally or by accident), SwiftList's global hotkeys are deliberately let through untouched while it's focused.
4. If the foreground app is genuinely full-screen (fills the entire monitor), SwiftList automatically lets its hotkeys through too by default — so it doesn't fight with fullscreen games. If your configured combo won't collide with anything the fullscreen app itself uses, enable Still respond while a fullscreen app is focused next to Settings → Hotkeys → Show/Hide Quick Search to keep it working there too. Otherwise, alt-tabbing out, or running the app in borderless/windowed mode instead of exclusive full-screen, avoids it.

Search results seem out of date

NTFS and ReFS drives update from the USN Journal in near real time; other local file systems (FAT32, exFAT, ...) are watched for changes directly instead, just as continuously. If something still looks stale (a file you just created isn't showing up, or a deleted file still appears), use Rebuild Index on the affected drive under Settings → Index → Local Drives (or Network Drives).

A network drive never seems to refresh

Network shares don't have a USN Journal SwiftList can watch, so they're re-scanned on a schedule instead. Check the drive's Refresh Mode under Settings → Index → Network Drives — if it's set to Manual, nothing updates automatically; switch it to a timed interval, or use Rebuild Index to refresh on demand.

The preview window looks wrong / cut off

This shouldn't happen — SwiftList clamps the QuickLook preview window's position and size to your monitor's usable area automatically. If you still see clipping, try Settings → General → Preview → Reset Preview Window Settings to rule out an unusual manual width/height value, and make sure you're on the latest release.

A file/folder doesn't show up at all

• Check it isn't excluded — Settings → Index → Exclusion Rules supports exact paths, glob patterns, and regexes, and any of the three could be catching it unintentionally.
• Check the drive it lives on is enabled under Settings → Index → Local/Network Drives.

Typing Chinese (or another IME language) into the inline window doesn't work

The inline window deliberately never takes real keyboard focus away from the window it's docked in — that's what lets you dismiss it and land exactly back where you were, with no focus flicker. An IME's composition (the candidate list, and the character it actually commits) only happens for whichever window holds real focus, though, which is always the docked-in app, never SwiftList — so there's no message SwiftList could intercept to capture what you typed. This is a structural limitation of how the inline window works, not a bug.

Two options:

• Type the pinyin romanization directly (no IME candidate popup needed) — SwiftList matches Chinese filenames by pinyin automatically, see Search Syntax.
• Use the quick window instead (double-tap Ctrl by default) — it's a real focused window, so IME composition works there normally.

Still stuck?

Check the Service, App, and Hook log tabs under Settings → Service Status — the search box there filters by keyword, and the level dropdown filters by severity — before filing an issue on GitHub.