Help
Troubleshooting & FAQ
Quick answers to the most common Glyfen questions. Still stuck? Use Settings → Report a bug — the guided flow lets you share details on your terms.
Why does search find nothing?
Search only covers images Glyfen has already scanned. Make sure you added the right folder in Manage Folders, then open the Scan tab and tap Process new images for search. Once results appear in Recent Scans, they become searchable.
Glyfen can't see my photos. What do I do?
Glyfen only reads folders you explicitly grant. Go to Settings → Scan Behavior → Manage folders, add the folder (or use a quick-add chip like DCIM or Pictures), and tap Allow on the system access dialog. If you previously denied access, re-add the folder or grant it again in Android's app permissions.
My long scan stops when I switch to another app.
Battery saver can pause background work. When prompted, choose 'Optimize for background scanning' and Allow unrestricted battery usage, then confirm 'Let app always run in background'. You can change this anytime in Android Settings → Apps → Glyfen. Keeping Glyfen in the foreground also avoids interruptions.
Is Glyfen really fully offline?
Yes. The app ships with no INTERNET permission at all, so it works in airplane mode. There are no accounts, no uploads, and no analytics that leave your device. OCR, indexing, and search all run locally.
Text in an image wasn't detected.
Very stylized, rotated, low-contrast, or blurry text can be missed or score a low confidence percentage. Try a clearer photo, or search a shorter, more distinctive word from the same image. You can also Re-scan all after app updates to re-process older images.
How do I free up storage?
In Settings → Storage, tap Clear image cache and Clear thumbnails. These caches only hold temporary previews and decoded images; they regenerate automatically on next access, so clearing them never affects your scanned text index or folder choices.
Do I need an account to use Glyfen?
No. Glyfen has no sign-up, no email, and no identity of any kind. Install it and start scanning.
What does the percentage next to a result mean?
It is a confidence score for the detected text in that image. Higher percentages indicate Glyfen is more certain about what it read. Lower scores are worth double-checking, especially for stylized text.
Ready to try it? Get Glyfen on F-Droid or start from Install & first launch.