Shelly Troubleshooting

Shelly cannot check for upgrades

If Shelly reports Technical details: InitFailed when checking for Standard or AUR upgrades after an interrupted check or a mirror configuration problem, its per-user database cache may need rebuilding. InitFailed alone does not identify the cause. Fix any incorrect repository URLs in your native package configuration first.

Close Shelly’s graphical window and wait for package operations to finish.
If you see AccessDenied or Permission denied, repair ownership first:
Terminal window
```
shelly utility --fix-permissions
```
Run this from your normal user session, without adding sudo. Shelly requests administrator authorization when needed. It recursively restores your ownership and default group for existing Shelly directories: ~/.config/shelly/, ~/.cache/Shelly/, and ~/.local/share/Shelly/ by default. It does not change file permission modes, clear the database cache, or repair the system package database.

Check the reported Fixed ownership: paths, then run shelly again. If upgrade checks now succeed, stop here. If ownership repair fails, stop and collect the error details.
If the cache still needs rebuilding, remove it from your normal user account:
Terminal window
```
rm -rf ~/.cache/Shelly/db/
```
This removes the per-user database used for upgrade checks. Shelly recreates it on the next check; installed packages and the system package database are kept. Do not delete the system database or the entire ~/.cache/Shelly/ directory.
Run Shelly again:
Terminal window
```
shelly
```
Check that the upgrade checks complete without errors. An “Everything is up to date” message does not confirm this if a check failed above it.

If you set a custom XDG_CACHE_HOME, the cache is under its Shelly/db/ directory instead of ~/.cache/Shelly/db/. For custom XDG directories, check that the ownership-repair output names the directories you actually use; privilege-elevation tools can filter environment variables.

Collect details if recovery fails

If errors remain, report the exact error, shelly --version, and the output of ls -ld ~/.cache/Shelly/ ~/.cache/Shelly/db/, using your custom cache path if applicable. A missing db/ directory immediately after removing it is expected.

Distribution-specific paths and diagnostics

The system package configuration and database paths depend on the distribution path profile used by your Shelly build:

Path profile	Native package configuration	System package database
Default (`pacman`)	`/etc/pacman.conf`	`/var/lib/pacman/`
Devario (`devario`)	`/etc/shelly.conf`	`/var/lib/shelly/`

The recovery command above removes only the per-user Shelly/db/ cache; it must not target either system database. Choosing RLPM or libalpm does not by itself change the distribution path profile. See configuration files and their roles.

On Devario, you can also collect a local report with devario-report.sh --no-upload. Review the file before sharing it; see Devario diagnostics for details. This report tool is specific to Devario, not a requirement for other Shelly installations.

For implementation details, see Shelly’s ownership-repair command and upgrade checks.