Help with FocusProof

Download the disk image, open it, and drag FocusProof onto the Applications shortcut in the same window. Then eject the disk image — you do not need to keep it.

The download page has the full seven-step guide, including the approval step below.

This is expected. FocusProof is distributed independently and is not notarized by Apple, so macOS asks you to confirm the first time you open it.

1. Double-click FocusProof in Applications. macOS refuses — close the message.
2. Open Apple menu → System Settings → Privacy & Security.
3. Scroll to Security. A line naming FocusProof is there, with Open Anyway.
4. Click it, confirm Open, and authenticate if asked.

If Open Anyway is not there: that line only appears after you have tried to open the app. Go back to Applications, try to open FocusProof again, then return to Privacy & Security.

If macOS says the app is “damaged”: the download was incomplete or altered in transit. Delete it, download again, and check the SHA-256 checksum before opening.

Do not turn off Gatekeeper, run spctl commands, or strip quarantine attributes. None of that is necessary, and it lowers protection for every app on your Mac, not just this one.

To record which application is frontmost, FocusProof needs macOS to allow it to observe that. You will be asked once, when you start your first session.

If you declined and want to change it, open System Settings → Privacy & Security and look for FocusProof in the relevant list. Without that permission there is no activity to record, so sessions will show no evidence.

On the Today screen, type what you are studying in Subject. Add a Goal if it helps you recognise the session later — “Reaction mechanisms, chapter 12”. Choose Timer or Open-ended, then press Start Session.

Recent subjects and saved templates appear under the button so repeat sessions take one tap.

Without it, time spent in a browser is recorded as the browser application. With it, FocusProof can record the domain of the tab you are on — en.wikipedia.org rather than “Google Chrome” — so you can classify sites individually and see where browser time went.

It sends the domain of the active tab and nothing else: no page contents, no full addresses, no queries, no history. It sends nothing while no session is running.

The integration has two halves: a Chrome extension, and a small native messaging host on your Mac that lets the extension talk to FocusProof locally. FocusProof installs the host; you add the extension in Chrome.

Once both are in place, start a session and switch to Chrome. Within a few seconds the Current Application row should show the site you are on rather than the browser name.

Chrome only. Safari, Firefox, Arc, Brave and other browsers have no equivalent integration and are recorded as the browser application.

Work through these in order:

1. Confirm a session is actually running. The integration is silent otherwise, by design.
2. Confirm the extension is enabled in Chrome, and that it is enabled for the profile you are browsing in — a second Chrome profile needs it too.
3. Quit Chrome completely and reopen it. The native host connection is established when Chrome starts.
4. Quit and reopen FocusProof, then restart Chrome.
5. If FocusProof was moved after installation, the host registration can point at the old location. Keeping the app in /Applications avoids this.

Application-level recording is unaffected by any of this — sessions still record normally, just without site names.

Timer counts down from a length you choose — 15, 25, 45, 60, 90 minutes, or a custom value — and shows a ring with the time remaining. Use it when you have decided how long to work.

Open-ended counts up with no end. Use it when you do not know how long the work will take. You finish it yourself.

Both record identically. The only difference is whether there is a planned end.

Press Pause for a break. While paused, nothing is recorded and the paused time does not count towards the session or towards any of its totals. Press it again to resume.

Pause is for stepping away entirely. If you are still studying, but away from the Mac, use Study away from Mac instead so the time is counted.

Press Study away from Mac before you turn to the page. The session keeps running, and that period is recorded as confirmed away study — it counts towards your Study Time.

When you come back, press Back to Computer Study. FocusProof resumes recording applications and sites from that point.

If you forget to confirm it, the quiet period stays unresolved instead of being counted as study. FocusProof will not credit time it cannot account for.

Finish the session and a summary appears immediately: Study Time, Focus Score, and the breakdown behind them. From there you can open the full Session Review or create a Study Receipt.

Each application and, with Chrome set up, each site can be marked Focused, Distracted or Neutral. Anything you have not classified is counted as unclassified rather than being guessed at.

Classifications are yours and can be changed at any time. Changing one recalculates the sessions it affects, so an old session’s numbers will update to reflect the classification you now consider correct.

Neutral is genuinely neutral: it stays out of the Focus Score entirely, in both the top and the bottom of the fraction.

Focused activity on your Mac, plus any time you confirmed as studying away from it. It is the headline number because it answers the question people actually ask: how much did I do?

Everything the session is made of: Focused, Distracted, Neutral, unclassified, and confirmed away study. It is the denominator that makes the breakdown add up — every minute accounted for once, and only once.

Focused ÷ (Focused + Distracted), as a percentage. It compares two kinds of on-screen activity. Neutral, unclassified and away time are excluded from both sides of the fraction.

A score needs at least 60 seconds of Focused and Distracted activity before FocusProof will show one. Below that there is nothing meaningful to divide.

It is not a measure of attention, comprehension or how well you studied — only of how the classified on-screen time split.

Score Coverage is (Focused + Distracted) ÷ Accounted activity: how much of the session the Focus Score was actually able to judge.

A session that was mostly confirmed away study, for example, might have a very high Focus Score drawn from only a few minutes of screen time. When coverage falls below 50%, FocusProof still shows the score but marks it Low coverage, so a strong-looking number is never mistaken for a strong session.

Changing how an app or site is classified recalculates the sessions that contain it. That is intentional: the record reflects your current view of what counts as focused work.

Session length, timing and the underlying activity are never rewritten — only the categories they fall into.

From the end-of-session summary or from Session Review, choose Create Receipt. FocusProof renders it on your Mac and you choose where to save it, as an image or a PDF.

A receipt contains the subject, an optional goal, the date, the session length, where the minutes went, the total, the focus score, the score coverage and a reference number. It contains no application names, no domains and no activity detail.

It is a personal summary — proof to yourself, or something you deliberately share. It is not certified or verified evidence for anyone else.

FocusProof can write a backup of your session data to a file you choose, and restore from one later — for example when moving to a new Mac.

Restoring replaces the session data currently in the app with the contents of the backup. Keep the file somewhere you are comfortable with: once exported, it is an ordinary file and FocusProof no longer controls it.

FocusProof checks for new versions using Sparkle, the standard Mac update framework. When one is available it tells you and shows what changed; it installs only if you accept.

Update checks carry no session data. They are the only network request the app makes on its own. Every release is listed in the release notes.

Quit FocusProof, then drag it from Applications to the Trash. That removes the application.

Your session data lives separately, in FocusProof’s container inside your macOS Application Support folder. Removing the app leaves that data in place, which is what you want if you are reinstalling. To remove the data as well, delete the container too — that clears sessions, activity records, classifications and preferences together.

If you installed the Chrome extension, remove it from Chrome separately.

Backups and Study Receipts you exported are ordinary files wherever you saved them, and are not affected by uninstalling.

macOS 15 or later, on Apple silicon or Intel. FocusProof will not run on earlier versions of macOS.

There is no iPhone, iPad, Windows or web version, and no plan is being claimed for one.