Troubleshooting

This page collects the questions support gets asked most often. If your problem is not here, contact your administrator with the details listed under Information to share with support.

Check first

Are you using the URL your administrator gave you? Each customer has its own URL, sometimes including a path prefix.
Did your organization’s sign-in page load, or did you stop at the OTS Signs login screen?
Is your account active? Disabled accounts get a generic error.

If you got an “Access denied” message — your account exists but does not have permission to use OTS Signs. Ask your administrator to grant you a role.

If the redirect loops or fails — clear cookies for OTS Signs and your organization’s sign-in page, then try again. If the loop continues, contact your administrator.

If you forgot your password — use your organization’s password reset process. The reset link usually appears after you click Sign In on the OTS Signs login page.

A display is offline

The display row shows Offline when the player has not checked in within the expected window.

Confirm the player device is powered on and connected to the network.
Confirm the player can reach the OTS Signs URL (open it in a browser on the same network).
Check the player’s local screen — many players show their own status overlay if they cannot reach OTS Signs.
From the display detail page, look at Last Accessed — if it is recent, the player is reaching OTS Signs but may still be updating.
Try Wake on LAN (if configured) or restart the player.

If the player has never checked in since being created, the license code may not have been entered into the player. See Adding a Display.

A display is not showing the content I scheduled

Make sure the layout is Published, not Draft. Drafts never play.
Check the schedule’s start / end — is it active right now?
Check the schedule’s days and time window — does it cover the current moment in the display’s timezone?
If another schedule covering the same time is marked Priority (toggle on the schedule), it beats a non-Priority schedule. Among ties, the lower Display Order plays first.
Look at the display’s Last Accessed time. Players sync every 60–300 seconds — if last sync was earlier than the schedule was created, wait a moment and refresh.
Open Audit Trail and filter by the display — schedule changes are logged with timestamps.

I made a permissions change and it didn’t take effect

Permission changes can take up to 60 seconds to appear. Wait a minute, reload the page, and try again. If the change still hasn’t taken effect, ask the affected user to sign out and back in.

Three things can hide a sidebar item:

Your role does not grant access to that area.
Your administrator has a navigation override hiding it for your group. See Settings → Navigation Overrides.
The feature is disabled for your organization.

Check My Access at /me/access to see your effective permissions. If the page lists the relevant capability but the sidebar still hides it, ask your administrator about navigation overrides.

A media file won’t upload

Check the file size against the per-file upload limit. Ask your administrator if you’re not sure what the limit is.
Check the file type. The library accepts images (JPG, PNG, GIF, WebP, SVG), video (MP4, WebM, MOV), audio (MP3, AAC), and documents (PDF). Other types are rejected with an explicit error.
Check storage quota. The Library widget on the dashboard shows current usage.
If the upload starts and then stalls, the network may be timing out for large files. Try uploading on a wired connection or splitting the file.

A layout looks wrong on screen but right in the editor

Common causes:

Resolution mismatch — the layout’s resolution differs from the display’s panel. Check the display’s Resolution field and make sure the layout matches.
Region overflow — content larger than its region is cropped on screen even if the editor shows it fine. Set region overflow to scroll or resize the content.
Outdated cache on the player — force a sync from the display detail page or restart the player.
Missing font — fonts have to be uploaded under Admin → Fonts before they will render on the player.

A schedule disappears after I save it

Most often: the schedule’s end time is in the past, so the list is filtering it out. Toggle the Show ended filter on the Schedules page. Confirm by opening the schedule from the Audit Trail entry that recorded its creation.

Proof of Play is missing entries

Players upload play events periodically. There can be a delay of up to a few minutes between the play and its appearance in the report. If a particular display is producing no events at all:

Confirm the player is online (see A display is offline).
Confirm proof-of-play is enabled on the player’s display profile.
Confirm the player software version supports proof-of-play (older builds may not).

A button is grayed out

The button is disabled because:

You don’t have permission for that action. Hover the button — it usually shows a tooltip explaining why.
The action is not valid for the current state (e.g. Publish on an already-published layout).
A required field is empty or invalid in a form.

The page won’t load / shows a blank screen

Hard-refresh the page (⌘ Shift R on macOS, Ctrl Shift R on Windows / Linux).
Try a different browser or private window. If the page still will not load, contact support.
Sign out and back in to refresh your session.
Disable browser extensions temporarily — they can sometimes interfere.

When asking for help, include:

The URL of the page where the problem happened (copy from the browser’s address bar).
The time (with timezone) the problem happened.
For display problems: the display name and last seen time from the display detail page.
For schedule problems: the schedule ID (in the URL on the schedule detail page).
The About information: open your account menu in the sidebar, click About, and share the version, environment, and build info.