Troubleshooting

Use a blank or fabricated spreadsheet while diagnosing. Never post a real spreadsheet link, document ID, confidential screenshot, token, cookie, or private settings export.

Darkkle does not appear after installing

1. Confirm the extracted folder contains manifest.json directly, not inside another nested folder. This is the most common cause.
2. Open the extension-management page and confirm Darkkle is enabled.
3. Select Reload on the Darkkle card.
4. Refresh the spreadsheet tab. Content scripts do not retroactively initialise in tabs that were already open when the extension was installed or replaced.
5. Open the toolbar icon and confirm the theme switch is on.
6. Try a new blank spreadsheet.

The extension-management page reports an error

Confirm you downloaded the release ZIP from the Releases page, not GitHub’s automatic “Source code” archive. The source archive is not a loadable extension.

A clean release extraction contains manifest.json, JavaScript, CSS, icons, and project notices at the top level. Check any error text for private paths before sharing it.

The settings panel does not stay open

Selecting the toolbar icon opens the panel pinned beside the spreadsheet. If it was unpinned, use Open panel to restore the pinned state.

If the panel was open while an unpacked build was replaced, reload the extension and refresh the tab.

Row numbers or column letters are unreadable

This is the area to report most precisely, because it is the most sensitive to interface changes.

1. Note the Darkkle version, browser version, operating system, spreadsheet zoom, frozen-pane state, and selection type.
2. Reload Darkkle and refresh the tab.
3. Reproduce on a blank spreadsheet.
4. Test a single cell, a short range, a taller range, and scrolling the range off-screen and back.
5. Test at 100% zoom to establish whether zoom is involved.
6. Temporarily disable other extensions that modify page appearance.
7. File a Compatibility report if this began after a browser or spreadsheet update; otherwise a Bug report.

Attach only sanitised screenshots. Cell values are rarely needed to diagnose a header-rendering problem.

Colours or cell fills look wrong

Darkkle preserves meaningful non-neutral colours and transforms neutral interface colours. A highly desaturated custom colour can be hard to distinguish from an interface grey, because it is genuinely close to one.

Try different theme and line settings, then identify precisely which layer is wrong: the cell fill, the text, the selection overlay, the grid, a drawn border, or the surrounding interface. That distinction makes a report far more actionable.

Settings do not carry over to another browser

Chrome and Microsoft Edge use separate sync systems that do not exchange data.

Export a settings backup from one browser and import it into the other. Inspect the JSON first, because backups intentionally contain settings and spreadsheet identifiers and should not be posted publicly unsanitised.

An older backup will not import

Darkkle accepts several historical backup identifiers for compatibility, but the file must still contain a valid profile object.

Do not hand-edit a backup unless you understand its structure. Keep the original file and report the error message with spreadsheet identifiers removed.

Flicker, repeated repainting, or high CPU

1. Reload Darkkle and refresh the tab.
2. Test a blank spreadsheet with the pinned panel closed.
3. Check whether the grid stays quiet while idle for two minutes.
4. Note whether it starts only during scrolling, selection, menu use, or with a companion panel open.
5. Temporarily disable other appearance-changing extensions.
6. Report the smallest reproducible case, the browser version, and which Darkkle settings were enabled.

Do not leave verbose diagnostics running on a confidential spreadsheet.

The appearance did not finish updating

The spreadsheet may retain a canvas layer until focus returns to the grid. After changing a setting, click once in the spreadsheet area. This is a focus handoff, not a required page refresh.

Before reporting

Search existing issues and discussions first. Use the structured form that best fits, and state plainly what you did not test.

A precise partial report is more useful than a broad claim. There is no guaranteed response time; a delay is not a rejection, and another community member may pick it up.