Constellation and devices
Constellation troubleshooting
Check both devices, confirm the Mac is awake, inspect the selected route, and use the ejection controls to manage Mac memory.
On this page
Understand the sync status
| Status | What to do |
|---|---|
| Sync paused | If sync stopped while Beginner mode was active, choose Resume in Constellation to restore chat sync and Remote Access when you are ready. |
| Off in Beginner mode | Switch to Simple or Advanced experience mode before using iCloud chat sync. |
| iCloud needs attention | Use Open Settings, confirm your Apple Account, then try again. |
| iCloud is restricted | Check Screen Time or the device profile that limits iCloud access. |
| This copy of Noema isn't set up for iCloud sync | The installed build lacks the required iCloud entitlement. Use a correctly signed Noema distribution; switching accounts alone cannot add that entitlement. |
Noema 4.2 distinguishes these causes so an account or pause state is not mistaken for a build configuration problem.
Release the Mac model
On the requesting device, open the active connection control in Chat and choose the eject action. Under Settings → Privacy & Sync → Model Ejection, choose whether this also unloads the model from the connected device and whether that happens immediately or after a delay.
On the Mac, open Settings → Privacy & Sync → Model Ejection to control whether a requester may unload the Mac model, whether idle Constellation models unload automatically, and how long an idle model remains in memory.
Both devices must allow remote ejection. An active generation is never interrupted; Noema waits until it finishes before unloading the model.
The Mac does not appear
- Confirm both devices use the same Apple Account and can access iCloud.
- Turn on Reach this Mac from anywhere under Mac Settings → Privacy & Sync.
- Turn on Use your Mac’s models under Constellation on the requesting device.
- Keep Noema open and the Mac awake.
- Turn off Off-Grid Mode.
- Pull down in the iOS chat drawer, then reopen Stored.
The Mac appears asleep
Noema cannot wake a sleeping Mac, and closing a MacBook lid still puts it to sleep. Under Mac Settings → Privacy & Sync → Keep this Mac awake, choose While plugged in or Always if that matches your power needs.
Use is taking time
Pressing Use starts the real model load immediately. Chat can appear before a large model is fully resident, but the first request must still wait for loading to finish. A model already marked loaded should start faster.
The route is Bridge instead of Direct
This usually means the current NAT or firewall rejected a peer-to-peer path. Bridge is the intended encrypted fallback. Configure Private Link if you operate a private mesh and want a predictable path across networks.
The eye icon is missing
- Confirm the selected model is actually a vision model.
- For GGUF, install its matching
mmprojor supported embedded projector beside the weights. - Reload the model after changing the projector.
Noema hides vision capability when the installed files cannot process images, even if repository metadata describes the model family as multimodal.
Tools do not appear or run
- Open the Chat capability controls and allow the required tool.
- Confirm the tool is enabled globally.
- Check that required local data, runtime, or OS permission is available.
- For MCP, select a connected server on a platform that supports it.
- Confirm workspace policy and Off-Grid Mode permit the tool.
The remote model proposes tool calls, but the requesting device owns permissions and execution.
A chat has not updated yet
Pull down in the iOS chat drawer to force a complete sync. If it still does not arrive, check the Sync status on both devices and confirm neither device reports a local history-write failure or a newer-version compatibility hold.
A project is present but its PDF is unavailable
Project definitions and source references sync; source files and dataset indexes do not. Import or download the corresponding source on the current device before using local retrieval there.