FAQ & Troubleshooting
Answers to common questions and fixes for the issues people actually run into.
Does DeployOS install anything on my server permanently?
No. It's agentless — every action opens an SSH session, does its work, and disconnects. The only things left running are the containers you deployed and the reverse proxy you chose. See Adding a Server.
Do I need an internet connection to use the app?
Only to reach the servers you're deploying to, and (optionally) to check for updates or register a device seat. License verification itself is fully offline — see Activating Your License.
My deploy says the health check failed — is my app actually broken?
Not necessarily. The health check after a deploy is soft: it warns rather than failing the deploy outright, because some apps take longer than a few seconds to start responding, or don't expose an HTTP health endpoint at all. Check the app's logs or run Doctor to see what's actually happening before assuming it's down.
My custom domain isn't loading over HTTPS yet
DNS propagation and certificate issuance both take a little time. The domain card's auto-check polls until both are confirmed — see Domains & SSL. If it's been a long time and still isn't resolving, double-check the A record actually points at the right IP.
I deployed, but my old deployment is still what's live
This almost always means the reverse proxy on that server isn't reading from where DeployOS is writing routes — common on a server that ran a different deploy setup before DeployOS. Re-run Bootstrap on the server (see Bootstrapping a Server) — it detects the proxy's real config path and re-links it automatically.
Restart/scale says "ok" but nothing actually changed
If this happens on an adopted app with an unusual directory layout, it's worth confirming via Doctor or the container's actual uptime rather than trusting the toast alone — restart and scale now check real exit codes, but an app adopted from a very unconventional setup is the edge case most likely to surface something DeployOS hasn't seen before. If you hit this, it's worth reporting — see below.
Servers I know I added aren't showing up
Quit and relaunch the app. In rare cases a single failed background command can leave the local session in a bad state until restart; this doesn't affect anything already deployed on your servers, only the app's own view of them.
Where are my SSH credentials and database passwords stored?
In your operating system's native keychain — never in a plaintext file. See Firewall & SSH.
Windows support
The Windows .msi build is available from Download. If a specific feature behaves differently than on macOS, it's worth reporting — see below.
Still stuck?
Search this documentation (⌘K from any docs page), or email hello@mydeployos.com — a real person reads every message.