Sitwise Support
Get help with camera permission, posture calibration, movement reminders, standing and away states, notifications, analysis, the pinned preview, and local data on your Mac.
Sitwise is a private, on-device posture coach from EthicsLab Limited. It works without an account, subscription, or developer-operated server. It needs a camera and macOS 14 or later.
Still wondering something? Email jesal@ethicslablimited.biz for support. Please include your Sitwise version, Mac model, macOS version, and a short description of what happened.
Fix camera access on Mac
Sitwise cannot score a sit without the camera. If the app asks for access, or the menu bar says the camera is required:
- Open the System Settings app.
- Go to Privacy & Security → Camera and allow Sitwise.
- Return to Sitwise and try again.
If another app has exclusive use of the camera, quit that app or choose a different camera in Sitwise Settings. If the camera is restricted by a device-management profile, that restriction must be changed before Sitwise can run.
Calibrate your saved posture
Sit how you work: a sit you can actually keep at the desk, not a rigid pose. Watch This sit. Green means this isn’t a slouch; you do not need a military-straight 100. Click Use this sit when that comfortable sit should be 100. A slouch or crouch cannot be saved. A close webcam is fine — your face in the shot is enough. Both shoulders help if they fit, but they are not required.
100 means matching the sit you saved, not holding that shape for hours. Sitwise will still ask you to get up and move. Recalibrate if you move the camera, change chairs, or change the distance to the desk. If the score stays off 100 while you look upright, the saved sit may be stale. Recalibrate. A long slouch is still a slouch; do not treat that as a reason to recapture 100.
If Sitwise says this is not the camera you calibrated, pick the original camera or save a new sit for the one in use.
How Sitwise handles standing desks
If you rise above the calibrated sit (standing desk, hips entering the frame, head higher than the saved sit), Sitwise shows Standing. A short stand counts as a movement break. If you stay standing for about five minutes with the camera still at sit height, Sitwise asks you to raise it to eye level and recalibrate. It will not score Standing as a slouch. A seated stretch or raised hands is not a stand.
Set movement and stand reminders
After about twenty minutes in the same good sit, including a score of 100, Sitwise asks you to shift in the chair: change which sit bone you are on, roll your shoulders, then settle again. Any static sit gets uncomfortable. That cue lives in Settings → Movement (on by default, 15 to 30 minutes). It is skipped if a stand-and-move break is already due. Moving in the chair, standing, or leaving the desk clears it.
After about an hour of actual sitting, Sitwise asks you to get up and move. Both numbers live in Settings → Movement: the sitting interval (30 to 90 minutes) and how long a break has to last to count (2 to 10 minutes, five by default). Desk-work guidance favours short, frequent breaks over long rare ones, and a walk over standing still.
The sitting clock pauses while you stand or step away, and the break is credited once that lasts the time you set. A ten-second stretch does not reset a long sit. Snooze 15 minutes from the notification or the popover if you need a bit longer.
Understand Away, Pause, and Resume
If your face and torso leave the frame, Sitwise treats you as Away, not as a slouch. After about ten minutes of Away (the delay is in Settings), monitoring pauses and the camera stops. By default Sitwise then looks again later, after about five minutes, then twenty-five, then hourly, and resumes if you are back. It stays off during the sleep hours you set in Settings → General (9 pm to 7 am unless you change them), and it stops trying after about six hours. Opening the laptop after sleep also triggers a look. Click Resume at any time. Turn off auto wake-up in Settings → General if you want to stay paused until you resume yourself. A Pause you click yourself does not auto-wake.
Fix missing Sitwise notifications
Check that alerts are enabled in Sitwise Settings, including the delay and cooldown. In System Settings, confirm Sitwise can send notifications. Focus modes, notification summaries, and Do Not Disturb can hold ordinary alerts back.
Sitwise does not send slouch alerts when you are Away, paused, or calibrating. A short stand is a movement break, not a slouch. After a long stand at the old camera height it may ask you to raise the camera.
View today and the last 30 days
The chart icon in the menu-bar popover, or Today, or Open in Settings → General, opens a window with today’s sit, a score graph for that day, and up to 30 days of numeric totals on this Mac. Switch This sit to yesterday to look back. The week chart stays locked until you have three days with sitting. Sitwise does not save camera frames or a pose history.
Use the pinned posture preview
Pin as tiny window opens a small always-on-top panel. Drag it from the background; use − / + to resize. Position is remembered. Unpin or close the panel when you do not want it on screen.
Delete Sitwise data from your Mac
Recalibrate to replace the saved sit. Remove Sitwise from the Mac to delete local settings and the 30-day sit log. There is no EthicsLab account to close and no cloud copy to erase. Read the Sitwise Privacy Policy.
Did this answer your question? If not, email Sitwise support.