Troubleshooting

Installation & opening

The add-in isn't in the ribbon / won't open. Restart PowerPoint. If it's still missing, update Office (File → Account → Update Now) and check you're signed in to PowerPoint with the account you installed under. On work or school accounts, your Microsoft 365 admin may need to approve the add-in — see Install & Open.

Your organization blocks the add-in. Some company or school networks and IT policies block Office add-ins entirely. Ask your IT department to approve Twistly (GPT for PowerPoint) — and in the meantime you can use the web version at app.twistly.ai, which needs no installation.

Blank panel. Close and reopen the add-in. On PowerPoint for the web, refresh the browser tab.

Sign-in

The sign-in popup doesn't appear. A popup blocker is the usual cause — allow popups for PowerPoint/your browser and try again. (Applies to Microsoft and Google sign-in; email sign-in doesn't use a popup.)

The email sign-in code doesn't arrive. Codes can take a few minutes — check the Spam and Promotions folders. Each code works once and expires after a short time; use Resend code to get a new one.

Twistly keeps asking me to sign in. This happens when several Twistly accounts have been used on the same device. Sign in with the account that holds your plan. See Sign In & Your Account.

Creating presentations

Generation is taking a long time. A few minutes is normal, especially for large files and long decks. The progress bar is an estimate — generation may finish before or after it fills. You can cancel safely at any time; cancelled generations aren't charged.

Generation failed. Try again — temporary hiccups happen and retries are free on failure. For file uploads, check the format and size (supported types). If one file repeatedly fails, try re-saving it (e.g. re-export the PDF) — and send it to us so we can investigate.

The deck looks generic or half-empty. Occasionally a generation completes with weaker content than it should. Simply generate again — a fresh run usually fixes it. If you're on the Free plan and this cost you credits, contact us.

Some image placeholders are empty. An image couldn't be retrieved during generation — this doesn't fail the deck. Fill the gaps with Add Images.

I got more slides than I asked for. That's by design when content would otherwise overflow — see Number of Slides.

My slides came out in the wrong language. When creating from text or a file, the output follows the source document's language. Translate afterwards with Edit Text with AI.

Editing existing slides

Edit, redesign, or speaker notes do nothing on my file. Check for the yellow Protected View / "Enable Editing" banner at the top of PowerPoint — while the file is read-only, AI edits silently fail. Click Enable Editing and try again.

A slide won't process. Slides with no text (blank or image-only slides) can't be used by text-based AI features — add some text content first, or use Add Images / Add a Slide instead.

Billing

I paid but my plan isn't active. Activation usually takes seconds but can lag a couple of minutes. Close and reopen the add-in. If it's still not active, contact us with the email used at checkout — the payment is safe and we'll apply it.

A feature says I need to upgrade, or shows a trial, even though I subscribed. Sign in inside the add-in with the exact email you used at purchase — the add-in doesn't pick up your plan from the account PowerPoint itself is signed into. This is by far the most common cause; see Sign In & Your Account.

My plan shows Cancelled but I didn't cancel. The renewal payment probably failed — a failed charge cancels the plan automatically. Contact us and we'll reactivate it.

Custom templates

Upload rejected as too large. The limit for templates is 100 MB (smaller than the 300 MB create-from-file limit). Compressing images in PowerPoint (Picture Format → Compress Pictures) usually gets files under it.

"Preview images are still being generated." Wait for the thumbnails to finish, then save again — your upload is preserved. Templates with embedded fonts take longer than usual. See How Templates Are Processed.

Still stuck?

Contact us — include what you were doing, the approximate time, and your account email.