FAQ

This page collects the most common questions we hear. If your question isn’t here, check the section of the docs most relevant to your surface (web app, extension, Mac app, admin) — there’s usually a “Gotchas” or “Troubleshooting” section at the bottom of each topic.

General

What’s the difference between the browser extension and the Mac app?

The browser extension runs in Chrome and scans text in web apps like Google Docs and Gmail. The Mac app runs as a system-wide menu-bar agent and scans text in any native macOS app (Mail, Slack, Notes, etc.). They’re complementary — most teams deploy both.

Do I need to install anything to use InPolicy?

No. The web app works entirely in a browser. The extension and Mac app add real-time violation detection outside of the web app, but they’re optional.

What browsers / operating systems are supported?

Web app: modern versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge.
Browser extension: Chrome only (Manifest V3). Edge hasn’t been tested. Firefox and Safari are not supported.
Mac app: macOS 13 (Ventura) or later.
Windows app: planned, not yet available.

For the current status of compliance certifications, see the Trust Center at inpolicy.ai/trust or contact your account manager.

Signing in

I have an email from a colleague inviting me — but the link says “expired.”

Invitation tokens are single-use and expire after 7 days. Ask whoever sent the invitation to resend it — a new token will be generated.

I signed in but I can’t see any policies.

You probably have the default User role. That role only sees policies that have been published. If your team is still drafting, there may be nothing to display yet. That’s expected.

My company uses Okta / OneLogin / JumpCloud — can I use SSO?

Currently only Google Workspace and Microsoft Entra are supported as SSO providers. SAML support for other providers is on the roadmap. In the meantime, users can be added via email invitation.

I signed in on one computer, but not another.

For the web app, sign-in is per-device (browser) by default. SSO sign-in is fast on any device. For the extension and Mac app, you’ll need to sign in once per device (and once per Chrome profile for the extension).

Policies

Why can’t I publish a policy I wrote?

You’re likely a Policy Editor. Editors can create and edit drafts; Policy Leads or Admins publish. Save your draft and tag a Lead — they’ll see the draft and can publish it.

Can I write policies in Markdown?

No. The editor is a rich-text editor (TipTap). Typing ## heading won’t convert — use the toolbar instead. If you paste from a Markdown source, the formatting will not carry over; paste into a Markdown-to-rich-text converter first, or use the toolbar to add the structure.

Why did my policy get an auto-extracted title like “This policy applies to…”?

You saved without filling in the Title field, so InPolicy used the first 12 or so words of the body. Edit the policy and set a proper title — everything else (history, comments, embeddings) stays in place.

I updated a policy. Do users have to re-acknowledge it?

Not automatically. Acknowledgement workflows are not shipped in the current release. Editing or re-publishing a policy updates it everywhere (extension, Mac app, analytics) but doesn’t prompt anyone to read it again.

How long does it take for a newly-published policy to start flagging violations?

The embedding generation runs asynchronously and usually finishes within about 30 seconds. After that, the extension and Mac app will flag matching text in real time.

The Policy Inbox

My PDF won’t parse.

Two common reasons:

It’s scanned images without an OCR layer. Run the PDF through an OCR tool first (macOS Preview’s built-in OCR works for simple cases).
It’s password-protected. Remove the password before uploading.

If neither, the PDF may be corrupt — try opening it in a viewer to confirm.

Watch mode isn’t re-scanning my URL.

Watch mode runs roughly once every 24 hours. If the URL content hasn’t changed since the last scan, no new suggestions surface (content is hashed). If you expect changes, verify:

The URL is still accessible (no login required).
The content actually changed — open the URL and diff against what was indexed.

A suggestion I dismissed keeps showing up.

It shouldn’t. Dismissed suggestions are marked permanently, and the content hash prevents duplicates on rescan. If you’re seeing this, file a support ticket with the source URL or file name — this is a bug to investigate.

The browser extension

The extension isn’t underlining anything.

Work through this list:

Are you signed in? Click the InPolicy icon — the popup should show your name.
Are there any published policies in your tenant? Drafts aren’t enforced.
Is the site on your or the tenant’s disabled list?
Did you give the site a second or two? The first detection after switching tabs has to warm up.
Is it Google Docs or Gmail? Those use custom integrations — confirm they’re not blocked by a Workspace admin extension-blocking policy.

The underlines are flickering / my editor feels slow.

Some rich-text editors don’t play nicely with the extension’s observer. Disable the extension for that site from the popup and file a support ticket with the URL.

How do I update the extension?

Chrome auto-updates extensions installed from the Web Store. Manually-installed (developer mode) versions have to be updated by hand — your admin will provide a new .zip when an update is ready.

The Mac app

The shield icon shows a slashed line.

That means the app isn’t authenticated or doesn’t have Accessibility permission. Click the icon — the menu shows a short diagnostic. The fix is usually one of:

Grant Accessibility: System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility → toggle InPolicy on.
Sign in: menu → Sign in…
On a managed Mac, check with IT that the device token and user email Managed Preferences are actually delivered to your device.

”Apply fix” copies to the clipboard instead of replacing the text.

That’s current behavior. Direct write-back via Accessibility is pending in a future release. For now, paste from the clipboard into your field.

The app is using too much CPU.

If you’ve got debugLogging turned on in Managed Preferences or via defaults write, turn it off — it logs extensively. Otherwise, the steady-state CPU usage should be negligible (<1% while idle, brief spikes during detection). If it’s sustained, file a support ticket with the output of log stream --predicate 'subsystem == "ai.inpolicy.desktop"' for ~60 seconds.

Can I use the Mac app without the browser extension?

Yes. The Mac app covers native apps including Safari. The browser extension is preferred for Chrome because it integrates with Google Docs and Gmail at the DOM level; the Mac app in Safari has partial coverage.

Admin

Can I restrict a Policy Editor to just one Policy Area?

Not yet. Current release: roles are tenant-wide. A Policy Editor can edit any Policy Area. Per-Area role scoping is on the roadmap.

How do I remove someone who’s left the company?

Deactivate them from the Users page. Their account data is preserved and their authored policies stay attached to their name. If a legal retention period has passed and you want to fully scrub PII, use Delete instead. See Users and roles.

Why doesn’t Analytics show my small team?

Divisions with fewer than 5 assigned users are hidden per the 5-person floor. This is intentional privacy protection, not a bug. Assign User.department to more users on the team, or let the team grow.

How do I back up my policies?

Policies live in InPolicy’s database (managed by us) and are included in our platform backups. For a local copy of your own, use the CSV export on the Analytics dashboard (covers metadata) or contact support for a full policy JSON export.

Still stuck?

If your question isn’t covered here:

Check the specific section of the docs most relevant to your surface.
Contact your account’s designated support contact, if your org has one.
Email support at support@inpolicy.ai.

FAQ