Help centre

Help with recording, editing, sharing and billing

Can’t find it? Email hello@screenmate.ai and a person will answer.

Recording

The Start button is disabled: The tab is on a page Chrome doesn’t let extensions touch (chrome://, the Web Store, another extension, or a local file). Open a normal website and try again.
Recording paused when I moved to another site: Chrome withdraws the extension’s access when a tab moves to a new website. Click the ScreenMate icon and choose “Continue recording here”. Turn on “Record across websites without interruptions” in the popup if you do this often.
Some clicks didn’t become steps: Very fast repeated clicks and double-clicks are merged, and a page change caused by a click is part of that click. Clicks inside some cross-site frames can’t be seen by the extension; add a manual step and upload a screenshot if needed.
Chrome restarted mid-recording: Open the ScreenMate popup: unfinished recordings are listed under “Unfinished recordings”. Open one to review it in the editor, or delete it.
Does it record what I type?: No. It records that you typed in a field and the field’s label. Password fields are never captured, and typed text never leaves your browser.
Which permissions does the extension need, and why?: Three at install: “activeTab” (take screenshots of the tab you chose, only after you press Start), “scripting” (add the click listener to that tab while recording) and “storage” (keep an unfinished recording so it survives a crash). It can also talk to the ScreenMate website so the editor can import your draft. Access to all websites is optional, off by default, and only used during a recording if you switch it on.
A link opened a new tab and nothing was captured there: A recording follows one tab only — the one you pressed Start on. If the task continues in a new tab, finish there and record it as its own guide, or open the link in the same tab.
Only part of the page is in the screenshot: Screenshots show what is visible in the window at the moment you click (no full-page scrolling). Scroll the important part into view before clicking, or upload your own screenshot to a step.
Pages and content that can’t be recorded: Chrome’s own pages (chrome://…), the Chrome Web Store, other extensions’ pages, local files, and content inside cross-site frames (for example an embedded payment form) are off-limits to every extension. Desktop applications aren’t recorded either — ScreenMate records web pages in Chrome only.

Editing

Redaction says it is permanent: Correct. Applying a redaction repaints the image and deletes the original from your device (and from our storage, if the guide was saved). If you need the original, upload a new screenshot to the step.
Why is my logo greyed out?: Custom logo, brand colour and attribution-free exports are part of Solo and Team. On Free, guides use the ScreenMate colour and carry a small footer.
Keyboard shortcuts: V select · N number marker · A arrow · H highlight box · T text note · R redact · B blur · C crop · Ctrl+Z undo, Ctrl+Shift+Z redo · arrow keys nudge the selected annotation (Shift for bigger steps) · Delete/Backspace removes it · Esc back to select.
Autosave: The toolbar shows “All changes saved” when the latest edit is stored. Local guides save to this browser; account guides save to your workspace.

Sharing and exports

Private, unlisted, public: Private: only signed-in members of your workspace. Unlisted: anyone who has the link; not listed or indexed. Public: anyone; you decide separately whether search engines may index it.
Revoking a link: In Share, choose “Revoke this link and create a new one” (unlisted) or switch to Private. Old addresses stop working immediately.
PDF export: Multi-page A4 with numbered steps and rendered annotations. The Free plan adds a “Made with ScreenMate” footer.
Markdown export: A zip containing a .md file and an images folder (Solo and Team).
Non-English text in PDFs: The PDF export currently uses standard Latin fonts, so letters outside Western European alphabets (for example Telugu, Hindi, Arabic or Chinese) appear as “?” in the PDF. The web viewer, shared links and Markdown export show them correctly. Unicode fonts in PDFs are on the roadmap.

Plans and billing

What counts as a new guide?: Creating a guide or duplicating one (including a template). Editing, exporting and sharing existing guides never count.
AI actions: One action = one rewrite or translation request for up to 4,000 characters. Failed requests aren’t counted. Unused actions don’t roll over.
Joining a Team workspace: Accepting an invitation makes that Team workspace your active workspace; guides in your own personal workspace stay saved but aren’t shown while you are a member. Ask the owner to remove you to switch back.
Cancelling: Use “Manage billing” in Settings. Your plan stays active until the end of the paid period; after that your workspace is on the Free plan.
What happens to my guides after a paid plan ends?: You keep the Free allowance (3 most recently edited guides) exactly as before. Guides above that allowance stay fully editable and exportable for 30 days so you can download them. After that they become read-only and their shared links stop working; they are kept for a further 60 days, with a deletion notice shown in your dashboard 7 days before they are removed. Upgrading again at any point in that window restores everything. Deleting guides yourself to get under the allowance also ends the countdown.