Menu, Shortcuts & Troubleshooting

Reference for the menus and keyboard shortcuts, plus what to do when the scanner won't connect.

• Menu & Keyboard Shortcuts
• The scanner won't connect
• Other common issues

Menu & Keyboard Shortcuts

The menu

Bearpaw's menu bar has three menus of its own, plus the standard app menu.

View jumps between the three tabs.

Scanner covers actions on the radio.

Help opens in your web browser.

Keyboard shortcuts

Every shortcut uses a modifier key (Ctrl on Windows/Linux, ⌘ on Mac) except Escape. Shortcuts are ignored while you're typing in a text box.

The scanner won't connect

If the connection dot in the bottom-left corner is red and stays there, work down this list.

1. Is the scanner powered on?
2. Is it a data USB cable? This is the most common cause. Many USB cables, especially ones that came with other devices, carry power but not data, so the scanner charges but never appears to the computer. Try a different cable, ideally the one that came with the scanner.
3. Try a different USB port on your computer, and avoid unpowered USB hubs. Plug directly into the machine if you can.
4. Give it a few seconds. Bearpaw reconnects on its own.
5. Quit and relaunch Bearpaw.

If none of that works, the Device tab's Device Information card shows a diagnostic message that can point at the specific problem. For USB-detection issues on macOS, a short troubleshooting checklist appears there automatically.

Other common issues

My channel edits didn't save to the scanner

Edits on the Channels tab are held as drafts until you press Upload Changes. If your changes seem to have vanished, check the pending-changes strip above the channel list. "N pending" means your edits are waiting to be uploaded. See Drafts and uploading. (The Priority switch is the exception; it applies immediately.)

I set a permanent lockout by accident

The L/O button on the Scan tab opens a menu with Temporary and Permanent choices. To clear a permanent lockout, pick Permanent again while on that channel, or clear it from the Locked Channels list on the Device tab.

The app warns it's from an "unidentified developer"

The beta builds aren't code-signed yet, so your operating system flags them on first launch. See the install instructions for how to open it anyway.

A setting on the Device tab didn't take

Scanner settings are written to the radio the instant you change them. A failed write (a momentary USB hiccup, say) shows a red error message, and the setting may not have changed. Try again; if it keeps failing, check the connection.

Advanced: forcing a specific port

Auto-detect handles the scanner on every platform, so you almost certainly don't need this. But if auto-detect keeps selecting the wrong USB-serial device, a config.yaml file can force a specific port.

Put it in the app's data folder:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/com.jeremyfuksa.bearpaw/config.yaml
• Windows: %APPDATA%\com.jeremyfuksa.bearpaw\config.yaml
• Linux: ~/.local/share/com.jeremyfuksa.bearpaw/config.yaml

A minimal example:

device:
  # Only set this if auto-detect picks the wrong device:
  port: /dev/cu.usbmodem14101 # macOS
  # port: COM3                # Windows
  # port: /dev/ttyUSB0        # Linux