Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting
Section titled “Troubleshooting”Installation Issues
Section titled “Installation Issues”Plugin won’t appear after installation
Section titled “Plugin won’t appear after installation”Solution:
- If you installed manually, verify all three files are present:
main.js,manifest.json,styles.css, and that the folder name is exactlylighthouse(lowercase) - Restart Obsidian completely
- Disable Restricted Mode in Settings → Community Plugins
Plugin won’t enable
Section titled “Plugin won’t enable”Solution:
- Open Developer Console (Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+I)
- Look for error messages
- Verify Obsidian version is 1.12.0 or later
- Try reinstalling the plugin
- Report issues on GitHub
Word Count Issues
Section titled “Word Count Issues”Counts seem incorrect
Section titled “Counts seem incorrect”Solutions:
- Check whether the file is inside the project’s Extras group — Extras is deliberately excluded from all word counts (see Groups & Extras)
- Verify the file is under the project’s root folder
- Refresh by switching files or reopening the Inspector’s Stats tab
- Verify markdown files have
.mdextension
Counts don’t update
Section titled “Counts don’t update”Solutions:
- Wait 200ms after stopping typing (debounce delay)
- Verify the file is part of the active project’s root folder
- Try closing and reopening the Inspector
Session/Today counts reset unexpectedly
Section titled “Session/Today counts reset unexpectedly”Solutions:
- Session counts reset when Obsidian restarts (expected behavior)
- Today counts persist across restarts and reset at midnight
- If today counts aren’t resetting at midnight, check your system date/time
Project Issues
Section titled “Project Issues”Can’t see project files in the Library
Section titled “Can’t see project files in the Library”Solutions:
- Verify the project is set as active (Lighthouse: Switch project)
- Check the root folder path is still correct — if you moved the folder, update it via Edit project…
- Try editing the project and re-saving
Project or setting missing after an upgrade
Section titled “Project or setting missing after an upgrade”Project configurations live in .obsidian/plugins/lighthouse/data.json. If a project or setting seems to have disappeared after updating Lighthouse:
- Check that
data.jsonstill exists and isn’t empty - Verify file permissions allow reading/writing
- Check if vault syncing is interfering with the file (conflicting writes from multiple devices)
- Report on GitHub with your before/after version numbers
Export Issues
Section titled “Export Issues”First export takes a while / seems to hang
Section titled “First export takes a while / seems to hang”PDF and DOCX exports use Pandoc and Typst under the hood. The first time you export to either format, Lighthouse downloads the required tooling automatically — this needs an internet connection and can take a moment depending on your connection. Subsequent exports are fast.
Citations aren’t showing up
Section titled “Citations aren’t showing up”- Make sure the project has both a bibliography file and a citation style set (project editor → Citations)
- Without a bibliography, citation markup is intentionally stripped rather than left broken — set one to enable formatted citations
- See Exporting & Compiling
Performance Issues
Section titled “Performance Issues”Obsidian feels slow with Lighthouse
Section titled “Obsidian feels slow with Lighthouse”Solutions:
- This shouldn’t happen; word counting is heavily optimized
- Check if you have extremely large files (>100k words)
- Try disabling other plugins to isolate the issue
- Report on GitHub with vault size info
Getting Help
Section titled “Getting Help”If you can’t resolve an issue:
- Check existing GitHub Issues
- Open a new issue with:
- Obsidian version
- Lighthouse version
- Steps to reproduce
- Error messages from console
- Join discussions on GitHub