FocusLens / Support
Support
FocusLens 1.0 for macOS
One person makes this app, and reads every message sent to it. Preview requests, bugs, questions and suggestions all go to the same address.
Replies usually go out within two or three days. Please write in English if you can.
Reporting a problem
The more of this you can include, the faster it gets fixed:
- Your macOS version — the Apple menu, then About This Mac.
- The app version — the FocusLens menu, then About FocusLens.
- Which screen you were on, what you did, and what happened instead.
- A screenshot if a number looked wrong. ⌘⇧4 then Space captures a single window.
- If a figure is wrong rather than missing, say which app and which day — Reports can export that day as CSV, and the file makes the problem obvious.
- If the app quit unexpectedly: open Console, choose Crash Reports in the sidebar, and attach the newest report whose name starts with FocusLens.
Common questions
How do I get it?
Write to the address above and a build comes back by email. FocusLens is free; the preview exists only because the release build is not notarized yet. The day it is, this page grows a download button and the email step disappears.
macOS says the app is from an unidentified developer.
The preview build is signed but not notarized, so Gatekeeper stops it the first time. Right-click FocusLens in your Applications folder, choose Open, then Open again in the dialog; every launch after that is normal. That step disappears with the notarized release.
What permission does it need?
None to track. FocusLens does not use Screen Time, does not ask for Accessibility access, and installs nothing into your browser — it listens for the app-activation notifications macOS already broadcasts to everything, which is how the Dock knows what is in front. The only prompt you will see is the one for notifications, and only if you want the score and goal alerts.
Does it see what I type, or what is on my screen?
No. What gets recorded for each session is the app name, its bundle identifier, the category, and the times it started and stopped. Not window titles, not the URL of the page you are on, not document names, not keystrokes, and never an image of your screen. See the privacy policy.
It has put an app in the wrong category.
Fix it. Settings has a category override list: search for the app, choose the category you think it belongs in, and every past day recalculates around your answer. The built-in classifier is a starting point, and it is wrong about somebody's workflow by definition.
Why is my score low when I worked all day?
Open the Focus Score page and read the breakdown — the total is four separate components, and it shows which one fell short. Deep work counts productive hours up to eight; context switching subtracts for each disruptive jump; low distraction is the share of your time that was not distracting; the streak component rewards your longest unbroken run. A day of real work chopped into ten-minute pieces scores lower than the same hours in three sittings, which is the point.
It kept counting while I was away from the Mac.
FocusLens times the app in front of you, not you. It stops when the display sleeps and when the Mac sleeps, and it picks up again on wake — but between those it cannot tell reading from staring out of the window. Locking the screen when you walk off keeps the numbers honest.
Short switches are missing from the timeline.
On purpose. Flicking through three apps to find a window is noise, not activity, so anything under five seconds is never recorded and the timeline hides anything under ten. Settings has a minimum session length slider if you want a different floor.
Can I get my data out?
Yes. Reports exports the range you are looking at as a PDF to send on, or as CSV for a spreadsheet. Nothing is locked in, and nothing has to go through us to get out.
Where does the app keep my data, and how do I remove it?
On your Mac, in the app's own storage, plus a shared container so the widget can read today's summary. Settings has a Clear Data button that empties it, and deleting the app removes the rest. Nothing is stored anywhere else, because nothing is sent anywhere.
Feature requests
Send them. The notarized release is the current work. After that, per-app goals, a longer history in the heatmap and an iPhone companion that reads the same numbers are the ones already on the list, and what people actually ask for decides the order.